Eating Disorders

views updated May 21 2018

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are dangerous psychological (relating to the mind) illnesses that affect millions of people, especially young women and girls. The most widely known eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, which will be discussed further in this chapter.

Officially recognized by the medical community only since 1980, eating disorders were first brought to the public's attention when pop singer Karen Carpenter (195383) died from complications resulting from anorexia. People suffering from eating disorders battle life-threatening obsessions with food and unhealthy thoughts about their body weight and shape. If untreated, these disorders can lead to death. Researchers have found many factors that are probable causes of eating disorders. Recovery from an eating disorder is possible, though it is a difficult process that should not be done alone. The first steps toward recovery are for the sufferer to accept that there is a problem and to show a willingness to focus on his or her feelings rather than on food and weight.

This chapter will discuss the types of eating disorders that have been identified, the causes, the consequences of an eating disorder on the mind and body, and the treatment and prevention of eating disorders.

TYPES OF EATING DISORDERS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS


Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person refuses to maintain a healthy body weight (persons whose weight is at least 15 percent below their normal body weight might fall into this category). The term anorexia nervosa means literally "nervous lack of appetite." However, this name is misleading as people with anorexia do not lack an appetite; rather, they battle hunger every day. Anorectics, as people who suffer from anorexia are referred to, are extremely afraid of gaining weight or becoming what they perceive to be fat.

Typically, what accompanies this fear of becoming fat is an anorectic's faulty perception of her body. Some anorectics may realize that they are indeed thin but will still view a particular part of their bodies, such as the stomach or thighs, as being fat and out of proportion. In fact, an anorectic's self-esteem is closely tied to this distorted view of her body. Continued weight loss is considered by anorectics to be a sign of achievement and self-discipline while any weight gain, even if it brings them closer to a healthy body weight, is considered a sign of weakness or a lack of self-control.

Eating Disorders: Words to Know

Adrenaline:
A hormone that is released during times of stress and fear.
Amenorrhea:
The absence of menstrual cycles.
Anorexia nervosa:
A term meaning "lack of appetite"; an eating disorder marked by a person's refusal to maintain a healthy body weight through restricting food intake or other means.
Binge-eating disorder:
An eating disorder that involves repetitive episodes of binge eating in a restricted period of time over several months.
Bingeing:
When an individual eats, in a particular period of time, an abnormally large amount of food.
Body set-point theory:
Theory of weight control that claims that the body will defend a certain weight regardless of factors such as calorie intake and exercise.
Bulimia nervosa:
A term that means literally "ox hunger"; an eating disorder characterized by a repeated cycle of bingeing and purging.
Depression:
Common psychological problem characterized by intense and prolonged feelings of sadness and hopelessness.
Diuretic:
A drug that expels water from the body through urination.
Edema:
Swelling.
Endorphin:
Any of a group of natural proteins in the brain known as natural painkillers that make people feel good after exercising.
Enema:
A process that expels waste from the body by injecting liquid into the anus.
Epidemiology:
The study of disease in a population.
Exercise addiction:
Also known as compulsive exercise, a condition in which participation in exercise activities is taken to an extreme; an individual exercises to the detriment of all other things in his or her life.
Hypertension:
High blood pressure.
Lanugo:
Fine hair that grows all over the body to keep it warm when the body lacks enough fat to accomplish this.
Laxative:
A drug that induces bowel movements.
Obesity:
The condition of being very overweight.
Purging:
When a person gets rid of the food that she has eaten by vomiting, taking an excessive amount of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas or engaging in fasting and/or excessive exercise.
Russell's sign:
Calluses, cuts, and sores on the knuckles from repeated self-induced vomiting.

Anorexia is often difficult to diagnose and treat because of the secretive nature of this illness. Anorectics are usually good at concealing their self-starvation with excuses, or they may even engage in purging (vomiting) if forced to eat. Furthermore, anorectics will often wear heavy clothes that both camouflage (hide) their excessive weight loss from others and keep them warm. (Due to their dangerously low weight and lack of insulating body fat, anorectics are often cold.)

In addition to avoiding eating whenever possible, anorectics will often display high levels of energy that seem at odds with their frail physical conditions. Anorectics may also develop odd oral habits, including chewing gum throughout the day, drinking an excessive amount of coffee or diet soda, and chain-smoking. Finally, many anorectics become obsessed with food, despite their unwillingness to consume any.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa means literally "ox hunger." This term is appropriate on many levels as bulimia is characterized by a repeated cycle of binge eating and purging. A binge is when an individual eats, in a particular period of time, an abnormally large amount of food. (Of course, this doesn't refer to special occasions, such as holiday meals, when it is acceptable to eat more than usual.)

The binge is then followed by an episode of purging. Purging is when a person gets rid of the food that she has eaten by either making herself vomit, taking an excessive amount of laxatives (drugs that induce bowel movements), diuretics (drugs that expel water from the body through urination), or enemas (a process that expels waste from the body by injecting liquid into the anus), or engaging in fasting and/or excessive exercise. People with bulimia, known as bulimics, engage in such behaviors at least two times a week for a period of six months or more.

A particularly stressful event or depression often triggers an episode of binge eating, intense hunger that follows restricted food intake, or a variety of feelings tied to body weight, body image, and food. The binge eating may temporarily relieve a bulimic's feelings of depression or stress, but often deeper feelings of depression, disappointment, and anxiety may follow. This will then trigger an episode of purging. Many bulimics report feeling out of control when bingeing and use similar terms to describe their need to purge their bodies of the food they just consumed.

Bulimics, like anorectics, are usually ashamed of their behavior and will attempt to hide their illness from others. Because of this and the fact that many bulimics maintain a normal body weight, it is often hard to recognize that a person is, in fact, bulimic.

Many bulimics suffer from low self-esteem and may even have suicidal thoughts. Often they are rigid perfectionists who think in absolutes ("I am bad because I ate that"). Like anorectics, bulimics will make negative statements about their appearance and experience extreme guilt over eating even normal portions of food. They will begin to withdraw from social activities, particularly those that will make it difficult for them to purge without suspicion.

Other Types of Disordered Eating

There are those individuals whose behavior does not fall under the categories of anorexia or bulimia; rather, these people can exhibit a wide range of disordered eating and unhealthy weight management symptoms. Since they cannot be diagnosed as anorexic or bulimic, these individuals will typically receive a diagnosis of an "eating disorder not otherwise specified." An example of disordered eating includes a person of normal weight who eats no fat and occasionally purges. She would not be considered bulimic because she is not bingeing, and she also is not anorectic because she is not dangerously underweight. She would therefore be diagnosed with an eating disorder not otherwise specified.

There are other disorders, such as binge-eating disorder and exercise addiction, that are not yet official psychological diagnoses but which are becoming more and more prevalent. These problems are often diagnosed as "eating disorder not otherwise specified" as well. They often occur in conjunction with anorexia and bulimia. However, they can also occur independently of other disordered eating and may soon have their own official diagnoses.

EATING DISORDERS NAMED

English physician Richard Morton first documented cases of self-starvation in the seventeenth century. The term anorexia nervosa was later coined by French neurologist Charles Lasegue and English physician Sir William Gull in the mid-1870s. The symptoms of bulimia (bingeing and purging) were not recognized as a separate condition from self-starvation until the 1940s. English physician Gerald Russell formally named bulimia nervosa in 1979.

BINGE-EATING DISORDER. Like bulimia, binge-eating disorder involves repetitive episodes of binge eating in a restricted period of time over several months. This illness is different from bulimia, however, because people suffering from binge-eating disorder do not purge after a binge. This disorder has more to do with an absolute lack of control over eating than with the conciliatory acts (purging) that follow a bulimic's binge.

Binge eaters will eat very rapidly, usually until they are uncomfortably full. They will eat big portions of food even if they are not actually hungry. Because of this, many binge eaters engage in binges secretively as they are embarrassed by how much they have eaten and feel guilty and depressed following these episodes. Similar to the binges experienced by bulimics, binge eaters report that depression and anxiety usually trigger their binges. During the binge itself, sufferers often feel out of control or disconnected from their actions.

EATING DISORDER STATISTICS

Eating disorder organizations qualify that eating disorder statistics are estimates because the illnesses are often hidden and difficult to diagnose. It is likely that the actual figures are higher than they appear due to the secretive nature of eating disorders.

  • About 8 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. Among young women, it is estimated that 15 percent suffer from some kind of disordered eating behavior.
  • Females make up 90 to 95 percent of the people who suffer from anorexia.
  • 1 percent of young women between the ages of ten and twenty have anorexia.
  • 85 percent of the time, anorexia starts between the ages of thirteen and twenty.
  • 10 to 15 percent of anorectics will die from the disease.
  • 2 to 5 percent of anorectics will commit suicide.
  • About 1,000 women die from anorexia each year.
  • 30 to 50 percent of anorectics in treatment show signs of bulimia as well.
  • 4 percent of college-aged women have bulimia.
  • 10 to 15 percent of people with bulimia are male.
  • Of psychological disorders, eating disorders have the highest rate of deaths.
  • About 60 percent of eating disorder sufferers recover with treatment.

These statistics are based on information from the following organizations: Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc.; American Anorexia/Bulimia Association, Inc.; and National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association.

Binge eaters usually suffer from obesity (being very overweight). Furthermore, many have been "yo-yo" dieters (experiencing large fluctuations in weight from a cycle of dieting) their entire lives. Both of these effects can cause binge eaters to feel worse about their inability to control their eating habits. (Not everyone who is obese suffers from binge-eating disorder. Rather, obesity must be paired with certain behaviors for it to be evidence of binge-eating disorder.)

Other signs of binge-eating disorder can include food disappearing from cabinets and cupboards at a rapid rate, or even finding an excessive amount of food wrappers concealed under someone's bed or in her trash. The consumption of odd foodstuffs such as raw cookie dough or condiments can also point to binge-eating disorder.

EXERCISE ADDICTION. Exercise addiction, or compulsive exercise, seems like a strange term as most people consider exercise to be good for their health. Exercise is a fun way to relieve stress and increase energy levels. It releases endorphins (the body's natural painkillers, which make people feel good after exercising). However, when a person's interest and participation in exercise activities are taken to extremes, exercise can turn into an addiction that must be performed each day; the act of exercising provides that person with a temporary high. If an exercise-addicted person cannot exercise, he or she will experience a great deal of guilt and anxiety over the inactivity.

Exercise-addicted individuals will exercise to the detriment of everything else in their lives. Someone who is addicted to exercise will exercise with serious physical injuries, pass up opportunities to spend time with loved ones in favor of exercise, and even miss work or school to spend time exercising. Depression, low self-esteem, and repressed anger are all characteristics of exercise-addicted individuals because no matter how much they exercise or achieve in other areas of their lives, they believe they should do more.

Because some sports demand a certain body type (such as gymnastics or ice skating) or depend on how much a person weighs (such as wrestling or horse racing), exercise addiction often develops in elite athletes like dancers, ice skaters, gymnasts, jockeys, and wrestlers, in their quest to perform the best in their sport. Exercise addiction can also be linked to those suffering from anorexia or bulimia because they feel unsatisfied with their bodies and think excessive exercise can help them get thin. Bulimics will often use compulsive exercise as a method of purging.

CAUSES OF EATING DISORDERS


A number of factors contribute to the development of eating disorders. Some are biological and genetic in nature, while others are a direct result of the cultural and familial environment in which an individual is raised.

MALES WITH EATING DISORDERS

Although eating disorders affect women more than men, a large number of males suffer from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as well as binge-eating disorder and exercise addiction. In fact, 5 to 10 percent of people suffering from anorexia are male, and approximately 10 to 15 percent of people with bulimia are male. The percentages may even be higher as some experts suspect that few men actually seek help because they are ashamed and embarrassed that they have what has come to be viewed as a "female" problem.

Many male eating-disorder sufferers participate or have participated in a sport that demands a certain body type, such as wrestling and running. Wrestlers are a notoriously high-risk group because many try to lose additional pounds rapidly just prior to a match. This allows the wrestler to compete in a lower weight-class while having developed the skill and strength for a higher weight-class in practice. To accomplish this rapid weight loss, unhealthy weight reduction methods, such as fasting and purging, are often used.

Being overweight in childhood can also influence the development of an eating disorder in males. And dieting, a well-known trigger for eating disorders, can start the development of disordered eating in males.

Biological Factors

There are factors contributing to the development of eating disorders that are biological, or genetic. For example, if a person has a relative in her immediate family with an eating disorder, she is at a higher risk to develop an eating disorder.

Additional biological factors contributing to disordered eating can be triggered by the initial act of starving, binge-eating, or purging. This is because these behaviors can change an individual's chemical balance, particularly brain chemistry. Starvation and overeating lead to the production of brain chemicals that induce feelings of peace and euphoria (happiness). These good feelings mask feelings of anxiety and depression, both of which are commonly experienced by people suffering from eating disorders. This has caused certain researchers to conclude that some people with eating disorders use (or do not use) food as a relief when they are feeling poorly about themselves.

Of note is the fact that certain researchers believe that depression, which is also genetic, can be the cause of an eating disorder. (See section on depression later in this chapter.)

Psychological Factors

People suffering from eating disorders share many of the same personality traits. For example, eating-disordered people lean toward being perfectionists. Furthermore, many of them suffer from feelings of low self-esteem, despite their accomplishments and perfectionist ways. Extremist thinking, too, is present in many people with eating disorders. These individuals assume that if being thin is "good" then being even thinner is better. This leads to the thought that being the thinnest is the absolute best; it is this thinking that pushes some anorectics to plummet to body weights of fifty or sixty pounds.

Often, people who live with eating disorders have no sense of self. They simply do not feel that they know who they are or what their place in the world is. An eating disorder, however, offers a sense of identity to these individuals in that it enables them to say, "I am thin," and "I am dieting." This eventually leads them to define themselves solely on their appearance and their dangerous actions rather than with positive, healthy accomplishments.

Social Factors

Eating disorders, in general, occur primarily in industrialized societies, such as the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe, and Japan. In all of these places, the media (TV, movies, magazines) bombard people with the virtues and importance of being thin. It is endlessly implied in television

shows, movies, and advertisements that thinness will bring a person success, power, approval, popularity, friends, and romantic relationships. Women, in particular, are held to an almost-impossible-to-achieve standard of physical fitness and beauty, the height of which is being slender and thin. (In fact, female fashion models now weigh an average of 25 percent less than an average

woman.) Because of these media messages, and correlating comments from young women about their weight and body shape, a link between eating disorders and social pressures can be established.

Family Factors

People are shaped in part by their experiences with their families. Families contribute to an individual's emotional growth. If someone is raised in a dysfunctional family, she may have feelings of abandonment and loneliness. Certain families have dynamics in which rigidity, overprotectiveness, and emotional distance are commonplace. If parents make all of a child's decisions for her, when she gets to adolescence and needs to make decisions for herself, she may find she doesn't have the tools to do so. All of these dynamics can promote the development of eating disorders in the future.

Families in which unrealistically high expectations are placed on the children can also lead these individuals to develop disordered eating. The disordered eating is used as a way to cope with feelings of inadequacy and as a way to control at least one area of their lives. Children also receive their first messages about their bodies from their families. If parents place too much emphasis on physical appearance, it can lead to low self-esteem in those children, placing them at risk for developing eating disorders when they are older.

Most children learn their eating habits and food preferences from their families. Often times, cleaning one's plate or not eating too much or even parents' close control of what their child eats can lead to disordered eating later in life. Parents' attitudes toward food and their own bodies greatly affect children's attitudes toward food and how they will feel about themselves.

FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO HAVE BATTLED EATING DISORDERS

Paula Abdul, Singer

Justine Bateman, Actor

Karen Carpenter, Singer*

Nadia Comaneci, Gymnast

Susan Dey, Actor

Diana, Princess of Wales

Jane Fonda, Actor/Activist

Zina Garrison, Tennis Player

Tracy Gold, Actor

Heidi Guenther, Ballet Dancer*

Margaux Hemingway, Actor

Christy Henrich, Gymnast*

Daniel Johns, Musician

Kathy Johnson, Gymnast

Gelsey Kirkland, Ballet Dancer

Lucy Lawless, Actor

Gilda Radner, Actor/Comic

Cathy Rigby, Gymnast

Joan Rivers, Comic

Ally Sheedy, Actor

* indicates death resulting from the eating disorder

Triggers

Triggers are items or events that spark the beginning of other events. Eating disorders are often triggered by an event or a circumstance in the life of an individual who is already prone to developing such a condition. A period of adjustment, such as leaving home to attend summer camp, prep school, or college, can easily trigger disordered eating in an individual with such tendencies already in place. A traumatic event in someone's life, such as sexual abuse, can also trigger the development of an eating disorder. Other triggers can seem harmless yet represent large life changes, such as moving, starting a new school or job, graduation, and even marriage. Whatever the trigger is, it is usually closely tied to the end of a valued relationship or a feeling of loneliness.

The most common trigger of an eating disorder, however, is dieting. Very often dieting can lead people to disordered eating of some sort, including anorexia or bulimia.

THE PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF EATING DISORDERS


An eating disorder can have serious physical and psychological consequences. How serious these consequences are depends on how early an eating disorder is identified and treated. With help, the effects of an eating disorder can be treated; however, if an eating disorder is left untreated for years, some of the effects are irreversible and life-threatening. For these reasons, early detection and treatment is essential and can save a person's life.

The different types of eating disorders are often connected. In fact, 30 to 50 percent of people with anorexia exhibit signs of bulimia as well. Therefore, the consequences of the disorders are also connected. In other words, bulimia and anorexia often share physical, as well as psychological, consequences.

How Anorexia Nervosa Affects the Body

Anorexia causes many physical problems. For instance, it upsets the normal functions of hormones. For girls, this means the body is unable to produce enough of the female hormone estrogen because it does not have enough fat. This will cause an absence of menstrual cycles, called amenorrhea. For boys, anorexia causes a decrease in the production of the male hormone testosterone, which results in a loss of sexual interest.

An anorectic body lacks the protective layer of fat it needs to stay warm. To compensate for the lack of fat, lanugo (fine hair) will grow all over the body to keep it warm. Another problem anorexia causes is a decrease in bone mass. The body needs calcium for strong bones. Since an anorectic is not eating enough food, which is the source of calcium, the body's bones suffer and weaken. Later in life, this could result in a dangerous bone disease called osteoporosis.

Additionally, without the fuel it needs, an anorectic's body will respond as if it is being assaulted and begins to fight back in order to survive. To survive the body must have energy, but because the body has no food to turn into energy, it seeks out the muscles, and eventually, the organs (heart, kidney, and brain) for sustenanceoften causing permanent damage to the organs in the process. This is the most serious consequence of anorexia and can possibly lead to cardiac arrest and/or kidney failure, both of which can result in death.

How Bulimia Nervosa Affects the Body

The frequent purging that occurs with bulimia does serious damage to the body. Self-induced vomiting can severely damage the digestive system. Repeated vomiting also damages the esophagus (throat) and eventually it may tear and bleed. Vomiting brings stomach acids into the mouth, causing the enamel on the teeth to wear away. As a result, the teeth may become weakened and appear ragged. There will also be an increase in cavities from vomiting.

Other consequences include swollen salivary glands, which gives some bulimics the appearance of having chipmunk cheeks, and cuts and sores on the knuckles from repeatedly sticking one's fingers down the throat to induce vomiting (known as "Russell's sign"). Stomach cramps and difficulty in swallowing are also common.

If laxatives (drugs that induce bowel movements) are abused, constipation will result because the body can no longer produce a bowel movement on its own. Abuse of laxatives and diuretics (drugs that expel water from the body through urination) can also cause bloating, water retention, and edema (swelling) of the stomach. Because the body is constantly being denied the nutrients and fluids it needs to survive, the kidneys and heart will also suffer. Specifically, a lack of potassium will result in cardiac abnormalities and possible kidney failure, which can also result in death.

How Binge-Eating Disorder Affects the Body

The physical effects of binge eating are not as severe as with anorexia and bulimia, namely because the body is not denied food or put through the painful process of purging. Nevertheless, there are some potentially serious consequences for binge eaters.

Since binge eaters may suffer from obesity, health complications such as diabetes or heart problems can develop. Health problems from yo-yo dieting can include hypertension (high blood pressure) and long-term damage to major organs, such as the kidney, liver, heart, and other muscles.

How Exercise Addiction Affects the Body

Many anorectics and bulimics exercise compulsively (constantly) in order to lose weight. Compulsive exercise is extremely dangerous and can cause many painful injuries, including stress fractures, damaged bones and joints, as well as torn muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Even worse, the injuries may become more serious as many compulsive exercisers will continue their routines despite their injuries.

When an eating disorder is successfully treated, the body can heal and return to normal. Sometimes, however, the eating disorder has continued for so many years that there is too much damage for a full recovery to occur. A person may have to live with a weak heart or kidney for the rest of her life. A woman may be unable to conceive a child because her reproductive system cannot function properly (due to the absence of menstruation). Also, a person may have to live with the debilitating bone disease osteoporosis.

How Eating Disorders Affect the Mind

The psychological consequences of an eating disorder are complex and difficult to overcome. An eating disorder is often a symptom of a larger problem in a person's life. The disorder is an unhealthy way for that person to cope with the painful emotions tied to the problem. For this reason, the emotional problems that triggered the eating disorder in the first place can worsen as the disorder takes hold.

An eating disorder can also cause more problems to surface in a person's life. Eating disorders make it difficult for people to perceive things normally because certain chemical changes take place when the body is deprived of nutrients. As a result, the body relies on adrenaline (a hormone that is normally released during times of stress and fear) instead of food for energy. Adrenaline naturally makes makes someone excited, which makes it more difficult to deal with painful emotions.

Research has shown that many people suffering from an eating disorder also suffer from other psychological problems. Sometimes the eating disorder causes other problems, and sometimes the problems coexist with the eating disorder. Some of the psychological disorders that can accompany an eating disorder include depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety and panic disorders.

In addition to having other psychological disorders, a person with an eating disorder may also engage in destructive behaviors as a result of low self-esteem. Just as an eating disorder is a negative way to cope with emotional problems, other destructive behaviors, such as self-mutilation, drug addiction, and alcoholism, are similar negative coping mechanisms.

Not everyone who has an eating disorder suffers from additional psychological disorders; however, it is very common. For this reason, psychological counseling is an essential part of recovery (see Chapter 15: Mental Health Therapies).

DEPRESSION. Depression is one of the most common psychological problems related to an eating disorder. It is characterized by intense and prolonged feelings of sadness and hopelessness. In its most serious form, depression may lead to suicide (the taking of one's own life). Considering that an eating disorder is often kept a secret, a person who is suffering feels alienated and alone. A person may feel that it is impossible to openly express her feelings. As a result, feelings of depression will worsen the effects of an eating disorder, making it difficult to break the cycle of disordered eating.

With counseling and support, it is possible to combat these negative feelings and prevent them from progressing over time. Recently, doctors have begun to prescribe antidepressant drugs, such as Prozac, to address the problems of depression resulting from an eating disorder. Prozac can help ease feelings of depression, which in turn gives a person better tools with which to fight an eating disorder. [For more information on depression, see Chapter 12: Mental Illness.]

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOR. Obsessions are constant thoughts that produce anxiety and stress. Compulsions are irrational behaviors that are repeated to reduce anxiety and stress. People with eating disorders are constantly thinking about food, calories, eating, and weight. As a result, they show signs of obsessive-compulsive behavior. If people with eating disorders also show signs of obsessive-compulsive behavior with things not related to food, they may be diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Some obsessive-compulsive behaviors practiced by eating disorder sufferers include storing large amounts of food, collecting recipes, weighing themselves several times a day, and thinking constantly about the food they feel they should not eat. These obsessive thoughts and rituals worsen when the body is regularly deprived of food. Being in a state of starvation causes people to become so preoccupied with everything they have denied themselves that they think of little else.

FEELINGS OF ANXIETY, GUILT, AND SHAME. Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety (fear and worry), guilt, and shame at some time; however, these feelings become more intense with the onset of an eating disorder. Eating disorder sufferers fear that others will discover their illness. There is also a tremendous fear of gaining weight.

As the eating disorder progresses, body image becomes more distorted and the eating disorder becomes all-consuming. Some sufferers are often terrified of letting go of the illness, which causes many to protect their secret eating disorder even more.

Eating disorder sufferers have a strong need to control their environment and will avoid social situations where they may have to be around food in front of other people or where they may have to change their behavior. The anxiety that results causes people with eating disorders to be inflexible and rigid with their emotions.

SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

  • Extreme mood swings
  • Inability to experience pleasure in anything
  • Feelings of worthlessness
  • Withdrawal from family and friends
  • Constant fatigue (exhaustion)
  • Insomnia (sleeplessness) or sleeping too much
  • Loss of appetite or compulsive eating
  • Inability to concentrate or make decisions
  • Poor memory
  • Unexplained headaches, backaches, or stomachaches

Bulimics and binge eaters, specifically, experience guilt and shame with their disorders. This is mainly because, unlike anorectics, they are not usually in denial and they do realize that there is a problem. Bulimics will feel anxiety before, during, and after a binge and can only relieve this anxiety through purging. Purging, however, brings on overwhelming feelings of guilt and shame.

Binge eaters also feel anxiety during a binge, but because they do not purge, they feel ashamed over their lack of control around food.

EATING DISORDERS AND OTHER DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIORS


Drug Addiction and Alcoholism

It is common for people with eating disorders also to struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. In fact, research shows that one-third of bulimics have a substance-abuse problem, particularly with stimulants (drugs that excite the nervous system) and alcohol. This may stem from the fact that people with eating disorders have difficulty coping with their emotions and use negative means, such as drugs, to mask their problems. Drugs and alcohol provide temporary escapes from reality but, similar to eating disorders, can progress into serious problems that require treatment to overcome. [For more information on drug addiction and alcoholism, see Chapter 14: Habits and Behaviors.]

Self-Mutilation

Self-mutilation is practiced by many eating disorder sufferers. It is also known as self-inflicted violence (SIV) or "cutting." The most common forms of self-mutilation include cutting, burning, head-banging, hitting, and biting oneself. The reasons people self-mutilate stem from an inability to handle overwhelming feelings or a state of emotional numbness. Many sufferers explain that they hurt themselves in order to distract themselves from emotional pain because it is easier to deal with physical pain than to address uncomfortable emotions, such as fear or anger. They may also hurt themselves in order to feel something which gives them an escape from feelings of loneliness. [For more information on self-mutilation, see Chapter 14: Habits and Behaviors.]

EATING DISORDERS AND SEXUALITY


Eating disorders often develop around puberty, when the body is changing and maturing. This time of change can produce anxiety and confusion for both boys and girls because puberty is the beginning of sexual maturity. Girls develop breasts, start menstruating, grow taller, and develop more body hair. Boys' sexual organs (the penis and testicles) grow. Boys also grow taller, get more body and facial hair, and develop bigger muscles.

The sexual feelings that accompany puberty are new, and what they are feeling or experiencing may embarrass some young people. When someone is suffering from an eating disorder, issues surrounding sexuality can become even more complicated. Some people may seek out sexual relationships to feel close to someone and ease feelings of isolation. Others may avoid sexual relationships altogether because they feel ashamed of their bodies.

In some cases, an eating disorder is triggered by sexual abuse (when a person is forced to engage in sexual activities against his or her will). In these instances, an eating disorder sufferer is usually acting out in response to a painful event. She may gain or lose weight in an attempt to make herself sexually undesirable. She may avoid sexual relations as a way to take control over her body and prevent painful feelings from resurfacing. The anger and distrust felt toward the opposite sex may result in complete rejection of the opposite sex. On the other hand, some eating disorder sufferers may have many sexual partners in an attempt to erase the past and gain acceptance from the opposite sex.

TREATMENT AND RECOVERY FROM EATING DISORDERS

Treatment and recovery go hand in hand. It is very hard to stop an eating disorder without any treatment. Recovery is a long process in which an eating disorder sufferer may have to enter treatment more than once. Some people may even try different kinds of treatment programs during their recovery until they find one that works for them.

There may be obstacles to starting treatment. The fear of becoming fat and losing control, which drives most eating disorders, is very strong and hard to eliminate. Also, an eating disorder sufferer may be in denial about her condition and may be unwilling to consider treatment. These feelings may be based on a fear of letting go of the illness that she feels is part of her identity. The eating disorder sufferer must learn to refocus her thoughts from food and weight to her emotions so that she can deal with what is really bothering her. Since many feelings that need to be addressed have been buried by the disorder, professional counseling is important for a successful recovery.

In order for treatment to work, a person must be ready to be treated. Some sufferers may even say they are ready but really are not. They may pretend to change their attitude about food, but they are still starving themselves or bingeing and purging their food secretively. If a person does not fully commit to a treatment program, she will most likely continue suffering from the deadly illness even after completion of the program.

Treatment Basics

Treatment programs vary in the approach that they take. An eating disorder sufferer needs to find a program that best suits her and her condition. A program may work for one person but be ineffective for another. It is important that the person feels comfortable with and believes in the treatment.

Treatment usually begins with an assessment by a physician or mental health counselor. Depending on the severity of the eating disorder, the sufferer will either enter an inpatient or outpatient program. Inpatient programs, or hospitalization, are for the most severe cases. To be hospitalized, the sufferer is usually at a critical point in her illness where her life is in danger or she may have strong suicidal thoughts. Outpatient programs are conducted at a facility or doctor's office that the patient visits while still living at home.

WORDS OF RECOVERY

Mostly what happened was that my life took overthat is to say, that the impulse for life became stronger in me than the impulse for death. In me, the two impulses coexist in an uneasy balance, but they are balanced enough now that I am alive.

Looking back, I see that what I did then was pretty basic. I took a leap of faith. And I believe that has made all the difference. I hung on to the only thing that seemed real to me, and that was a basic ethical principle; if I was alive, then I had a responsibility to stay alive and do something with the life I had been given. And though I was not at all convinced, when I made that leap of faith, that I had any sensible reason for doing sothough I did not fully believe that there was anything that could possibly make as much sense as an eating disorderI made it because I began to wonder. I simply began to wonder, in the same way I had wondered what would happen if I began to lose weight, what would happen if I stopped. It was worth it.

It is worth it. It's a fight. It's exhausting, but it is a fight I believe in. I cannot believe, anymore, in the fight between body and soul. If I do, it will kill me. But more importantly, if I do, I have taken the easy way out. I know for a fact that sickness is easier.

But health is more interesting.

Excerpted from Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia. New York: HarperFlamingo, 1998, p. 280.

Whether the program is inpatient or outpatient, it will usually include various forms of counseling and medical care to treat the physical effects of the illness. The most common forms of counseling include nutrition, individual, family, and group. Nutrition counseling teaches the patient about healthy eating habits and designs appropriate meals. Its goal is to slowly bring the sufferer's weight back up to a safe level that can be easily maintained without dieting or provoking obsessive behavior about food. The first few months of treatment for anorectics can be very dangerous if the eating disorder has gone on for a long time. This is due to the shock the body experiences from eating food after years of starvation.

Individual counseling is one-on-one counseling in which a therapist helps the sufferer deal with her emotions and take control of her body and life again. Family counseling is when the family of the eating disorder sufferer is involved. This type of counseling helps the family and the sufferer to establish better relationships and change any unhealthy dynamics of the family. In group counseling, a counselor leads meetings of a group of eating disorder sufferers to help them learn how to achieve and maintain strong relationships. It also helps sufferers learn that they are not alone.

In support groups, eating disorder sufferers meet to offer support, understanding, and hope to one another as they battle their disorders. Support groups, like group counseling, help sufferers to not feel so alone in their illnesses and learn from others' experiences.

Some eating disorder sufferers will be prescribed medication to ease depression and anxiety as part of their treatment.

