Article Medically Reviewed By:
Drew Anderson, PhD
Department of Psychology University at Albany, SUNY Albany, NY
Overview
What Is It?
Eating disorders are mental illnesses, and although they revolve around eating and body weight, they aren't entirely about food but also about feelings and self-expression.
Eating disorders are devastating mental illnesses that affect an estimated 10 million American women. Approximately 85 to 95 percent of the people who suffer from the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are women. Although eating disorders revolve around eating and body weight, they aren't entirely about food but also about feelings and self-expression. Women with eating disorders often use food and dieting as ways of coping with life's stresses. For some, food becomes a source of comfort and nurturing, or a way to control or release stress. For others, losing weight is a way to gain the approval of friends and family. Eating disorders are not diets, signs of personal weakness or problems that will go away without treatment.
Eating disorders occur in all socioeconomic and ethnic groups. Eating problems usually develop in girls between age 12 and 25. [Because of the shame associated with this complex illness, many women don't seek treatment or get help until years later. Eating disorders also occur in older women and in men, but much less frequently.
There are several categories of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). All are considered psychiatric disorders.
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder in which preoccupation with dieting and thinness leads to excessive weight loss. If you suffer from this disease, you may not acknowledge that weight loss or restricted eating is a problem, and you may "feel fat" even when you're emaciated. Women with anorexia nervosa intentionally starve themselves or exercise excessively in a relentless pursuit to be thin, losing more than 15 percent of their normal body weight. Roughly half of all women suffering from anorexia nervosa never return to their pre-anorexic health, and about 20 percent remain chronically ill.
Some women with anorexia also purge, but they do not have bulimia. The main difference between someone with anorexia who purges and someone with bulimia is weight: severely underweight individuals receive a diagnosis of anorexia. The death rate for anorexia nervosa is among the highest of any psychiatric illness. The deaths are about evenly divided between suicide and medical complications related to starvation.
Women with bulimia nervosa regularly and sometimes secretly binge on large quantities of food—up to 20,000 calories at a time—then experience intense feelings of guilt or shame and try to compensate by getting rid of the excess calories. Some purge by inducing vomiting, abusing laxatives and diuretics, or taking enemas. Others fast or exercise to extremes. If you suffer from this ...
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