Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of articles run in cooperation with the Five County Mental Health Authority.
Do you often say, “I’m too fat” or “I need to go on a diet”?
How often do you make these comments in front of your child? As a parent or caregiver, you can help prevent eating disorders before they occur by being a good role model. Adopt a healthy lifestyle to keep physically fit, eat more nutritious foods, let your teen help you prepare healthy meals, and stay away from crash diets. Also, it’s important to model self-esteem to your teen-if your teen hears you say things like “I’m too fat” about your own body, she may end up thinking the same way about her own body.
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, February 25-March 3, 2007, is a great time to promote positive body image and healthy eating in your teen as well as to adopt these practices for yourself. This year’s theme is “Be comfortable in your genes. Wear jeans that fit the REAL you.”
It highlights the fact that body size and shape are strongly influenced by biological factors — such as genetics, while also calling attention to some of the new discoveries surrounding the role of genetics in the development of eating disorders.
Too often individuals struggle against their natural, genetically influenced size just to fit into that pair of “skinny jeans” in the back of their closets. Fighting your natural size and shape can lead to unhealthy dieting practices, poor body image and sometimes eating disorders. While you can adopt a healthy lifestyle and aim to be fit for your particular body type, you cannot change your gene.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, “In the United States, as many as 10 million females and 1 million males are fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Approximately 25 million more are struggling with binge eating disorder.” Dieting, personal or family history of obesity or eating disorders, substance abuse, and depression are factors that contribute to eating disorders. People with eating disorders also tend to be overly self-critical and have low self-esteem.
Although the term “eating disorder” is applied to a wide range of disturbed eating behaviours, only three conditions are listed in official classifications of eating disorders: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. Most people do not fall within the strict diagnostic criteria of any one eating disorder.
A person experiencing Anorexia Nervosa will make determined efforts to attain and maintain a body weight lower than the normal body weight for their age, sex, and height. They will be preoccupied with thoughts about food and the need to lose weight. They may also exercise excessively and may engage in purging behaviours. Statistics show that anorexia most commonly occurs among adolescent girls and young women in their early twenties but recent studies suggest an increased incidence among males and among children.
Bulimia Nervosa involves repeated episodes of binge eating followed by high-risk behaviours aimed at compensating for the binges. These can include fasting, excessive exercising, self-induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, diuretics or other medications. Most people with bulimia maintain a body weight within the normal range for their age, sex and height. It is therefore less obvious than anorexia and can remain unnoticed for longer. Bulimia occurs predominantly among women.
Binge Eating Disorder (sometimes referred to as Compulsive Overeating) involves repeated episodes of bingeing but without purging. Over time, binge eating disorder (BED) can result in significant weight gain, though this is not always the case. A person experiencing BED finds themselves locked into a lonely cycle of dieting, bingeing, self recrimination and self loathing. Unlike anorexia and bulimia, binge-eating disorder is thought to be almost as common among men as it is among women. It is believed that the number of people who binge-eat far exceeds the number who present for treatment.
There is no single cause which can explain why a person develops an eating disorder. It is usually a combination of factors (biological, psychological, familial and socio-cultural) that come together to create conditions in which an eating disorder is more likely to take hold.
The disorder often develops gradually as a response to an upset in a person’s life. This could be a traumatic event, a loss or major change in a person’s life, bullying, critical comments about weight or shape, an overload of stress. The distress felt will relate not only to the current upset but also to a store of past upsets that have never been expressed .
A person without a strong sense of who they are and who is concerned with meeting the standards and expectations of others is more vulnerable. This explains why eating disorders occur so often during adolescence when identity is an issue, the opinion of peers is so important and parental expectations are resisted.
Eating disorders occur in societies that promote thinness as a means of achieving health, success and happiness. Dieting has been proven to be an important risk factor in the development of eating disorders.
Eating disorders do not start out as a conscious choice and are not a willful form of ‘attention seeking’.
For the person with an eating disorder food is turned to as a means of relieving distress and achieving some degree of control over life. The world feels like an unsafe place in which the person cannot trust that their needs will be met. The eating disorder provides them with a sense of safety. They may even feel that they need it in order to survive. It serves a purpose in the life of the person affected. It is their way of coping and of protecting themselves from feeling ineffective in shaping their world.
It is therefore unrealistic to expect someone with an eating disorder to be able to give it up without a fight. Resistance to treatment is normal.
It is precisely because the eating disorder serves a purpose that it becomes very difficult to stop its progress. The longer it is established, the more it will take on a life of its own and take over the life of the person affected. They are caught in a bind. For many, overwhelming feelings of helplessness, guilt, shame and self-disgust become an insurmountable block to seeking help. Recovery is about taking responsibility, establishing one’s own boundaries and accepting those of others. It can only begin with the will to change. It will require commitment and it will take a lot of courage. It cannot be forced.
Much sensitivity, compassion, respect, understanding and patience will be needed by those around them (family, friends, G.P. and other members of the treatment team) if a person is to be successfully encouraged and supported on their journey towards recovery.
Without treatment of both the emotional and physical symptoms of these disorders, malnutrition, heart problems, and other potentially fatal conditions can result. However, with proper medical care, those suffering from eating disorders can resume suitable eating habits, and return to better emotional and psychological health.
Eating disorders are illnesses with a biological basis modified and influenced by emotional and cultural factors. The stigma associated with eating disorders has long kept individuals suffering in silence, inhibited funding for crucial research and created barriers to treatment. Because of insufficient information, the public and professionals fail to recognize the dangerous consequences of eating disorders. While eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening illnesses, there is help available and recovery is possible.
Many people have difficulties with food, weight and body image. These difficulties negatively affect their lives and self-esteem. If you are struggling with food and weight issues and these are causing distress in your life, then find support. Don’t wait until you have all the symptoms of a clinical eating disorder in order to get help. You deserve help at every stage of your struggles.
There are several sites to find more information:
Go to the Five County Mental Health web site and click on Network of Care.
National Eating Disorders Association
Helping End Eating Disorders (HEED)
Five County Mental Health Area Authority has helped improve the health and lives of its citizens for over 34 years. As we work to increase awareness of mental health issues our goal is to help more people to know that caring for their minds as well as their bodies helps keep them productive, healthy and happy in all aspects of life: at work, at home and at school. We want to ask your help in raising awareness about Eating Disorders Awareness Week by encouraging friends and loved ones with symptoms of an eating disorder to get help as soon as possible.
Call our toll free Helpline number for an initial phone screening or for more information at
1-877-619-3761.