[For more information on types of treatments and therapy, see Chapter 15: Mental Health Therapies.]

The Recovery Process

Recovery is not easy. Most eating disorder sufferers feel that they are not worthy of love or life. It takes time (months, even years) and a lot of support from friends, family, and medical professionals to change the sufferers' self-perceptions. They need to feel worthy again of love from others. However, recovery is not as simple as saying "I love you" to eating disorder sufferers. They need to build their self-esteem so that they can believe that they deserve the love of others. Some people are able to make an initial recovery, but many find recovery to be an ongoing, lifelong process.

An eating disorder sufferer has certain goals, both physical and psychological, that she needs to try to reach in recovery. The physical aims should include the ability to eat a variety of healthful foods (without bingeing and purging) and maintain a healthy weight. Females should start their menstrual periods either for the first time or again without the help of medication.

The psychological aims of recovery should include a noticeable decrease in the fear of food and becoming fat as well as the ability to establish strong relationships with family and friends again. Another goal should be to realize the role society and the media play in furthering disordered thinking about people's weights and body shapes. This realization will help sufferers learn to accept and like their bodies without having to live up to unrealistic standards of beauty and thinness. An eating disorder sufferer should also work to establish new, positive coping skills and engage in activities that do not involve food or weight control.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK SOMEONE HAS AN EATING DISORDER

  • First, voice concerns to the person privately.
  • Listen carefully to what that person is saying.
  • Avoid using judgmental statements.
  • Let the person know that you are concerned about her health.
  • Be familiar with some resources, such as reading materials, web sites, or community centers, that can be introduced to that person.
  • If the person exhibits behaviors that are life-threatening, such as bingeing and purging several times a day, fainting, or expressing suicidal thoughts, tell a trusted adult immediately.

The goals for recovery should start small. Learning to meet modest goals first will provide a sense of accomplishment that will help push a person toward meeting larger goals. It is easy to become overwhelmed and fall back into familiar patterns of living. Eating disorder sufferers have taught themselves how to starve or binge and purge and are familiar with using the disorder to help them cope with life. They need time to relearn healthy eating habits and how to feel good about themselves again at a healthy weight.

PREVENTING EATING DISORDERS


Many eating disorder organizations focus on prevention in their programs. That is, stopping eating disorders before they even start. The belief is that awareness and education can go a long way in preventing the onset of these painful illnesses, which can become lifelong struggles. Many eating disorder experts promote teaching prevention at a young age since eating disorders usually begin in adolescence, although there are reported cases of eating disorders starting in children as young as eight years old.

There are a few main objectives that eating disorder organizations focus on in their prevention programs. These objectives help to provide people with the tools they need to cope with the problems that may contribute to an eating disorder.

Prevention means:

  • reordering thoughts on food and weight
  • focusing on health
  • understanding the dangers of dieting
  • developing a positive body image
  • rebelling against cultural and media messages that encourage unhealthy behaviors
  • explaining why fat is not the enemy
  • helping to end fat discrimination

Reordering Thoughts about Food and Weight

Since there is enormous pressure to be thin in many cultures, including the United States, many people are dissatisfied with how they look, believing that they are inadequate and unworthy of affection or love. As a result of a negative body image, many people go on strict diets and believe that food is the enemy. However, the body needs food to survive and going on restrictive diets will only lead to an intense preoccupation with food, calories, and weight.

The first step in preventing the development of eating disorders is to reorder feelings and thoughts about food and weight. Eating disorder experts recommend that people reject unhealthy messages about weight, body shape, and diet. Since body shape and weight are determined mostly from genetics, there is only so much a person can do to control or change weight and body shape. Trying to fight against or change the body's set point (the weight at which one's body naturally falls) is unhealthy and possibly dangerous because it creates a cycle of yo-yo dieting. Research has shown that while not every diet leads to eating disorders, 80 percent of eating disorders are initially triggered by a diet. [See Chapter 1: Nutrition, for more information on body set point.]

DEVELOPING A POSITIVE BODY IMAGE


Developing a positive body image is necessary to the prevention of eating disorders. Many people struggle with this issue and must work hard at accepting their bodies. Eating disorder experts emphasize the importance of exercising for health reasons rather than for burning calories and losing weight. The same experts also recommend becoming politically active in the fight against unhealthy cultural messages because it can be a source of positive feelings and empowerment.

HOW DOES DIETING AFFECT THE BODY AND MIND?

The body needs a certain amount of food to function properly. If caloric intake is restricted and the body falls below its set point, it will respond by lowering its metabolism. Metabolism is the rate at which the body burns energy. When the body doesn't get enough fuel to burn, it must learn to function on less. In response, the body will hold on to any food it gets and store fat more efficiently on fewer calories. Typically, when a person stops dieting, she will gain more weight than what was lost and be more likely to keep the extra weight because the body has made adjustments to compensate for a lack of food from the dieting.

The negative physical effects of dieting can include:

  • headaches
  • dizziness
  • stomach pain
  • iron deficiency that causes fatigue
  • possible menstrual irregularity
  • lack of estrogen
  • calcium deficiency
  • lack of growth from malnutrition

The negative psychological effects of dieting can include:

  • preoccupation with food, eating, and calories
  • increased irritability
  • increased stress and anxiety from semi-starvation
  • inability to determine hunger and fullness
  • negative body image that can lead to depression and low self-esteem
  • fear of food that can lead to isolation and alienation

Other suggestions include:

  • Avoid negative talk about food and weight.
  • Avoid referring to foods as "good" or "bad."
  • Don't participate in weight-loss programs or experiment with weight-loss products.
  • Exercise moderately; don't engage in unhealthy or excessive exercise programs.
  • Talk about body-image issues with close friends and family.
  • Don't criticize people for gaining weight.
  • Don't compliment people for losing weight.
  • Encourage family and friends to question cultural attitudes about weight and body shape.

Fat and Fit? The Obesity Question

Many people have been taught to fear fat, which leads to unhealthy dieting and intense struggles to lose weight. This thinking is based on the assumption that being fat is unhealthy and should therefore be avoided at all costs.

Now, however, many researchers are questioning the idea that being fat automatically puts a person at risk for health problems. The New England Journal of Medicine published an article in 1998, edited by Jerome P. Kassirer, M.D. and Marcia Angell, M.D., that confirms what many researchers have already suspected: treatments for obesity do not work, obesity treatments pose serious health risks, and the treatments are not justified because the health risks of obesity are not as high as once thought.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION TO ADVANCE FAT ACCEPTANCE

The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) was founded in 1969. Its mission is to work to better the lives of fat people around the world. Through advocacy and education, the organization tries to eliminate the discrimination that fat people face in their lives. NAAFA also works to empower fat people and help them accept their bodies and live more fulfilling lives.

NAAFA's basic message is that a person's worth should not be based on his or her body size. NAAFA uses the word "fat" in the hopes that people will stop using it as an insult and remember it is just an adjective (descriptive word). In this way, the word will not cause shame or embarrassment.

The organization challenges ideas about the connection between obesity and health risks. It promotes research that accurately studies the different aspects of being fat. The goal is to move away from looking for ways to help fat people lose weight and, instead, help fat people be healthy.

NAAFA has more than fifty chapters across the United States that provide support groups for people to share their feelings. Since being fat can be emotionally painful and isolating in many societies, especially in the United States, the organization promotes programs that unite people with similar experiences.

Some researchers claim that obesity is dangerous to one's health when combined with a sedentary (non-active) lifestyle. It is possible to be fat and healthy. In fact, how healthy a person is depends more on how much a person exercises rather than how much a person weighs. Weight alone is not a proper indication of how healthy a person is, and it is more beneficial for a person to concentrate on fitness instead of fatness.

FOR MORE INFORMATION


Books

Bode, Janet. Food Fight: A Guide to Eating Disorders for Pre-Teens and Their Parents. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Cooke, Kaz. Real Gorgeous: The Truth About Body and Beauty. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

Hornbacher, Marya. Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

Kolodny, Nancy. When Food's a Foe: How You Can Confront and Conquer Your Eating Disorder. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1992.

Krasnow, Michael. My Life as a Male Anorexic. New York: Haworth Press, 1996.

Sacker, Ira M. Dying to Be Thin: Understanding and Defeating Anorexia Nervosa and BulimiaA Practical Lifesaving Guide. Warner Books, 1987.

Web sites

Eating Disorders Information. [Online] http://eatingdisorders.about.com (Accessed November 1, 1999).

Eating disorders

views updated Jun 11 2018

Eating disorders

Definition

Description

Demographics

Causes and symptoms

Diagnosis

Treatment

Nutrition/Dietetic concerns

Prognosis

Prevention

Resources

Definition

Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses that result in abnormal eating patterns that have a negative effect on health.

Description

Eating disorders are mental disorders. They develop when a person has an unrealistic attitude toward or abnormal perception of his or her body. This causes behaviors that lead to destructive eating patterns that have negative physical and emotional consequences. Individuals with eating disorders often hide their symptoms and resist seeking treatment. Depression, anxiety disorders, and other mental illnesses often are present in people who have eating disorders, although it is not clear whether these cause the eating disorder or are a result of it

The two best-known eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa , have formal diagnostic criteria and are recognized as psychiatric disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV-TR) published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Other eating disorders have recognized sets of symptoms, but have not been researched thoroughly enough to be considered separate psychiatric disorders as defined by the APA.

Well-known eating disorders

In the North America and Europe, anorexia nervosa is the most publicized of all eating disorders. It gained widespread public attention with the rise of the ultra-thin fashion model. People who have anorexia nervosa are obsessed with body weight. They constantly monitor their food intake and starve themselves to become thin. No matter how much weight they lose, they continue to restrict their calorie intake in an effort to become ever thinner. Some anorectics exercise to extreme or abuse drugs or herbal remedies that they believe will help them burn calories faster. A few purge their body of the few calories they do eat by abusing laxatives, enemas, and diuretics . In time, they reach a point where their health is seriously, and potentially fatally, impaired.

People with anorexia nervosa have an abnormal perception of their body. They genuinely believe that they are fat, even when the clearly are life-threateningly thin. They will deny that they are too thin, or, if they admit they are thin, deny that their behavior will affect their health. People with anorexia will lie to family, friends, and healthcare provides about how much they eat. Many vigorously resist treatment and accuse the people trying to cure them of wanting to make them fat. Anorexia nervosa is the most difficult eating disorder to recover from.

Bulimia nervosa is the only other eating disorder with specific diagnostic criteria defined by the (DSM-IV-TR). People with bulimia often consume unreasonably large amounts of food in a short time. Afterwards, they purge their body of calories. This is done most often by self-induced vomiting, often accompanied by laxative abuse. A subset of people with bulimia does not vomit after eating, but fast and exercise obsessively to burn calories. Both behaviors result in impaired health.

People with bulimia feel out of control when they are binge eating . Unlike people. with anorexia, they

Symptoms of eating disorders

Anorexia nervosaBulimia nervosaBinge-eating disorder
Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and heightRecurrent episodes of binge eating, characterized by eating an excerssive amount of food within a discrete period of time and by a sense of lack of control over eating during the episodeRecurrent episodes of binge eating, characterized by eating an excessive amount of food within a discrete period of time and by a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode
Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweightRecurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting or misuse of laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications (purging); fasting; or excessive exerciseThe binge-eating episodes are associated with at least 3 of the following: eating much more rapidly than normal; eating until feeling uncomfortably full; eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry; eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating; feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating
Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weightThe binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both occur, on average, at least twice week for 3 monthsMarked distress about the binge-eating behavior
Infrequent or absent menstrual periods (in females who have reached puberty)Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weightThe binge eating occurs, on average, at least 2 days a week for 6 months
 Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weightThe binge eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging, fasting, excessive exercise)

source: National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

(Illustration by GGS Information Services/Thomson Gale)

recognize that their behavior is abnormal. Often they are ashamed and feel guilty about their behavior and will go to great lengths to hide their binge/purge cycles from their family and friends. People with bulimia are often of normal weight. Although their behavior results in negative health consequences, because they are less likely to be ultra-thin, these consequences are less likely to be life-threatening.

The APA does not formally recognize binge eating as an eating disorder. Binge eating is quite common, but it only rises to the level of a disorder only when bingeing occurs at least twice a week for three months or more. People with binge-eating disorder may eat thousands of calories in an hour or two. While they are eating, they feel out of control and may continue to eat long after they feel full. Binge eaters do not purge or exercise to get rid of the calories they have eaten. As a result, many, but not all, people with binge-eating disorder, are obese, although not all obese people are binge eaters.

Binge eaters are usually ashamed of their behavior and try to hide it by eating in secret and hording food for future binges. After a binge, they usually feel disgusted with themselves and guilty about their eating behavior. They often promise themselves that they will never binge again, but are unable to keep this promise. Binge-eating disorder often takes the form of an endless cycle—rigorous dieting followed by an eating binge followed by guilt and rigorous dieting, followed by another eating binge. The main health consequences of binge eating are the development of obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, stroke, and heart attack.

Lesser-known eating disorders

Quite a few eating problems are called disorders even though they do not have formal diagnostic criteria. They fall under the APA definition of eating disorders not otherwise specified. Many have only recently come to the attention of researchers and have been the subject of only a few small studies. Some have been known to the medical community for years but are rare.

Purge disorder is thought by some experts to be a separate disorder from bulimia. It is distinguished from bulimia by the fact that the individual maintains a normal or near normal weight despite purging by vomiting or laxative, enema, or diuretic abuse.

Anorexia athletica is a disorder of compulsive exercising. The individual places exercise above work, school, or relationships and defines his or her self-worth in terms of athletic performance. People with anorexia athletica also tend to be obsessed less with body weight than with maintaining an abnormally low percentage of body fat. This disorder is common among elite athletes.

Muscle dysmorphic disorder is the opposite of anorexia nervosa. Where the anorectic thinks she is always too fat, the person with muscle dysmorphic

.

KEY TERMS

Fast —a period of at least 24 hours in which a person eats nothing and drinks only water.

Type 2 diabetes —sometime called adult-onset diabetes, this disease prevents the body from properly using glucose (sugar).

disorder believes he is always too small. This believe is maintained even when the person is clearly well muscled. Abnormal eating patterns are less of a problem in people with muscle dysmorphic disorder than damage from compulsive exercising (even when injured) and the abuse of muscle-building drugs such as anabolic steroids.

Orthorexia nervosa is a term coined by Steven Bratman, a Colorado physician, to describe “a pathological fixation on eating ‘proper,’ ‘pure,’ or ‘superior’ foods.” People with orthorexia allow their fixation with eating the correct amount of properly prepared healthy foods at the correct time of day to take over their lives. This obsession interferes with relationships and daily activities. For example, they may be unwilling to eat at restaurants or friends’ homes because the food is impure or improperly prepared. The limitations they put on what they will eat can cause serious vitamin and mineral imbalances. Orthorectics are judgmental about what other people eat to the point where it interferes with personal relationships. They justify their fixation by claiming that their way of eating is healthy. Some experts believe orthorexia may be a variation of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Rumination syndrome occurs when an individual, either voluntarily or involuntarily, regurgitates food almost immediately after swallowing it, chews it, and then either swallows it or spits it out. Regurgitation syndrome is the human equivalent of a cow chewing its cud. The behavior often lasts up to two hours after eating. It must continue for at least one month to be considered a disorder. Occasionally the behavior simply stops on its own, but it can last for years.

Pica is eating of non-food substances by people developmentally past the stage where this is normal (usually around age 2). Earth and clay are the most common non-foods eaten, although people have been known to eat hair, feces, lead, laundry starch chalk, burnt matches, cigarette butts, light bulbs, and other equally bizarre non-foods. This disorder has been known to the medical community for years, and in some cultures (mainly tribes living in equatorial Africa) is considered normal. Pica is most common among people with mental retardation and developmental delays. It only rises to the level of a disorder when health complications require medical treatment.

