Smash Your Bathroom Scale and Take a Stand Against Eating Disorders

It is a familiar scenario: you look down at the scale and you are disappointed by what you see. The number may be too high or too low, but nonetheless the scale has told you that you are not where you want to be. For some people, scales are an important tool to be used during healthy weight loss or gain, but for many, there is a much more complicated and potentially toxic relationship.

With messages bombarding us across popular and social media, blogs, websites, newspapers, plus heard from friends and loved ones, some common themes emerge: “You must be skinny to be beautiful”; “You must be muscular to be manly”; “You must be at X level of fitness to be successful”. So, in comes the scale and the tyranny ensues.

Why should we crush bathroom scales everywhere?

In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, two organizations and many locals are fighting back.

In 2015, the Canadian Mental Health Association – Edmonton Region and the Eating Disorder Support Network of Alberta brought Eating Disorder Awareness Week to Edmonton. Proclaimed as such by the city, the week brought attention to eating disorders with different events including what they dubbed “smash_ED”. Not a new idea, but an effective one, this was an event inviting people to come together to smash their bathroom scales.

Fast forward to 2016 and Eating Disorder Awareness Week returns to Edmonton, and so does smash_ED. Held February 5 ^th , at the University of Alberta, participants were invited to bring their bathroom scales and smash them with a sledge hammer. The event is not only about (cathartic) destruction, but also about building community. Participants took pieces of the scales and created a collective art piece on a frame. The message behind the art: we as individuals and we as a community can fight back against body shame, bring awareness to eating disorders, and stand in solidarity with those that live with these illnesses.

Some participants chose to take pieces of the destroyed scales home with them, hung from miniature frames, a reminder of the event, its meaning, and their allies in the community.

Riot, Don't Diet!

Local media were in attendance to get video footage of the scale smashing and to ask participants why they were taking part. “I hate this thing,” one participant said of the scale she had brought from home. Two other participants pulled a scale from their bag covered in messages, including the famous quote from the riot grrrl movement: “riot, don’t diet”.

By the end of the day, there were many smashed scales ready to be banished to the garbage and even more satisfied participants and supporters.

Wage a War on Eating Disorders

But the work is not over. Raising awareness of eating disorders and support for those who have or are experiencing them is an ongoing process. We need more support and funding for research on preventing and treating these disorders and the common co-existing illnesses, like depression and anxiety disorders; we need more community supports and services like those provided at the Eating Disorder Support Network of Alberta and the Canadian Mental Health Association; we need to end the stigma that can stand in the way of someone reaching out for help; we need further movements to focus on health instead of body shaming; we need responsible media, with compassionate advertisers; and most importantly, we need supportive and caring communities.

So, host an event, start a campaign, have your say in politics, donate, volunteer, and stand up against stigma. Most importantly, reach out for help when you need it and support the people that do.



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For more information on the Eating Disorder Awareness Week that took place in Edmonton in 2015 and 2016, a responsible reporting on eating disorders media guide, and information on programs and services for those looking for support with their own eating disorder or that of a loved one in Alberta, visit

For information on crisis intervention, education, housing, suicide grief support, way-finding, wellness and workshops for the greater Edmonton area, visit https://edmonton.cmha.ca/

For Canadians outside the Edmonton area, visit http://www.cmha.ca/ to find a Canadian Mental Health Association near you.

Author bio: Tracy R. Johnson

Tracy R. Johnson, is a Mental Health Educator with the Canadian Mental Health Association – Edmonton Region (CMHA-ER).  Working with CMHA-ER to promote mental health for all, she manages the mental health programming for junior and senior high schools in the Edmonton area. Having her own experience with mental illness, Tracy advocates for young people who may be too afraid or unsure of how to reach out for help.

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