What Everyone Should Know About Eating Disorders
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What Everyone Should Know About Eating Disorders
Barbara Tener, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and therapist in Menlo Park, CA, who specializes in providing eating disorders treatment and therapy. For more information about Barbara’s practice and how you can get the help you need, visit http://www.positivebodynow.com.
Although the number of obese Americans may have reached record levels over the past couple of decades, there are countless others — mostly young women — who are severely underweight. What’s more, many of these women wish they could lose even more!
Eating disorders are serious medical conditions that affect an estimated 8 million Americans and approximately 7 million of these are women.
In fact, according to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, approximately 1-2% of all American women suffer from either anorexia or bulimia. These women are literally dying to be thin.
These statistics naturally lead to the question of what causes people — especially young women — to obsess over their weight to the extent they develop a serious eating disorder? Furthermore, what can be done to help them before and after they develop an eating disorder?
What Are Eating Disorders?
The term “eating disorders” refers to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that involve insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual’s physical and mental health.
While many people think of eating disorders as physical conditions, they are strongly correlated with an individual’s mental health, self-esteem, and body-image. Adolescents and teenagers who suffer from low self-esteem or negative body-image are much more likely to develop an eating disorder.
The most common eating disorders include:
* Anorexia Nervosa — Anorexia is characterized by an individual’s refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, eating abnormally small amounts of food and/or frequently skipping meals due to an obsessive fear of gaining weight, and an unrealistic perception of current body weight. Among other symptoms, anorexia can lead to bone loss, loss of skin integrity, and a premature end of the menstrual cycle. People suffering from anorexia also suffer from an increased risk of heart attacks and other heart-related problems.
* Bulimia Nervosa — Bulimia is characterized by recurrent binge eating followed by offsetting behaviors such as an excessive use of laxatives, fasting, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise, all of which come with serious health effects.
* Binge-Eating Disorder — Like bulimia, binge-eating disorders are characterized by compulsive overeating. However, unlike bulimia, people with binge-eating disorders do not attempt to offset their binges with purging behaviors. Nonetheless, the health consequences are no less severe for binge-eaters.
While there are other types of eating disorders, these three — especially anorexia and bulimia — are by far the most common.
What Causes Eating Disorders?
The precise causes of eating disorders are not entirely understood.
As mentioned above, there seems to be a particularly strong correlation between the likelihood of an individual developing an eating disorder and the individual’s mental health and body-image.
However, many health professionals believe eating disorders are the result of a combination of psychological, biological, and environmental factors. In fact, when it comes to eating disorders, it has been said that “genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger” meaning that while many people may be born with a genetic predisposition towards eating disorders it is ultimately environment and one’s psychological reactions to their environment that leads to an eating disorder.
Additionally, eating disorders in teens and adolescents seem to be strongly linked with the idea of control — a teenage girl who feels she has no control over her life may choose to exert excessive control over her diet, which can lead to an eating disorder.
Lastly, the Western cultural expectation to be thin should not be overlooked for the significant role it plays with regards to eating disorders. Media imagery is filled with thin, youthful looking women, and people often connect a lean body with people who feel good about themselves.
According to Brehm, Kassin, and Fein, coauthors of Social Psychology, women are heavily influenced by the “slender ideal” projected in mass media. The cultural ideal of thinness is often established in early childhood by overly weight-conscious parents and relatives and reinforced by fairytales like Cinderella and unrealistically proportioned dolls such as the ever-popular Barbie. These girls then grow into adolescence, teenagers, and young adults while being bombarded by images of extremely thin models, actresses, and celebrities in magazines, television shows, advertisements, and movies leading them to become dissatisfied with their own less-than-ideal figure.
Although women are more likely than men to develop eating disorders, eating disorders are not a “female-only” phenomenon. Eating disorders commonly appear in the adolescent and teen years and knowing the common signs of eating disorders can help parents identify whether or not their children need professional help.
Signs and Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa
Although numerous symptoms have been associated with this disorder, the most common symptoms of anorexia include:
* Preoccupation with food
* Food avoidance and denial of hunger
* Low body weight, usually at or below 85% of their ideal weight
* Intense fear of gaining weight
* Negative body image
* Belief that being thin equates with success and happiness
* Depression and social withdrawal
* Loss of menstruation
* Low blood pressure and reduced heart rate
* Water retention
* Intense exercise regimens
Signs and Symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa
While bulimics are often within their normal weight range, some are thin to the point of emaciation. However, regardless of their weight, bulimics tend to exhibit certain symptoms that often vary from one individual to another:
* Intense periods of over-eating, followed by drastic efforts to prevent weight gain
* Binging on foods that are high in sugar and cholesterol, such as sweets and fried foods
* Self-induced vomiting
* Laxative use/abuse
* Intense exercise regimen
* Unreasonable fear of weight gain
* Unhealthy obsession with weight and food
* Shame over the inability to break the binge-purge cycle
* Erosion of teeth, sores in the throat and mouth, and/or puffiness of the cheeks
* Stomach ulcers
* Constipation or diarrhea
* Dehydration
* Alcohol or substance abuse
* Perception of being over-weight even when they are not
Signs and Symptoms of Binge-Eating
Binge eating, which is also known as compulsive overeating, is different from occasionally eating too much. The main symptoms of binge-eating include:
* Eating excessive amounts of food in short periods of time
* An inability to control eating behaviors
* Eating to the point of discomfort
* Preoccupation with weight, food, and body-image
* No serious weight-loss efforts
* Practicing secretive eating behaviors, especially late at night
* Negative body image
* Increased depression and social withdrawal
Effectively Treating Eating Disorders
Due to the excessive damage people suffering from eating disorders inflict on their bodies, the list of health complications from eating disorders is both long and severe.
The effects of eating disorders are both physical and psychological. In addition to low blood pressure, low heart rate, heart irregularities, osteopenia, osteoporosis, tooth decay, stomach ulcers, dehydration, electrolyte imbalances (which can lead to stroke, heart attack, and death), edema, esophageal rupture, cancer of the throat, and the development of blood sugar problems (which can lead to the development of diabetes), victims of eating disorders frequently suffer from anxiety, depression, and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder).
Given the complexity and seriousness of eating disorders, the professional intervention of a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or licensed therapist should be sought as soon as a problem is suspected. These professionals can provide an accurate diagnosis and help evaluate the eating disorder treatment options available.
While hospitalization, medication, and nutritional and dietary changes all have their place in the treatment of eating disorders, the National Eating Disorders Association has acknowledged that the most effective eating disorder treatments involve some form of psychotherapy. Therapy can help individuals with eating disorders uncover and address the underlying issues that trigger negative self-image and self-harming behaviors.
However, eating disorder counseling and therapy must go hand-in-hand with careful attention to an individual’s specific medical and nutritional needs. For this reason, effective eating disorder treatment often requires a team of professionals that can help individuals determine a healthy weight, monitor physical and mental health, and help them learn about their bodies, their nutrition options, and discover enjoyable physical activities that can replace the negative effects of an eating disorder.
Remember, the earlier an eating disorder is addressed, the easier it is to treat. However, the effectiveness of any eating disorder treatment depends on an individual’s ability to acknowledge that being too thin is unhealthy and that the true nature of their self-worth depends on who they are not how they look. If an individual with an eating disorder is unwilling or incapable of comprehending these facts they will likely return to the same destructive behaviors and perhaps, quite literally die in order to be thin.
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