Prader-Willi syndrome is a genetic defect that spontaneously arises in chromosome 15. It causes low muscle tone, short stature, incomplete sexual development, mental retardation, and an uncontrollable urge to eat. People with Prader-Willi syndrome never feel full. The only way to stop them from eating themselves to death is to keep them in environments where food is locked up and not available. Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare disease, and although it is caused by a genetic defect, tends not to run in families, but rather is an accident of development. Only 12,000– 15,000 people in the United States have Prader-Willi syndrome.

Demographics

In general, more women have eating disorders than men. About 90% of people with anorexia and bulimia nervosa are female. Almost as many men as women develop binge-eating disorder. Anorexia ath-letica, muscle dysmorphic disorder, and orthorexia nervosa tend to be more common in men. Rumination, pica, and Prader-Willi syndrome affect men and women equally.

Anorexia nervosa begins primarily between the ages of 14 and 18 and affects mainly white girls. Bulimia usually develops slightly later in the late teens and early twenties. Binge-eating disorder is a problem of middle age and affects blacks and whites equally. Prader-Willi syndrome begins in the toddler years. Not enough is known about the other disorders to determine when they are most likely to develop or which races or ethnic groups are most likely to be at risk.

Depression, low self-worth, and anxiety disorders are all common among people with eating disorders. Some disorders have obsessive-compulsive elements. The association between these psychiatric disorders and eating disorders is strong, but the cause and effect relationship is still unclear.

Causes and symptoms

Eating disorders have multiple causes. There appears to be a genetic predisposition in some people toward developing an eating disorder. Biochemistry also seems to play a role. Neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, play a role in regulating appetite. Abnormalities in the amount of some neurotransmitters are thought to play a role in anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder. Other disorders have not been studied enough to draw any conclusions. Interestingly, serotonin also helps regulate mood, and low serotonin levels are thought to play a role in causing depression.

Personality type can also put people at risk for developing an eating disorder. Low self-worth is common among all people with eating disorders. Binge eaters and people with bulimia tend to have problems with impulse control and anger management. A tendency toward obsessive-compulsive behavior and black-or-white, all-or-nothing thinking also put people at higher risk.

Social and environmental factors also affect the development and maintenance of eating disorders and may trigger relapses during recovery. Relationship conflict, a disordered, unstructured home life, job or school stress, transition events such as moving or starting a new job all seems to act as triggers for some people to begin disordered eating behaviors. Dieting (nutritional and social stress) is the most common trigger of all. The United States in the early twenty-first century is a culture obsessed with thinness. The media constantly send the message through words and images that being not just thin, but ultra-thin, is fashionable and desirable. Magazines aimed mostly at women devote thousands of words every month to diet and exercise advice that creates a sense of dissatisfaction, unrealistic goals, and a distorted body image .

Diagnosis

Diagnosis involves four components: a health history, a physical examination, laboratory tests, and a mental status evaluation. Health histories tend to be unreliable, because many people with eating disorders lie about their eating behavior, purging habits, and medication abuse. Based on the health history and physical examination, the physician will order appropriate laboratory tests. Mental status can be evaluated using several different scales. The goal is to get an accurate assessment of the individuals’s physical condition and her thinking in relationship to self-worth, body image, and food.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the degree to which the individual’s health is impaired. People with anorexia or bulimia may need to be hospitalized or attend structured day programs for an extended period. Some people are helped with antidepressant medication, but the mainstay of treatment is psychotherapy. An appropriate therapy is selected based on the type of eating disorder and the individual’s psychological profile. Some of the common therapies used in treating eating disorders include:

  • Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is designed to confront and then change the individual’s thoughts and feelings about his or her body and behaviors toward food, but it does not address why those thoughts or feelings exist. Strategies to maintain self-control may be explored. This therapy is relatively short-term. CBT is often the therapy of choice for people with eating disorders.
  • Psychodynamic therapy, also called psychoanalytic therapy, attempts to help the individual gain insight into the cause of the emotions that trigger their dysfunctional behavior. This therapy tends to be more long term than CBT.
  • Interpersonal therapy is short-term therapy that helps the individual identify specific issues and problems in relationships. The individual may be asked to look back at his or her family history to try to recognize problem areas or stresses and work toward resolving them.
  • Dialectical behavior therapy consists of structured private and group sessions in which the therapist and patient(s) work at reducing behaviors that interfere with quality of life, finding alternate solutions to current problem situations, and learning to regulate emotions.
  • Family and couples therapy is helpful in dealing with conflict or disorder that may be a factor in perpetuating the eating disorder. Family therapy is especially useful in helping parents who are anorectics avoid passing on their attitudes and behaviors on to their children.

Nutrition/Dietetic concerns

Eating disorders result in abnormal nutrition that can have life-threatening consequences. A nutritionist or dietitian who can provide nutritional counseling and healthy meal planning is an essential part of the treatment team for any eating disorder. However, nutritional counseling alone will not resolve an eating disorder.

Prognosis

Recovery from eating disorders can be along, difficult process interrupted by relapses. About half of all anorectics recover. Up to 20% die of complications of the disorder. The recovery rate for people with bulimia is slightly higher. Binge eaters experience many relapses and may have trouble controlling their weight even if they stop bingeing. Not enough is known about the other eating disorders to determine recovery rates. All eating disorders have serious social and emotional consequences. All except rumination disorder have serious health consequences. The sooner a person with an eating disorder gets professional help, the better the chance of recovery.

Prevention

Prevention involves both preventing and relieving stresses and enlisting professional help as soon as abnormal eating patterns develop. Some things that may help prevent an eating disorder from developing are listed below:

  • Parent should not obsess about their weight, appearance, and diet in front of their children.
  • Parents should not put their child on a diet unless instructed to by a pediatrician.
  • Do not tease people about their body shapes or compare them to others.
  • Make it clear that family members are loved and accepted as they are.
  • Try to eat meals together as a family whenever possible; avoid eating alone.
  • Avoid using food for comfort in times of stress.
  • Monitoring negative self-talk; practice positive self-talk.
  • Spend time doing something enjoyable every day.
  • Stay busy, but not overly busy; get enough sleep every night.
  • Become aware of the situations that are personal triggers for abnormal eating behaviors and look for ways to avoid or defuse them.
  • Do not go on extreme diets.
  • Be alert to signs of low self-worth, anxiety, depression, and drug or alcohol abuse and seek help as soon as these signs appear.

Resources

BOOKS

Agras, W. Stewart. Overcoming Eating Disorders: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach for Bulimia Nervosa and Binge-Eating Disorder 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Carleton, Pamela and Deborah Ashin.Take Charge of Your Child’s Eating Disorder: A Physician’s Step-By-Step Guide to Defeating Anorexia and Bulimia. New York: Marlowe & Co., 2007.

Heaton, Jeanne A. and Claudia J. Strauss. Talking to Eating Disorders: Simple Ways to Support Someone Who Has Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating or Body Image Issues New York, NY: New American Library, 2005.

Kolodny, Nancy J. The Beginner’s Guide to Eating Disorders Recovery. Carlsbad, CA: Gurze Books, 2004.

Liu, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders. New York, NY: Warner Books, 2007.

Messinger, Lisa and Merle Goldberg. My Thin Excuse: Understanding, Recognizing, and Overcoming Eating Disorders. Garden City Park, NY: Square One Publishers, 2006.

Rubin, Jerome S., ed. Eating Disorders and Weight Loss Research. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2006.

Walsh, B. Timothy. If Your Adolescent Has an Eating Disorder: An Essential Resource for Parents. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.

PERIODICALS

“Surfing for Thinness: A Pilot Study of Pro-Eating Disorder Web Site Usage in Adolescents With Eating Disorders.” Pediatrics.118, no. 6 (December 2006): e1635-43. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/6/e1635>.

ORGANIZATIONS

American Psychological Association. 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Telephone: (800) 374-2721; (202) 336-5500. TDD/TTY: (202)336-6123. Website: <http://www.apa.org>

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). P.O. Box 7 Highland Park, IL 60035. Telephone: (847) 831-3438. Website: <http://www.anad.org>

National Eating Disorders Association. 603 Stewart Street, Suite 803, Seattle, WA 98101. Help and Referral Line: (800) 931-2237. Office Telephone: (206) 382-3587. Website: <http://www.edap.org>.

OTHER

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. “Athletes With Eating Disorders.” October 6, 2006. <http://www.anred.com/ath.html>

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. “The Better-Known Eating Disorders.” January 16, 2006. <http://www.anred.com/defswk.html>

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. “Eating Disorders and Pregnancy.” October 18, 2006. <http://www.anred.com/pg.html>

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. “Males With Eating Disorders.” February 6, 2007. http://www.anred.com/males.html>

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. “Less-Well-Known Eating Disorders and Related Problems.” January 16, 2006. http://www.anred.com/defslesser.html>

Medline Plus. “Eating Disorders.” U. S. National Library of Medicine, April 2, 2007. <http://www.nlm.nih/gov/medlineplus/eatingdisorders.html>

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders “Facts About Eating Disorders.” undated; accessed April 3, 2007. <http://www.anad.org/>

Tish Davidson, A. M.

Eat More, Weigh Less see Dean Ornish’s Eat More, Weigh Less

East African diet see African diet .

Eating Disorders

views updated May 17 2018

Eating Disorders

Anorexia

Bulimia

Obesity

Resources

Eating disorders are psychological conditions that involve either overeating, voluntary starvation, or both. No one is sure what causes eating disorders, but researchers think that family dynamics, biochemical abnormalities, and societys preoccupation with thinness may all contribute. Eating disorders are virtually unknown in parts of the world where food is scarce and within less affluent socioeconomic groups in developed countries. Although these disorders have been known throughout history, they have gained attention in recent years, in part because some celebrities have died as a result of their eating disorders.

Young people are more likely than older people to develop an eating disorderthe condition usually begins before age 20. Although both men and women can develop the problem, it is more common in women. Only about 5% of people with eating disorders are male. In either sex, eating disorders are considered serious and potentially deadly. Many large hospitals and psychiatric clinics have programs specially designed to treat these conditions.

Anorexia nervosa, anorexic bulimia, and obesity are the most well known types of eating disorders. The word anorexia comes from the Greek word meaning lack of appetite. But the problem for people with anorexia is not that they are not hungry. They starve themselves out of fear of gaining weight, even when they are severely underweight. The related condition, anorexic bulimia, literally means being hungry as an ox. People with this problem go on eating binges, often gorging on junk food. Then they force their bodies to get rid of the food, either by making themselves vomit or by taking large amounts of laxatives. A third type of eating disorder is obesity caused by uncontrollable overeating. Being slightly overweight is not a serious health risk. But being 25% or more over ones recommended body weight can lead to many health problems.

Anorexia

People with anorexia starve themselves until they look almost like skeletons. But their self-images are so distorted that they see themselves as fat, even when they are emaciated. Some refuse to eat at all; others nibble only small portions of fruit and vegetables or live on diet drinks. In addition to fasting, they may exercise strenuously to keep their weight abnormally low. No matter how much weight they lose, they always worry about getting fat.

This self-imposed starvation takes a heavy toll on the body. Skin becomes dry and flaky. Muscles begin to waste away. Bones stop growing and may become brittle. The heart weakens. With no body fat for insulation, its hard to keep warm. Downy hair starts to grow on the face, back, and arms in response to lower body temperature. In women, menstruation stops and permanent infertility may result. Muscle cramps, dizziness, fatigue, even brain damage, kidney and heart failure are possible. An estimated 10-20% of people with anorexia die, either as a direct result of starvation or by suicide.

Researchers believe anorexia is caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors. They are still trying to pinpoint the biological factors, but they have zeroed in on some psychological and social triggers of the disorder. Many people with anorexia come from families in which parents are overprotective and have unrealistically high expectations of their children. The condition seems to run in families, which leads researchers to believe it may have a genetic basis. Anorexia often seems to develop after a young person goes through some stressful experience, such as moving to a new town, changing schools, or going through puberty. Low self-esteem, fear of losing control, and fear of growing up are common characteristics of anorectics (people with anorexia). The need for approval, combined with our cultures idealization of extreme thinness, also contributes.

The obvious cure for anorexia is eating, but that is the last thing a person with anorexia wants to do. It is unusual for the person himself or herself to seek treatmentusually a friend, family member, or teacher initiates the process. Hospitalization, combined with psychotherapy and family counseling, is often needed to get the condition under control. Force feeding may be necessary if the persons life is in danger. Some 70% of anorexia patients who are treated for about six months return to normal body weight. About 1520% can be expected to relapse, however.

Bulimia

Like anorexia, bulimia results in starvation. But there are behavioral, physical and psychological differences between the two conditions. Bulimia is much more difficult to detect because people who have it tend to be of normal weight or overweight, and they hide their habit of binge eating followed by purging, vomiting, or using laxatives. In fact, bulimia was not widely recognized, even among medical and mental health professionals, until the 1980s.

Unlike anorectics, bulimics (people with bulimia) are aware that their eating patterns are abnormal, and they often feel remorse after a binge. For them, overeating offers an irresistible escape from stress. Many suffer from depression, repressed anger, anxiety, and low self esteem, combined with a tendency toward perfectionism. About 20% of bulimics also have problems with alcohol or drug addiction, and they are more likely than other people to commit suicide.

Many people occasionally overeat, but are not considered bulimic. According to the American Psychiatric Associations definition, a bulimic binges on enormous amounts of food at least twice a week for three months or more.

Bulimics plan their binges carefully, setting aside specific times and places to carry out their secret habit. They may go from restaurant to restaurant, to avoid being seen eating too much in any one place. Or they may pretend to be shopping for a large dinner party, when actually they intend to eat all the food themselves. Because of the expense of consuming so much food, some resort to shoplifting.

During a binge, bulimics favor high carbohydrate foods, such as doughnuts, candy, ice cream, soft drinks, cookies, cereal, cake, popcorn, and bread, consuming many times the amount of calories they normally would consume in one day. No matter what their normal eating habits, they tend to eat quickly and messily during a binge, stuffing the food in their mouths and gulping it down, sometimes without even tasting it. Some say they get a feeling of euphoria during binges, similar to the runners high that some people get from exercise.

The self-induced vomiting that often follows eating binges can cause all sorts of physical problems, such as damage to the stomach and esophagus, chronic heartburn, burst blood vessels in the eyes, throat irritation, and erosion of tooth enamel from the acid in vomit. Excessive use of laxatives can be hazardous, too. Muscle cramps, stomach pains, digestive problems, dehydration, and even poisoning may result. Over time, bulimia causes vitamin deficiencies and imbalances of critical body fluids, which in turn can lead to seizures and kidney failure.

Some researchers believe that an imbalance in the brain chemical serotonin underlies bulimia, as well as other types of compulsive behavior. The production of serotonin, which influences mood, is affected by both antidepressant drugs and certain foods. But most research on bulimia focuses on its psychological roots.

Bulimia is not as likely as anorexia to reach lifethreatening stages, so hospitalization is not usually necessary. Treatment generally involves psychotherapy and sometimes the use of antidepressant drugs. Unlike anorectics, bulimics usually admit they have a problem and want help overcoming it. Estimates of the rates of recovery from bulimia vary widely, with some studies showing low rates of improvement and others suggesting that treatment is effective. Even after apparently successful treatment, some bulimics relapse.

Obesity

Obesity is an excess of body fat. But the question of what constitutes an excess has no clear answer. Some doctors classify a person as obese whose weight is 20% or more over the recommended weight for his or her height. But other doctors say standard height and weight charts are misleading. They maintain that the proportion of fat to muscle, measured by the skinfold pinch test, is a better measure of obesity. A person who is overweight, they point out, is not necessarily obese. A very muscular athlete, for example, might have very little body fat, but still might weigh more than the recommended weight for his or her height.

The causes of obesity are complex and not fully understood. While compulsive overeating certainly can lead to obesity, it is not clear that all obesity results from overindulging. Recent research increasingly points to biological, as well as psychological and environmental factors that influence obesity.

In the United States, people with low incomes are more likely to be obese than are the wealthy. Women are almost twice as likely as men to have the problem, but both menand women tend to gain weight as they age.

In those people whose obesity stems from compulsive eating, psychological factors seem to play a large role. Some studies suggest that obese people are much more likely than others to eat in response to stress, loneliness, or depression. As they are growing up, some people learn to associate food with love,

KEY TERMS

Morbid From the Latin word for sick, pertaining to or inducing disease.

Risk factor Any habit, condition, or external force that renders an individual more susceptible to disease. Cigarette smoking, for example, is a significant risk factor for lung cancer and heart disease.

acceptance, and a feeling of belonging. If they feel rejected and unhappy later in life, they may use food to comfort themselves.

Just as emotional pain can lead to obesity, obesity can lead to psychological scars. From childhood on, obese people are taunted and shunned. They may even face discrimination in school and on the job. The low self-esteem and sense of isolation that result may contribute to the persons eating disorder, setting up an endless cycle of overeating, gaining more weight, feeling even more worthless and isolated, then gorging again to console oneself.

People whose obesity endangers their health are said to be morbidly obese. Obesity is a risk factor in diabetes, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, angina pectoralis (chest pains due to inadequate blood flow to the heart), varicose veins, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease. Obesity can cause complications during pregnancy and in surgical procedures. Obese people are about one and one half times more likely to have heart attacks than are other people. Overall, the death rate among people ages 20-64 is 50% higher for the obese than for people of normal weight.

Since compulsive eating patterns often have their beginnings in childhood, they are difficult to break. Some obese people get caught up in a cycle of binging and dietingsometimes called yo-yo dietingthat never results in permanent weight loss. Research has shown that strict dieting itself may contribute to compulsive eating. Going without their favorite foods for long periods makes people feel deprived. They are more likely, then, to reward themselves by binging when they go off the diet. Other research shows that dieting slows the dieters metabolism. When the person goes off the diet, he or she gains weight more easily.

The most successful programs for dealing with overeating teach people to eat more sensibly and to increase their physical activity to lose weight gradually without going on extreme diets. Support groups and therapy can help people deal with the psychological aspects of obesity.

Resources

BOOKS

Epstein, Rachel. Eating Habits and Disorders. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990.

Matthews, John R. Eating Disorders. New York: Facts On File, 1991.

Porterfield, Kay Marie. Focus on Addictions. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1992.

PERIODICALS

Berry, Kevin. Anorexia? Thats a Girls Disease. Times Educational Supplement (16 April 1999): D8.

Dansky, Bonnie S., Timothy D. Brewerton, and Dean G. Kilpatrick. Comorbidity of bulimia nervosa and alcohol use disorders: results from the National Womens Study. The International Journal of Eating Disorders 27, no. 2 (1 March 2000): 180.

OTHER

National Eating Disorders Association. Eating Disorders Information Index <http://www.edap.org/p.asp?WebPage_ID=294> (accessed November 20, 2006).

Mirror, Mirror. Eating Disorders <http://www.mirror-mirror.org/eatdis.htm> (accessed November 20, 2006).

Nancy Ross-Flanigan

Eating Disorders

views updated May 08 2018

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders affect both the mind and the body. Although deviant eating patterns have been reported throughout history, eating disorders were first identified as medical conditions by the British physician William Gull in 1873. The incidence of eating disorders increased substantially throughout the twentieth century, and in 1980 the American Psychiatric Association formally classified these conditions as mental illnesses.

Diagnosis

Individuals with eating disorders are obsessed with food, body image, and weight loss. They may have severely limited food choices, employ bizarre eating rituals , excessively drink fluids and chew gum, and avoid eating with others. Depending on the severity and duration of their illness, they may display physical symptoms such as weight loss; amenorrhea ; loss of interest in sex; low blood pressure ; depressed body temperature; chronic , unexplained vomiting; and the growth of soft, fine hair on the body and face.

There are various types of eating disorders, each with its own physical, psychological , and behavioral manifestations. They are classified into four distinct diagnostic categories by the American Psychiatric Association: anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder , and eating disorder not otherwise specified.

Anorexia nervosa.

Clinically, anorexia nervosa is diagnosed as intentional weight loss of 15 percent or more of normal body weight. The anorexic displays an inordinate fear of weight gain or becoming fat, even though he or she may be extremely thin. Food intake is strictly limited, often to the point of life-threatening starvation. Sufferers may be unaware of or in denial of their weight loss, and may therefore resist treatment.

Peak ages of onset are between 12 and 13 and at age 17. Among women of menstruating age, menstruation ceases due to weight-related declines in female hormones .

This illness has two subtypes: the restricting type, in which weight loss is achieved solely via reduction in food intake, and the binge eating/purging type, in which anorexic behavior is accompanied by recurrent episodes of binge eating or purging.

Bulimia nervosa.

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by repeated episodes of bingeing followed by compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Compensatory behaviors include vomiting, diuretic and laxative abuse, fasting, or excessive exercise. Like the anorexic, the typical bulimic has an unusual concern about body weight and weight loss. Unlike the anorexic, he or she is acutely aware of this condition and has a greater sense of guilt and loss of self control.

Bulimia typically develops during the late teens and early twenties. In contrast to the typically emaciated anorexic, most bulimics are of normal body weight, although weight may fluctuate frequently. Physically, the bulimic may have symptoms such as erosion of tooth enamel, swollen salivary glands, potassium depletion, bruised knuckles, and irritation of the esophagus.

To qualify for a clinical diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, binge eating and related compensatory behaviors must take place at least two times a week for a minimum of three months. Sufferers are classified into one of two subtypes: the purging type, which employs laxatives, diuretics , or self-induced vomiting to compensate for bingeing, or the nonpurging type, which relies on behaviors such as excessive exercising or fasting to offset binges.

Binge eating disorder.

Binge eating disorder is characterized by eating binges that are not followed by compensatory methods. This condition, which frequently appears in late adolescence or the early twenties, affects between 15 and 50 percent of individuals participating in diet programs and often develops after substantial diet-related weight loss. Of those affected, 50 percent are male.

Binge eating disorder is diagnosed when an individual recurrently (at least twice a week for a six month period) indulges in bingeing behavior. A clinical diagnosis also requires three or more of the following behaviors: (1) eating at an unusually rapid pace, (2) eating until uncomfortably full, (3) eating large quantities of food in the absence of physical hunger, (4) eating alone out of shame, and (5) feelings of self-disgust, guilt, or depression subsequent to bingeing episodes.

Eating disorder not otherwise specified.

The category eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) is used to diagnose individuals whose eating disorders are equally as serious as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder, but do not meet all of the diagnostic criteria for these illnesses. An example of EDNOS might be a female who fulfills all of the criteria for anorexia but is still having regular menstrual periods, or an individual with all of the signs of bulimia who binges and purges less than twice a week.

Prevalence

Originally considered to be a disease targeting affluent white women and adolescents, eating disorders are now prevalent among both males and females, affecting people of all ages and from many ethnic and cultural groups. As many as 70 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from these conditions, with one in five women displaying pathological eating patterns.

Most eating-disorder research focuses on females, who represent 90 percent of all cases. The additional 10 percent are males, a group that is often underdiagnosed due a widespread misperception that this disease only affects females. This belief also makes males less likely to seek treatment, frequently resulting in poor recovery. Among males, body image is a driving factor in the development of eating problems. Gender identity may also play a role in the evolution of eating disorders, with homosexual males more prone to this disorder than the overall male population.

Risk Factors

Environmental, social, biological , and psychological factors all contribute to eating-disorder risk. Early childhood environment and parenting may have a substantial impact. Many sufferers report dysfunctional family histories, with parents who were either emotionally absent or overly involved in their upbringing. As a result, these children may not tolerate stress well, they may have low self-esteem, and they may have difficulty in interpersonal relationships. Children who have been abused either physically, sexually, or psychologically are also highly vulnerable to eating disorders, particularly bulimia. Those raised by eating-disordered parents may be at heightened risk due to repeated exposure to maladaptive food-related behaviors.

Professions, activities, and dietary regimens that emphasize food or thinness may also encourage eating disorders. For example, athletes, ballet dancers, models, actors, diabetics, vegetarians, and food industry and nutrition professionals may have higher rates of disordered eating than the general population. In addition to environmental and social influences, biological and psychological factors may also increase risk for eating disorders in some people. Low levels of serotonin , a neurotransmitter involved in appetite regulation and satiety, may be indicative of a predisposition to pathological eating behaviors. Similarly, as many as 50 to 75 percent of those who are diagnosed with eating disorders suffer from depression, a mental illness also associated with abnormalities in serotonin balance. Other psychiatric disturbances, such as bipolar depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, seasonal affective disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficithyperactivity disorder, and addictive behaviors, are also common in people with eating disorders.

Causes

Societal influences also contribute to this illness. Increasingly, Westernized culture portrays thinness as a coveted physical ideal associated with happiness, vitality, and well-being, while obesity is perceived as unhealthy and unattractive. This has encouraged a growing sentiment of body dissatisfaction, particularly among young women. Endless images of unrealistically thin models and actors in all forms of media further promote body dissatisfactionone of the strongest risk factors for the development of disordered eating.

Abnormal eating patterns are most likely to develop during the mid- to late teens, a period of considerable physical, psychological, and social change. While the exact events that lead to the evolution of these disorders are unknown, there are two common milestones that can trigger disordered eating, especially in those with a biological predisposition. The first is the occurrence of a traumatic event, such as the death of a loved one or a divorce. The other is the adoption of a strict diet, which may be even more pivotal than a personal trauma. In fact, rigorous dieting has been identified again and again as the most common initiating factor in the establishment of an uncontrollable pattern of disordered eating.

Treatment Modalities

Treatment is based on a combination of psychotherapy, medication, and nutritional counseling. Goals include restoration of healthy body weight, correction of medical complications, adoption of healthful eating habits and treatment of maladaptive food-related thought processes, treatment of coexisting psychiatric conditions, and prevention of relapse. Depending on the severity of the illness, therapy may be conducted on an outpatient, day treatment, or inpatient basis.

Outpatient therapy.

Outpatient therapy provided by practitioners specializing in eating disorders is appropriate for highly motivated patients within 20 percent of their normal body weight and whose illness is mild or just developing. Treatment consists of cognitive-behavioral therapy, intensive nutritional counseling, support-group referrals, and medical monitoring. At the outset of treatment, a contract is established, outlining an anticipated rate of weight gain (usually between 0.5 and 2 pounds per week), target goal weight, and consequences if weight gain is not achieved. Vitamin and mineral supplementation and the use of liquid supplements to facilitate weight gain may also be indicated.

Day treatment programs.

Day treatment programs are being used with increasing frequency in place of inpatient hospitalization. This form of therapy provides an intermediate level of care for patients who require frequent monitoring but do not require treatment twenty-four hours a day. It may be used for patients who are not responding to outpatient therapy or who are stepping down from inpatient hospitalization. Treatment, which may take place four or five days per week from morning until evening, is similar in structure to outpatient therapy, but is provided on a more intensive level.

Inpatient hospitalization.

Inpatient hospitalization is indicated for patients whose eating disorder has reached life-threatening status. Criteria for admission to such programs are weight loss of 25 percent or more of ideal body weight or the presence of an eating disorder in a child or adolescent. It may also be necessary for individuals who are medically unstable. Usually, participants in inpatient programs are anorexic, although hospitalization for bulimia may be necessary if there is serious deterioration of vital signs, uncontrollable vomiting, or concurrent psychiatric illness.

The immediate goals of inpatient treatment are weight gain and stabilization of vital signs. In many cases, the patient is so fragile that complete bed rest is required. Eating is gently encouraged. In extreme medical situations refusal may be met with tube feeding or, in rare instances, intravenously.

Medication.

Medication is increasingly becoming a routine part of treatment for eating disorders. Antidepressants, particularly the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are the most effective and most commonly used medication in treating this spectrum of illnesses. They are found to be of greatest benefit when used in combination with therapy, and are of little value if offered on their own. In the case of anorexia, these medications are most effective if employed after successful weight restoration is achieved, at which time they can be useful for relapse prevention and the treatment of coexisting psychiatric conditions. SSRIs are also used in preventing binge relapses among bulimics, although their effectiveness ceases once the medication is discontinued. Although antidepressants have also been employed in the treatment of binge eating disorder, outcomes have not been sufficiently positive to warrant recommendations for their use.

Outcomes

Individuals are usually considered to be ready to terminate therapy once they have achieved a healthy body weight and can eat all foods free of guilt or anxiety . For a complete recovery, extensive treatment may be required from six months to two years, and for as long as three to five years in cases where other psychiatric conditions are present. For some, eating disorders will be a lifelong struggle, with stressful or traumatic events triggering relapses that may require occasional check-in therapy to restore healthful eating patterns.

Eating Disorders throughout History

Although eating disorders first came to widespread attention in the 1970s, self-starvation and other pathological eating practices are found throughout recorded history. Bulimia was widely known in both Greek and Roman societies and was recorded in France as early as the eighteenth century. Self-starvation for religious reasons became widespread in Europe during the Renaissance, as hundreds of women starved themselves, often to death, in hopes of attaining communion with Christ. During the nineteenth century, as corpulence stopped being viewed as a symbol of prosperity, self-starvation became common again. The incidence of eating disorders varies widely among cultures and time periods, suggesting that they can be encouraged or inhibited by social and economic factors. Eating disorders have most often been seen in affluent societies and are rarely reported during periods of famine, plague, and warfare.

Paula Kepos

Of individuals with anorexia nervosa, 50 percent will have favorable outcomes, 30 percent will have intermediate results, and 20 percent will have poor outcomes. The prognosis for bulimics is slightly less favorable, with 45 percent achieving favorable outcomes, 18 percent having intermediate results, and 21 percent with poor results. Among both anorexics and bulimics, 5.6 percent will die of complications related to their illness. Those who receive treatment early in the course of their disease have a greater chance of full recovery on both a physical and an emotional level. A favorable prognosis is also likely with an early age at diagnosis, healthy parent-child relationships, and close supportive relationships with friends or therapists. With early identification and treatment, eating disorders can be prevented from becoming chronic and potentially lethal.

see also Addiction, Food; Anorexia Nervosa; Bulimia Nervosa; Eating Disturbances.

Karen Ansel

Bibliography

American Academy of Pediatrics (2003). "Policy Statement: Identifying and Treating Eating Disorders." Pediatrics 111(1):204211.

American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. Washington, DC: Author.

Berkow, Robert M., ed. (1997). The Merck Manual of Medical Information Home Edition. Whitehouse Station, NJ: Merck Research Laboratories.

Cassell, Dana, and Gleaves, David (2000). The Encyclopedia of Eating Disorders, 2nd edition. New York: Facts on File.

Costin, Carolyn (1996). The Eating Disorder Sourcebook. Los Angeles: Lowell House.

Pritts, Sarah D., and Susman, Jeffrey (2003). "Diagnosis of Eating Disorders in Primary Care." American Family Physician January 15.

Rome, Ellen S., et al. (2003). "Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders: The State of the Art." Pediatrics 111:e98e108.

Stice, Eric; Maxfield, Jennifer; and Wells, Tony (2003). "Adverse Effects of Social Pressure to Be Thin on Young Women: An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of 'Fat Talk.'" International Journal of Eating Disorders 34:108117.

Woolsey, Monika M. (2002). Eating Disorders: A Clinical Guide to Counseling and Treatment. Chicago: American Dietetic Association.

Internet Resources

American Psychiatric Association (2001). "Men Less Likely to Seek Help for Eating Disorders." Available from <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus>

American Psychiatric Association. "Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Eating Disorders." Available from <http://www.psych.org>

Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. (2002). "Males with Eating Disorders." Available from <http://www.anred.com/males.html>

Devlin, Michael J., and Walsh, Timothy B. (2000) "Psychopharmacology of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating." American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Available from <http://www.acnp.org/g>

National Eating Disorders Association (2002). "Males and Eating Disorders." Available from <http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org>

National Eating Disorders Association (2002). "What Causes Eating Disorders?" Available from <http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org>

Renfrew Center Foundation (2002). "Eating Disorders: A Summary of Issues, Statistics and Resources." Available from <http://www.renfrew.org>

Eating Disorders

views updated Jun 27 2018

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are highly gendered phenomena: Approximately 90 percent of known cases occur among girls and young women. In addition, gendered conceptions of the body and personhood shape both people's experiences of these conditions and treatments for them. Research in the social sciences and humanities emphasizes the importance of gender in understanding these complex and perplexing problems.

The cultural and historical specificity of eating disorders underscores the need to analyze the relationship of social categories, including gender, race and ethnicity, and class, to these problems. Anorexia and bulimia appear far more frequently in industrialized societies (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Although some scholars have raised important questions about the assumption of cultural and/or historical particularity for anorexia (Bell 1985, Banks 1992, Lee et al. 2001), most agree that the meanings and manifestations of eating disorders since the 1970s in industrialized settings constitute a uniquely salient focus for attention and research. The role of race and class as well as gender in shaping these disorders is an ever-present and frequently debated concern.

CATEGORIES OF EATING DISORDERS

Anorexia is a form of self-starvation that often is coupled with rigorous exercise, especially since the rise of the fitness movement in the 1970s. It first was identified as a medical disorder in the late nineteenth century (Gull 1874, Lasègue 1873) but occurred extremely rarely until it more than doubled in incidence in the 1970s and 1980s. This increase in incidence represents an actual increase in the number of cases; it is not due simply to greater sensitivity or awareness in identifying the problem (Gordon 2000). Anorexia was recognized officially as a psychiatric disorder in 1980. The typical age of onset is middle to late adolescence. Anorexia is often chronic and lethal; it has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness (approximately 10 percent), and most patients never recover fully.

Bulimia is a binge-purge disorder: Episodes of binge eating are followed by vomiting, the abuse of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, or excessive exercise. First identified in 1979 (Russell 1979), bulimia was recognized as a psychiatric disorder in 1980, and its incidence increased threefold in the 1980s and 1990s. The typical age of onset is late adolescence or early adulthood. Compared with anorexia, little is known about the course or mortality rate of bulimia. Although bulimia can be chronic (most patients have it for at least several years) and also fatal, psychiatrists appear to be more hopeful about the prospects for long-term recovery from bulimia compared with anorexia. However, death caused by electrolyte imbalance from vomiting can occur suddenly among bulimic patients, who can seem healthy on the surface because they are typically within a normal weight range.

Binge eating disorder entails regular episodes of binge eating that ordinarily are not followed by purging or compensatory acts. This disorder was identified in 1994 but is not considered an official eating disorder category in its own right. Individuals with this problem receive a diagnosis of "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" (American Psychiatric Association 2000). It usually appears in late adolescence or in a person's early twenties and is the most prevalent but least studied eating disorder. It occurs relatively frequently among males, but females are approximately one and one-half times more likely to experience it (American Psychiatric Association 2000).

Officially diagnosed eating disorders are relatively rare; among females, the prevalence of anorexia is about 0.5 percent and that of bulimia is approximately 1 to 3 percent (American Psychiatric Association 2000). However, estimates of significant eating disorder symptoms range from 5 to 10 percent of girls and young women and can run even higher on some college campuses (Boskind-White 2000). Obesity, although common, is not considered an eating disorder "because it has not been established that it is consistently associated with a psychological or behavioral syndrome" (American Psychiatric Association 2000, p. 583).

EATING DISORDERS AS CULTURAL PHENOMENA

Most researchers agree that eating disorders are culturally situated phenomena. It is difficult to explain their rise in incidence in the 1970s and 1980s in industrialized and industrializing social locations without referencing cultural changes during that period. Even so, most psychologists and psychiatrists downplay so-called sociocultural factors such as shifting social ideals of gender in the etiology and treatment of eating disorders. At the same time some proponents of a feminist cultural model "rely on a generic notion of cultural influence and simultaneously medicalize and pathologize all chronic dieting" (Gremillion 2003, p. 27). Simplified representations of nature and nurture are at work in this debate. This problem can be addressed by questioning the status of eating disorders as "pre-given medico-psychological" entities (Malson 1991, p. 31) and by locating eating problems at the intersection of multiple and often contradictory understandings of feminine identity and embodiment (Bordo 1993, Malson 1998). This approach differs from efforts, such as Joan Brumberg's (1989), to integrate biological, psychological, and cultural factors as they currently are understood.

The sociologist Bryan Turner (1984) and the philosopher Susan Bordo (1993) examine developments in Western social contexts that have led to understandings and experiences of the female body as a battleground of gendered conflicts that are specific to consumer culture. Efforts after World War II to promote consumption and the satisfaction of desires coexist with long-standing efforts to control and contain the female body. In this context anorexia is a triumph of control that is wedded to increasingly widespread ideals of slender femininity. Bulimia expresses more directly contradictory cultural imperatives for women and girls in particular to both consume and control the effects of consumption (Bordo 1993).

Bordo's work suggests that a widespread insistence on distinguishing anorexia and bulimia as discrete psychiatric entities conceals the gendered politics of consumer culture that links the two and connects both with a continuum of phenomena that range from chronic dieting to obesity. Significantly, it is not uncommon for patients with anorexia to develop bulimia; also, the prevalence of binge eating disorder is as high as 50 percent (the mean is 30 percent) when samples are drawn from weight-control programs (the prevalence rate is 0.7 to 4 percent in community samples) (American Psychiatric Association 2000).

Mark Nichter and Mimi Nichter (1991) and Robert Crawford (1985) emphasize the importance of class relations in analyzing eating problems. Pressure to manage the contradictions of control and release as well as constraint and freedom at the level of the individual body may influence those who are upwardly mobile most acutely. In this light assessments of obese or seemingly unfit individuals as "lazy" valorize the cultural norms that are implicated in eating disorders. Similarly, representations of bulimia as a "bad" or failed other to anorexia (Burns 2004) arguably scapegoat individual sufferers for problems that are shaped socially and economically.

GENDER AND PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT

Although treatments for anorexia and bulimia have improved over time, mortality and relapse rates remain high. Difficulties in treatment often are attributed to patients' pathology and tenacity, but a growing number of scholars argue that therapies often unknowingly reproduce problematic sociocultural and gender norms that contribute to patients' struggles. Ideologies of individualism and self-control in the therapeutic management of eating can reinforce the hard-earned sense of self-reliance that is part and parcel of eating problems (Eckerman 1997, Gremillion 2003, MacSween 1993). These ideologies pose irreconcilable dilemmas for women and girls who are taught to sacrifice their own needs for those of others (Boskind-Lodhal 1976, Steiner-Adair 1986, Orbach 1986). In addition, many treatment programs unwittingly perpetuate beliefs about motherhood and feminine "nature" that imply the need for heroic measures to achieve health. A sense of defeat and relapse often follows (Gremillion 2003).

Therapies that do not acknowledge the fact that eating disorders are shaped culturally and historically are likely to perpetuate taken-for-granted understandings of gender that allow these disorders to flourish. The need for a contextual reading of illness and health applies not only to doctor-patient relationships but also to the formulation of treatment protocols and the constitution of gendered relationships within professional treatment teams that often attempt to model health (Sesan 1994, Wooley and Wooley 1985). Formal studies of alternative treatments that acknowledge a politics of gender (White and Epston 1990, Steiner-Adair 1994) are lacking, but anecdotal evidence and pilot study results (Madigan and Goldner 1999) suggest a significant improvement in treatment outcomes.

THE POLITICS OF INCLUSION: GENDER, RACE, CLASS, AND SEXUALITY

Disordered eating affects males as well as females. The effects of consumer culture, particularly as they relate to concerns about body size, shape, and image, are increasingly present in the male body (Nemeroff and associates 1994). Significantly, eating disorders are most prevalent among men and boys who engage in activities that involve weight restrictions, such as bodybuilding, wrestling, dancing, gymnastics, and jockeying (Andersen and colleagues 1995). There is a broad consensus that eating problems are clinically similar between males and females.

However, no clinical or cultural analyst disputes the fact that eating disorders are much more widespread among females. Any attempt to represent eating problems as "equal opportunity" along the axis of gender fails to acknowledge significant gender inequalities that affect the politics of body size and self-control. However, males with eating disorders may be stigmatized as insufficiently "masculine" (Kearney-Cooke and Steichen-Asch 1990) and therefore may be less likely than women and girls to identify these problems openly. It is possible that eating disorders are more prevalent among males than is realized (Hepworth and Griffin 1995). Associations in the literature between eating disorders and homosexuality in males should be evaluated in light of stereotypical views about appropriate masculine behavior.

Scholars who critically analyze representations of eating disorders as white and middle-class phenomena have raised similar questions about whether these disorders are overlooked in particular groups. Eating disorder patient populations are likely to be socioeconomically privileged disproportionately in part because of preconceived ideas about typical patient profiles (Dolan 1991, Gard and Freeman 1996, Gremillion 2003, Thompson 1994a). Evidence is mounting that eating disorders cut across ethnic and class boundaries (Striegel-Moore and Smolak 2000). However, rather than simply attempting to identify eating disorders as they are known among various populations, it is important to ask how these disorders are defined in the first place because official definitions may preclude recognition of significant eating problems.

The sociologist Becky Thompson (1994b) shows that pressures for girls and women to be slim, which can lead to a range of eating problems, are associated with several narratives of privilege, such as whitening, moving up the social ladder, and becoming appropriately heterosexual. At the same time she argues that these powerful narratives do not capture all the meanings of eating difficulties in people's lives. For instance, "dissatisfaction with appearance often serves as a stand-in for topics that are still invisible" (Thompson 1994b, p. 11) such as racism, sexism, poverty, and sexual abuse. According to Thompson, "Doing justice to the social context in which difficulties with food arise requires an integrated analysis—one that accounts for the intersecting influence of gender, race, sexuality, nationality, and class" (Thompson 1994b, p. 360).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

American Psychiatric Association. 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-R. 4th edition, revised. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Andersen, Russ E; Susan J. Bartlett; Glen D. Morgan; and Kelly D. Brownell. 1995. "Weight Loss, Psychological and Nutritional Patterns in Competitive Male Body Builders." International Journal of Eating Disorders 18(1): 49-57.

Banks, Caroline G. 1992. "'Culture' in Culture-Bound Syndromes: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa." Social Science and Medicine 34(8): 867-884.

Bell, Rudolf M. 1985. Holy Anorexia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bordo, Susan. 1993. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Boskind-Lodhal, Marlene. 1976. "Cinderella's Stepsisters: A Feminist Perspective on Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2(1): 120-146.

Boskind-White, Marlene. 2000. Bulimia/Anorexia: The Binge/Purge Cycle and Self-Starvation. New York: Norton.

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. 1989. Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa. New York: New American Library.

Burns, Maree. 2004. "Eating Like an Ox: Femininity and Dualistic Constructions of Bulimia and Anorexia." Feminism & Psychology 14(2): 269-296.

Crawford, Robert. 1985. "A Cultural Account of 'Health': Control, Release, and the Social Body." In Issues in the Political Economy of Healthcare, ed. John B. McKinlay. New York: Tavistock.

Dolan, Bridget. 1991. "Cross-Cultural Aspects of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia: A Review." International Journal of Eating Disorders 10(1): 67-78.

Eckerman, Liz. 1997. "Foucault, Embodiment, and Gendered Subjectivities: The Case of Voluntary Self-Starvation." In Foucault, Health, and Medicine, ed. Alan Petersen and Robin Bunton. New York: Routledge.

Gard, Maisie C. E., and Chris P. Freeman. 1996. "The Dismantling of a Myth: A Review of Eating Disorders and Socioeconomic Status." International Journal of Eating Disorders 20(1): 1-12.

Gordon, Richard A. 2000. Eating Disorders: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic. 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Gremillion, Helen. 2003. Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Gull, William W. 1874. "Anorexia Nervosa (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)." Transactions of the Clinical Society of London 7: 22-28.

Hepworth, Julie, and Christine Griffin. 1995. "Conflicting Opinions? 'Anorexia Nervosa,' Medicine, and Feminism." In Feminism and Discourse: Psychological Perspectives, ed Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger. London: Sage.

Kearney-Cooke, Ann, and Paule Steichen-Asch. 1990. "Men, Body Image, and Eating Disorders." In Males with Eating Disorders, ed. Arnold E. Andersen. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

Lasègue, Charles. 1873. "De l'Anorexie Hystérique." Archives Générales de Médicine 1: 384-403.

Lee, Sing; Antionette M. Lee; Emily Ngai; Dominic T. S. Lee; and Y. K. Wing. 2001. "Rationales for Food Refusal in Chinese Patients with Anorexia Nervosa." International Journal of Eating Disorders 29: 224-229.

MacSween, Morag. 1993. Anorexic Bodies: A Feminist and Sociocultural Perspective on Anorexia Nervosa. London and New York: Routledge.

Madigan, Stephen P., and Elliot M. Goldner. 1999. "Undermining Anorexia through Narrative Therapy." In Eating Disorders: A Reference Sourcebook, ed. Raymond Lemberg with Leigh Cohn. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Malson, Helen. 1991. "Hidden A-Genders: The Place of Multiplicity and Gender in Theorizations of Anorexia Nervosa." BPS Psychology of Women Section Newsletter, Winter, pp. 31-42.

Malson, Helen. 1998. The Thin Woman: Feminism, Post-Structuralism and the Social Psychology of Anorexia Nervosa. New York: Routledge.

Nemeroff, Carol J.; Richard I. Stein; Nancy S. Diehl; and Karen M. Smilack. 1994. "From the Cleavers to the Clintons: Role Choices and Body Orientation as Reflected in Magazine Article Content." International Journal of Eating Disorders 16: 167-76.

Nichter, Mark, and Mimi Nichter. 1991. "Hype and Weight." Medical Anthropology 13(3): 249-284.

Orbach, Susie. 1986. Hunger Strike: The Anorectic's Struggle as a Metaphor for Our Age. New York: Norton.

Russell, Gerald. 1979. "Bulimia Nervosa: An Ominous Variant of Anorexia Nervosa." Psychological Medicine 9(3): 429-448.

Sesan, Robin, 1994. "Feminist Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders: An Oxymoron?" In Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, ed. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman, and Susan C. Wooley. New York: Guilford.

Steiner-Adair, Catherine. 1986. "The Body Politic: Normal Female Development and the Development of Eating Disorders." Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis 14(1): 94-114.

Steiner-Adair, Catherine. 1994. "The Politics of Prevention." In Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, ed. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman, and Susan C. Wooley. New York: Guilford.

Striegel-Moore, Ruth, and Linda Smolak. 2000. "The Influence of Ethnicity on Eating Disorders in Women." In Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, ed. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman, and Susan C. Wooley. New York: Guilford.

Thompson, Becky W. 1994a. "Food, Bodies, and Growing Up Female: Childhood Lessons about Culture, Race, and Class." In Feminist Perspectives on Eating Disorders, ed. Patricia Fallon, Melanie A. Katzman, and Susan C. Wooley. New York: Guilford.

Thompson, Becky W. 1994b. A Hunger So Wide and So Deep: American Women Speak Out on Eating Problems. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Turner, Bryan S. 1984. The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. New York: Basil Blackwell.

White, Michael, and David Epston. 1990. Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. New York: Norton.

Wooley, Susan C., and O. Wayne Wooley. 1985. "Intensive Outpatient and Residential Treatment for Bulimia." In Handbook of Psychotherapy for Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia, ed. David M. Garner and Paul E. Garfinkel. New York: Guilford.

                                        Helen Gremillion

Eating Disorders

views updated Jun 11 2018

Eating Disorders

People with an eating disorder feel compelled to repeat certain behaviors, such as overeating or eating too little. For this reason, eating disorders are placed in the category "behavioral disorder." Like substance abuse, another behavioral disorder, eating disorders can be very difficult to interrupt since the problem lies in what the individual does—her or his behavior and its consequences. These compelling behaviors gradually come to dominate the affected sufferers' lives, often disturbing the functioning of their bodies, their minds, and their everyday social lives. People with behavioral disorders sometimes also have other compulsions . For example, they may be unable to control the impulse to spend money (compulsive spending) or to gamble (compulsive gambling).

The eating disorders discussed below include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Compulsive eating can be a symptom of anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating, but it is not considered a separate disorder.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening syndrome of self- starvation. The Greek term anorexia means "loss of appetite." This is actually an inappropriate name for the condition. Individuals with anorexia nervosa are starved and think constantly and obsessively about food. They refuse to eat not because they have lost their appetite but because they have an irrational fear of being fat.

Anorexia nervosa affects from 0.5 to 1 percent of female adolescents and young women and occasionally occurs in males. In extreme cases, girls and women can undergo weight loss to less than 60 percent of normal weight. At these very low weights, individuals usually admit that they are too thin, yet they still feel as though some part of their body, typically their stomach or thighs, remains fat. Alternatively, they describe being unable to eat normally because they fear that they will lose control, go on an eating binge , and become overweight.

Anorectic behavior includes dieting by skipping meals or severely limiting the amount of fat consumed. Eating behavior may include rituals, such as eating only certain foods and preparing foods in complicated ways. It is also common for anorexics to exercise excessively with the goal of burning calories. Individuals who lose weight solely by extreme dieting and exercising have the restricting type of anorexia nervosa.

Some people with anorexia nervosa occasionally lose control of their rigid eating pattern and binge on the high-fat, high-calorie foods they have forbidden themselves to eat. After the binge, they may purge by making themselves vomit, or by taking higher than recommended doses of laxatives , diuretics , or diet pills. Individuals who binge and/or purge in addition to dieting and exercise to lose weight have the binge/purge type of anorexia nervosa.

Bulimia Nervosa

The Greek word bulimia means "hunger of an ox." People with bulimia try to prevent weight gain through a cycle of dieting, binge eating, and purging behavior. In bulimia, binge eating occurs at least twice a week for three months or more. As with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa mostly affects young women, although 10 percent of cases occur in men. While 1 to 3 percent of young women and adolescents have the full syndrome of bulimia nervosa, as many as 20 percent of college-age women experiment with bulimic behaviors and experience a limited range of symptoms.

Bulimics, like anorexics, place extreme value on thinness. The main difference between the two diagnoses is one of weight. Anorexics have starved themselves to a low body weight, while bulimics are at least normal weight. Underweight patients who binge and purge are usually diagnosed with the binge/purge type of anorexia nervosa rather than with bulimia. But the dividing line between anorexia nervosa and bulimia is not always clear. It is common for an eating disorder to start as anorexia nervosa and progress to bulimia over time, since dieting is the biggest risk factor that contributes to binge eating.

As with anorexia nervosa, there are two types of bulimia: (1) purging type and (2) nonpurging type. In purging-type bulimia, individuals use some kind of purging behavior after a binge to get rid of the extra calories they have consumed. The most common method of purging is by self-induced vomiting, although some bulimics may abuse laxatives, diuretics, or diet pills. In nonpurging bulimia, individuals go through episodes of binge eating alternating with episodes of restricting their diet, fasting, or excessive exercise routines.

Medical Complications

Anorexia nervosa has the highest death rate of any psychiatric condition. Occasionally, bulimia nervosa can also result in life-threatening complications. Both disorders seriously damage the body, and most medical complications are the result of starvation or purging behaviors. Individuals with purging-type anorexia nervosa are at highest risk, since they are both starved and regular purgers. Complications of starvation include:

  • slow heart rate (bradycardia)
  • low blood pressure and fainting or dizzy spells
  • intolerance to cold
  • thinning hair
  • constipation
  • weakness and fatigue
  • loss of a monthly menstrual period (amenorrhea)

Amenorrhea causes rapid bone loss and thinning of the bones, or osteoporosis. This process cannot be reversed, and may lead to hip and spinal fractures. Purging by vomiting often results in tooth decay, a swelling of the salivary glands in the cheeks that distorts the person's face, and a risk of ulcers in the esophagus. The most dangerous risk of regular vomiting is developing electrolyte imbalances. Electrolytes are salts in the blood, such as potassium, that are necessary for the heart to function properly. Changes in electrolyte levels can result in fatally abnormal heart rhythms. Laxative abuse can cause similar electrolyte abnormalities as well as laxative dependence and dehydration . In extreme cases, kidney failure can follow severe laxative or diuretic abuse.

Psychiatric Problems and Eating Disorders

Individuals with eating disorders are more likely than the rest of the population to have a second, simultaneous psychiatric problem. The most common illness that goes along with eating disorders is a mood disorder, such as depression or anxiety . Studies have found that 50 percent or more of patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia also have depression. However, starvation alone causes a syndrome identical to major depression. As a result, it is often difficult to determine whether a patient has depression in addition to anorexia nervosa, or depressive symptoms caused by the starved state that accompanies anorexia nervosa. If the patient has a close relative with depression, it is more likely that the patient has true depression.

Anorexics are also more likely to have obsessive-compulsive disorder than the rest of the population. In bulimia, as many as 30 percent of patients also have alcohol abuse problems. A small proportion of individuals with bulimia have other impulse-control problems such as substance abuse, compulsive spending or shoplifting, promiscuity , self-harm , and other risk-taking behaviors.

The Risk Factors for Eating Disorders

Rates of anorexia nervosa and bulimia are much higher in Western countries, such as the United States, than in developing countries, such as those in Africa and Asia. Young women in Western cultures are exposed to strong social pressures that encourage dieting and value thinness as an ideal of female beauty. For example, 90 percent of models photographed in young women's magazines have a body type that naturally occurs in only 10 percent of the female population.

Another factor that contributes to eating disorders in the United States is the increasing average weight of Americans. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions as a result of a decrease in physical exercise and an increase in the availability of high-calorie, oversized, and cheap fast food. As the population grows heavier, dieting tends to be viewed as a normal, healthy activity, even though evidence suggests that dieting behaviors often backfire. Adolescent girls grow up dieting, yet many become overweight adults. This is thought to be because dieting increases the risk of future binge eating. The best way to prevent both obesity and eating problems is to exercise regularly and eat three normal-sized, balanced meals daily.

The pressure to be thin and actual widespread obesity contribute to the increasing rates of eating disorders in the United States. Yet these factors alone cannot explain the development of the full syndrome of bulimia or anorexia nervosa in only 3 to 4 percent of young women. Experts believe that other risk factors make some girls vulnerable to these disorders once they start dieting. Genes may play a role, since eating disorders run in families. Recent evidence indicates that individuals who develop bulimia nervosa have different levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in their brains than do other individuals. Serotonin plays a role in both eating behaviors and moods. Certain personality traits are more common in individuals with eating disorders. These include: perfectionism, sensitivity to criticism, dis- liking change, and a tendency to be self-critical. Finally, in over 50 percent of cases a stressful life situation (such as the loss of a relationship, parental divorce, or a physical illness) occurred in the year before the eating disorder began.

Efforts at preventing eating disorders have focused on educating young people about the disorders and their dangers. Yet many young girls say that they first considered vomiting as a way to prevent weight gain after a health-class lecture or reading an educational article on bulimia. Many girls believe they can control this behavior, only to discover, often very rapidly, that they have lost control of it and feel a compulsive need to continue dieting and/or bingeing.

The Treatment of Eating Disorders

Both anorexia nervosa and bulimia can be treated. About 50 percent of individuals who receive treatment will eventually recover, although in many cases symptoms continue for years. The symptoms may fluctuate over time, often worsening when the person is under stress. As with all behavioral disorders, the first step in treatment is to block, or stop, the behavior. In the treatment of most kinds of substance abuse, the aim is to help the person stop using drugs, whereas in the treatment of eating disorders, the aim is to help the person reestablish a normal, nondieting eating pattern and to abstain from, or give up, the behaviors of the eating disorder.

For underweight patients, treatment goals include weight gain to counteract starvation, since starvation increases these patients' obsessive focus on food, eating rituals, and exercise. Very low-weight patients may require admission to a treatment program for eating disorders, where a team of professionals helps patients relearn healthy eating. Treatment includes behavioral therapy to help patients get over their fears of food, observation by nurses to make sure the patient is not purging, group and family therapy, and medication for other psychiatric disorders, such as depression, that a patient may have. Although sometimes used, forced tube feeding is not necessary for the treatment of anorexia nervosa in the presence of an expert behavioral program. Group therapy, led by an experienced therapist, can generate healthy peer pressure. Unfortunately, unsupervised self-help groups such as those available on the Internet may be dangerous. These groups create an atmosphere in which patients compete in telling "war stories" of their eating disorders and can actually worsen symptoms.

Treatment for bulimia nervosa usually begins with cognitive- behavioral therapy as an outpatient . Cognitive-behavioral therapy includes keeping a food log, identifying situations that trigger bulimic behavior, and challenging irrational thoughts that sustain these behaviors. The therapist helps the patient develop healthier eating behaviors, avoid trigger situations, and correct irrational thinking. Patients learn to eat all foods in moderation and to have regular meals. Antidepressant medications can be helpful in decreasing urges to binge or vomit, but the combination of behavioral therapy and medication is more effective than medication alone.

Most patients want to know why they developed an eating disorder. However, it is important to realize that exploring the reasons behind the disorder does not lead to recovery from that disorder. An eating disorder is like other addictions: Once a person has it, it takes on a life of its own. Knowing what led to the eating disorder does not help the individual stop dieting or bingeing.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder affects about 2 percent of adults in the United States and is slightly more common in women than in men. A person with this disorder binges frequently and feels out of control and distressed over the amount he or she has eaten. However, unlike bulimia nervosa, binge eaters do not purge. Other possible symptoms include eating rapidly, eating till uncomfortably full, eating large amounts when not hungry, feeling embarrassed about the quantity of food consumed, and feeling disgusted or guilty about bingeing. Most people with binge eating disorder are obese, that is, more than 20 percent above normal weight. Depression is more common in binge eaters than in obese individuals who do not binge. The main complications of binge eating are those of obesity, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and arthritis. As with bulimia, strict dieting may worsen binge eating. Treatment consists of cognitive- behavioral therapy aimed at stopping all bingeing behavior, increasing exercise, and returning to normal eating patterns, rather than immediate weight loss.

Eating Disorders, Substance Abuse, and the Brain

The study of substance abuse has revealed that drugs of abuse, such as cocaine or amphetamines, increase levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter , in brain areas known as the reward circuit (such as the nucleus accumbens). Higher levels of dopamine may lead to drug tolerance, meaning that a person needs increasing doses of a drug to produce the same effect achieved from the initial dose, and drug dependence, when a person can no longer function normally without the drug.

Recent research into eating disorders indicates that food may act on brain reward systems in the same way that drugs of abuse do. For example, in one research studies monkeys deprived of food increased their intake of any drug of abuse. This suggests that the rewarding effects of food and drugs of abuse operate in similar ways in the brain, involving the reward pathway and neurotransmitters such as dopamine. Changes in these brain systems may predispose a person to an eating disorder, or contribute to it once it has begun.

Results of another recent study suggest that overeating may increase dopamine levels in the brain, leading to a decrease in the number of dopamine receptors . This change may contribute to increased cravings for food in obese individuals. Current research is studying whether weight loss corrects these changes in dopamine receptor numbers.

Conclusion

Occasionally an eating disorder may not fit neatly into one of the diagnostic categories discussed here and yet may seriously affect an individual's well-being. These atypical eating disorders may be quite severe and require treatment. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other eating disorders are behavioral disorders that become consuming passions interfering with normal functioning. Treatment is necessary to help the person recover from the disorder and learn how to lead a normal, healthy life free of these harmful behaviors.

see also Addiction: Concepts and Definitions; Gender and Substance Abuse; Risk Factors for Substance Abuse; Research.


RECOVERING FROM ANOREXIA

One day I was walking to the mail box in front of my house and I passed out. I woke up in the hospital and that's when the doctor told me that I was too thin. Too thin! I couldn t believe what he was telling me. Did everyone want me to be fat?

I was so angry that I had to gain weight. . . . I was required to eat 6 times a day. I had only stayed in the hospital for about 8 days when I was released. I still had to go to the hospital every morning and they monitored my weight.

I joined group therapy, because my doctor told me that it would be helpful. It was very difficult at first, trying to find the motivation to go, but once I started to connect with the other people in the group, I was starting to feel like I was a part of something. I was no longer alone.

Renee, 19-year-old recovering anorexic



FICTION SPEAKS VOLUMES

Isabelle Holland, in her novel, Heads You Win, Tails I Lose (1982), describes Melissa's battle with her body image, which leads her to take diet pills in the hopes that she will become thin, popular, and loved.


Eating Disorders

views updated May 23 2018

Eating Disorders

What Are Eating Disorders?

Who Develops Eating Disorders?

What Causes Eating Disorders?

What Medical Complications Are Caused By Eating Disorders?

How Do Doctors Diagnose Eating Disorders?

How Are Eating Disorders Treated?

Resources

Eating disorders are habits or patterns of eating that are out of balance and may involve major health and emotional problems.

Keywords

for searching the Internet and other reference sources

Anorexia nervosa

Binge eating disorder

Binge and purge Bulimia nervosa

Compulsive overeating

Food and nutrition

Weight loss

What Are Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are not merely unhealthy eating habits; they involve patterns of eating too little or too much, and they may cause a variety of physical and emotional problems. Eating disorders usually develop during adolescence and usually affect girls, although boys can also be affected. Eating disorders include anorexia (an-o-REK-see-a), bulimia (bull-EE-me-a), binge eating disorder, and obesity (o-BEE-si-tee).

Anorexia

Anorexia is an eating disorder that involves fear of becoming or being fat, intensive dieting or exercise, and a distorted body image. People with anorexia see themselves as fat even though they may be dangerously underweight. They severely restrict their food intake and/or exercise to extremes in order to lose weight. Someone may be diagnosed with anorexia if she refuses to eat enough food to maintain a healthy weight, and has lost more than 15 to 20 percent of her healthy weight. For example, a girl with anorexia whose healthy weight is 125 pounds might weigh 105 pounds. She might eat as little as 500 calories a day (most healthy teenagers eat 2,000 or more calories a day).

Bulimia

Sometimes referred to as the binge-purge disorder, bulimia involves repeated episodes of binge eating (consuming large quantities of food while feeling little control over the behavior) followed by purging (trying to rid the body of the food by vomiting or by using laxatives or enemas). Some people with bulimia also exercise excessively. In bulimia, self-image is overly tied to body shape and weight, and people with this disorder are dissatisfied with these aspects of their body. However, unlike those with anorexia, people with bulimia usually stay at a fairly healthy weight.

Binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder involves out-of-control overeating but lacks the purging that is seen with bulimia. Binge eaters often are obese or constantly dieting and they often feels guilty after a binge. Painful emotions or stress may trigger binges.

Obesity

Obesity is an excess of body fat. People are considered overweight if extra body fat causes them to weigh 20 percent more than the healthy weight for their height and obese if they if they weigh more than 30 percent above what is healthy for their height.

Who Develops Eating Disorders?

Most teenagers are concerned about how they look. After all, their appearance is changing very quickly. Girls are developing breasts and their hips are becoming rounded and curvy. Boys voices are deepening and body hair is increasing. Most teenagers have an ideal image in their minds about what they should look like, and images on television and in the movies reinforce the goal of thinness as perfection.

Many young people, particularly girls, go on diets to control their body weight. Dieting has been reported to start as early as elementary school. Dieting without guidance by a medical doctor can cause problems with growth and development for children and teens. Sometimes an earnest but misguided effort to control weight can evolve into an eating disorder.

Consider Diane, a 13-year-old seventh grader. Her diet began innocently enough. She thought she was 10 to 15 pounds overweight and switched her lunch from a sandwich and cookies to a salad. She lost a few pounds. She liked feeling thinner, got a lot of compliments, and pretty soon she reduced the salad at lunch to a carrot and a piece of cheese. Diane trimmed her dinner as well, telling her parents that she had eaten a big lunch and was not hungry. Before long, Diane had lost 20 pounds. But Diane was surprised that she did not feel happy; instead, she was obsessed with food and her weight (she still felt fat) and was embarrassed whenever anyone commented on her body. Diane continued dieting and also began to exercise two times a day to try to lose more weight.

Diane is not alone; experts say that more than five million American women and girls and one million men and boys suffer from eating disorders. About 1 in 100 girls between 12 and 18 years old has an eating disorder. As many as 1 in 10 college females has anorexia or bulimia. More than 1,000 young women die each year from the serious medical problems that develop because of eating disorders!

Young people who participate in sports that prize thinness are at particularly high risk of developing eating disorders. Female dancers, ice skaters, and gymnasts have a three times greater risk for developing an eating disorder than do girls not involved in such activities. Boys who participate in similar sports or in wrestling are also at higher risk. Girls who enter puberty early and girls who are overweight may also be more likely to develop eating disorders.

What Causes Eating Disorders?

There is no clear-cut, single cause for any of the eating disorders. Many factors seem to contribute, including influences from society and culture (such as the glorification of thinness by the mass media), emotional issues (such as a teenagers striving for perfection, exposure to intensely stressful situations, and fears of maturity, puberty, or sexuality), family factors (such as overly controlling parents, serious emotional conflicts, or problems expressing feelings), or poor childhood feeding and eating patterns. People who have an eating disorder usually do not set out to deliberately have this problem. Generally, eating disorders develop slowly, as do the signs and symptoms.

What Medical Complications Are Caused By Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are serious problems and can cause a variety of medical complications. In anorexia, rapid weight loss can lead to blood chemical imbalances, failure to menstruate*, slow pulse, low blood pressure, and heart problems. In some cases, damage to vital organs is so serious that it can result in death. The frequent vomiting associated with bulimia can cause throat tears or sores, damaged tooth enamel, broken blood vessels in the eyes, and puffy cheeks from swollen salivary glands. With both anorexia and bulimia, bowel and intestinal problems can occur and serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause serious and long-lasting problems. Binge eating often results in obesity, which in turn can lead to other health problems. People who are obese are at greater risk of developing diabetes*, heart disease*, high blood pressure*, osteoarthritis*, and other health problems.

* menstruate
(MEN-stroo-ate) means to discharge the blood-enriched lining of the uterus. Menstruation occurs normally in females who are physically mature enough to bear children. Because it usually occurs at four-week intervals, it is often called the monthly period. Most girls have their first period between the age of 9 and 16.
* diabetes
(dy-a-BEE-teez) is a disorder that reduces the bodys ability to control blood sugar.
* heart disease
is a broad term that covers many conditions that prevent the heart from working properly to pump blood throughout the body.
* high blood pressure
,or hypertension (hy-per-TEN-shun), is a condition in which the pressure of the blood in the arteries is above normal. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood from the heart through the en-tire body.
* osteoarthritis
(os-tee-o-ar-THRYtis) is a common disease that involves inflammation and pain in the joints (places where bones meet), especially those in the knees, hips, and lower back of older people.

How Do Doctors Diagnose Eating Disorders?

Teenagers with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder often try to hide the problem, so formal diagnosis can be delayed or difficult. Even when caring friends or family members ask about the weight loss or other symptoms, most teenagers with eating disorders are ashamed or embarrassed, especially by the purging that accompanies bulimia. Because of distorted body image, those with anorexia may not be able to recognize the seriousness of their extreme weight loss. Unbearable fear of being fat may cause people with anorexia to resist attempts to help them gain weight. A concerned health professional might ask questions about eating, body image, and exercise. Blood or other laboratory tests can help determine if a persons nutrition is adequate and if general body chemistry is balanced. A careful interview and health history may reveal concerns about body image or distorted opinions about body appearance.

A doctor can generally determine if adults are obese by measuring their body weight and height. Obesity in children can be similarly determined but these measurements should be considered more carefully because the child is still growing. Over the last decade, there has been a significant rise in obesity in children in the United States. This is likely in part a result of people eating more frequently in fast food restaurants, watching a lot of television, working or playing games on computers, and engaging in other activities that promote over-eating and a sedentary (sitting too much with little exercise) lifestyle.

Eating disorders have multiple causes, which may include social and cultural pressures, emotional issues, and family stressors. Chemical imbalances in the brain, shown here in crosssection, may also cause eating disorders. These imbalances affect the hypothalamus, which is believed to control appetite.

How Are Eating Disorders Treated?

Overcoming eating disorders may take a long time and lots of commitment and hard work. Most teenagers with eating disorders need the assistance of mental health and other health care professionals to manage the problem. Anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder are treated most successfully with a combination of therapies. Behavior change programs, monitoring of diet and eating patterns, individual or group psychotherapy*, support groups, nutritional counseling, family counseling, and sometimes medication may all be part of treatment.

* psychotherapy
(sy-ko-THER-apea) is the treatment of mental and behavioral disorders by support and insight to encourage healthy behavior patterns and personality growth.

People with obesity can be helped by doctor-recommended weight-loss programs that teach healthy habits. To lose weight, people must take in fewer calories* than they use, and the best way to control weight is through exercising and eating a balanced diet. In some cases, doctors may also treat severe obesity by prescribing very low-calorie diets or medications. In rare cases, doctors may advise a surgical procedure that either limits the amount of food the stomach can hold or causes food to bypass the stomach or part of the intestines.

* calorie
(KAL-or-ee) is a unit of energy used to describe both the amount of energy in food and the amount of energy the body uses.

See also

Anorexia

Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Body Image

Bulimia

Depression

Emotions

Obesity

Peer Pressure

Stress

Resources

Books

Bennett, Cherie. Life in the Fat Lane. New York: Random House, 1999. A novel about the high school experiences of an overweight girl.

Berg, Frances M. Afraid to Eat: Children and Teens in Weight Crisis. Hettinger, ND: Healthy Weight Journal, 1997.

Folkers, Gladys, and Jeanne Engelmann. Taking Charge of My Mind and Body: A Girls Guide to Outsmarting Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking, and Eating Problems. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, Inc., 1997. For ages 11-18.

Siegel, Michele, Judith Brisman, and Margot Weinshel. Surviving an Eating Disorder: Strategies for Family and Friends. New York: Harper-Collins, 1997.

Organizations

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posts the fact sheet On the Teen Scene: Eating Disorders Require Medical Attention at its website. http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/eatdis.html

The American Psychological Association posts the fact sheet How Therapy Helps Eating Disorders at its website. http://helping.apa.org/therapy/eating.html

Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, Inc. (EDAP), 603 Stewart Street, Suite 803, Seattle, WA 98101. Telephone 800-931-2237 for toll-free information and referral hotline http://www.edap.org

www.KidsHealth.org, a website sponsored by the Nemours Foundation and the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, DE, posts articles for kids, teens, and parents about eating disorders, obesity, nutrition, and related topics.

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), P.O. Box 7, Highland Park, IL 60035. Telephone 807-831-3438 http://anad.org

Eating Disorders

views updated May 14 2018

EATING DISORDERS

The term "eating disorders" encompasses a group of problems that fall into two broad categoriesovereating (binging), and undereating (anorexia)sometimes referred to as "starving or stuffing." Eating disorders are most commonly found in young females during early adolescence. However, eating disorders affect both males and females at many stages in the life cycle. Although the conditions create physical problems, the causes are usually psychological.

Eating disorders have been recognized by health experts for many years. Bulimia symptoms were described by the Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks; and anorexia nervosa was first described in the 1600s. However, it was not until 1980 that these conditions were categorized as psychiatric disturbances.

Eating disorders are marked by extreme dissatisfaction and preoccupation with body size and shape. People with these disorders may see themselves as overweight when their weight is actually lower than normal, or they may measure their self-worth by their weight. Emotional disturbance accompanies disordered eating, including self-loathing over amounts eaten or panic about possible weight gain. In addition to overeating or undereating, individuals with eating disorders engage in "compensatory behaviors," such as purging (self-induced vomiting or inappropriate use of laxatives, enemas, or diuretics), fasting, excessive exercise, and restricting (overly strict limiting of calories or food types).

Eating disorders can be distinguished from dieting by the psychological distress that accompanies the concern about weight; by the interference with everyday responsibilities and pleasures; and by the danger of causing medical problems, possibly even death.

Shame and secrecy often accompany eating disorders, and the problem may go undetected for years. Recognition of these disorders is necessary to begin the long process of treatment. Unlike other addictive or habit problems, food cannot be avoided, and recovery requires developing a healthier relationship to food and to one's own body, as well as improved coping skills.

TYPES OF EATING DISORDERS

Mental health professionals recognize three main types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating.

Anorexia. Although the word "anorexia" literally means "without appetite," the condition is better described as "restricted eating" or "self-starvation." The person with anorexia has an appetite, and food tastes good; however, food is seen as "the enemy." One authority terms anorexia "food phobia." The disorder is characterized by a refusal to maintain a minimal normal body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, a disturbance in the self-perception of body size and shape, and (in women) an absence of menstrual periods for three or more consecutive months. Anorexia may be further classified as a restricting type or binge-eating/purging type.

Bulimia. Bulimia (Greek for "ox hunger") is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating. Binging (eating an extreme amount of food) is accompanied by a sense of lack of control over amounts eaten, and a feeling of being unable to stop. The disorder is further classified as either purging or nonpurging bulimia depending on whether the individual uses fasting or exercise instead of purging to "compensate" for binging.

Binge Eating. Binge eating is sometimes termed "stress eating" or "emotional overeating." It is characterized by compulsive overeating, usually in secret and without purging, followed by guilt or remorse for the episode. It has been estimated that up to 40 percent of people with obesity may be binge eaters. The term "binge eating disorder" was officially introduced in 1992. Unlike nonpurging bulimia, there is no attempt to "compensate" for the binge by fasting or overexercising.

CAUSATION

Eating disorders can be considered biologically based alterations filtered through cultural pressures and individual psychology. The psychological aspects of anorexia are frequently thought to include conflicts between mothers and adolescent daughters over perfection. Bulimia is often thought to involve conflicts over dependence and loneliness. Binging may share causal factors with obsessive-compulsive behavior.

PREVALENCE AND RISK FACTORS

Since people commonly deny or try to hide their disordered eating behaviors, it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of people affected by these problems. Nonetheless, experts report approximately 1.2 million women in the United States are affected by anorexia or bulimia.

Anorexia is more present in developed societies, especially in societies where being attractive is linked to being thin. The prevalence of anorexia has been estimated to be 0.5 to 1 percent of the population, and rates appear to be increasing. The condition usually begins in early adolescence (1318 years) and 90 percent of the cases are female. Occasionally, but rarely, the disorder may begin in someone over age forty. Stressful life events (e.g., leaving home for college) occasionally trigger the onset of the problem. Long-term death rates from anorexia approach 10 percent, with death usually resulting from starvation, suicide, or electrolyte imbalance.

The chances of developing an eating disorder are higher among females (female cases outnumber male cases 10 to 1), among those pressured by society or family to be thin, and among athletes. Athletes for whom weight control and/or thinness provides an advantage (e.g., gymnastics, wrestling) are particularly susceptible to eating disorders. Psychological factors that put a person at risk for disordered eating include low self-esteem, poor coping ability, perfectionism, and body image distortion. Genetics may also play a role. Risk increases among those with a close relative (a parent or sibling) with an eating disorder, especially with binging/purging.

IMPACT

Eating disorders cause an array of medical problems ranging from fatigue to illness, and occasionally death. Even when eating disorders do not reach this level of severity they can be significant sources of suffering for the patient and family members. Mild complications include lack of energy, cavities, cold intolerance, irregular periods, constipation and diarrhea, and difficulty with concentration. Serious complications include electrolyte instability, irregular heartbeat, suicidal tendencies, and death. Between 5 to 18 percent of those with anorexia or bulimia will die from complications of the disorder.

Malnourishment and self-starvation affect the heart, thyroid, and the digestive and reproductive systems, as well as seriously decreasing bone density. Specific problems seen in athletes with eating disorders include impaired athletic performance and an increased risk of injuries and stress fractures. Female athletes with an eating disorder may be considered to have the "female athlete triad" if they manifest symptoms of: (1) disordered eating (which leads to decreased body fat causing a lower estrogen level); (2) amenorrhea (not having a period for three consecutive cycles because of low estrogen); and (3) osteoporosis (fragile bones because of low estrogen).

Although eating disorders are not contagious, the culture in which the person lives can contribute to the spread of an eating disorder, particularly in cultures that glorify thinness. Although obesity may be a consequence of binge eating, it does not typically result from the major eating disorders. Prevention efforts may help, and early detection efforts are essential as patients do not typically request treatment for themselves. Psychological consequences of semistarvation include depressed mood, social withdrawal, insomnia, irritability, and loss of libido, as well as obsessive thoughts about food.

TREATMENT

The most important factor in treating people with eating disorders is the recognition of the disorder. Disordered eating is usually not self-diagnosed because of associated denial and embarrassment. Anorexics usually do not even realize there is a problem with their behavior, and bulimics usually realize the problem but try to hide their behavior. Family, friends, or health care professionals are often the people who recognize the problem. A team treatment approach is frequently employed, consisting of a physician, a nutritionist, and a psychologist. Medically, antidepressants may be needed, and complications may require treatment or hospitalization if the situation is severe enough. Nutritionally, people with disordered eating need to learn how to eat in a healthful way. Psychologically, modification of inappropriate food-related behavior and development of improved coping mechanisms are necessary. In addition, changes in body image and ideal body image may be necessary.

Treatment, especially for anorexia, can be a long drawn-out affair, and it can take a big toll on family resources and on the social productivity of the person. Recovery from these disorders is difficult, and estimates of 50 percent relapse rates for anorexia and 33 percent for bulimia are common. A difficulty in the control of disordered eating behaviors is the need to continue to eat. This it is in contrast to other disorders of habit or addiction in which treatment involves total avoidance of the abused substance.

RESOURCES

The Academy of Eating Disorders (http://www.acadeatdis.org) is a multidisciplinary professional group devoted to the improved detection and treatment of these conditions. Efforts to expand screening are promoted through eating disorders awareness week on U.S. college campuses, and this has now been expanded to high school and the general public (http://www.nmisp.org/eat.htm).

Other valuable resources include the following:

Leonard J. Haas

Trisha Palmer

(see also: Anorexia; Menstrual Cycle; Mental Health; Nutrition; Social Determinants )

Bibliography

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edition. Washington, DC: Author.

American Psychiatric Association (2000). "Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Eating Disorders (Revision)." American Journal of Psychiatry 157 (January Supp.):1.

Browell, K. D., and Fairburn, C. G., eds. (1995). Eating Disorders and Obesity. New York: Guilford Press.

Christensen, L. (1996). Diet-Behavior Relationships: Focus on Depression. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.

Danowski, D., and Lazora, P. (2000). Why Can't I Stop Eating? Recognizing, Understanding, and Overcoming Food Addiction. Center City, MN: Hazelden Information Education Services.

Fairburn, C. G. (1995). Overcoming Binge Eating. New York: Guilford Press.

Natenshon, A. H. (1999). When Your Child has an Eating Disorder: A Step-by-step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.

Siegel, M.; Brisman, J.; and Weinshel, M. (1997). Surviving an Eating Disorder: New Perspectives and Strategies for Family and Friends. New York: Harper Collins.

Stunkard, A. J., and Wadden, T. (ed.) 1993. Obesity: Theory and Therapy. Lancaster, CA: Raven Press.

Thompson, A. K., ed. (1996). Body Image, Eating Disorders and Obesity: An Integrated Guide to Assessment and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.

Eating Disorders

views updated May 14 2018

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are psychological conditions that involve either overeating, voluntary starvation, or both. The best-known eating disorders are probably anorexia nervosa, anorexic bulimia, and obesity. Researchers are not sure what causes eating disorders, although many believe that family relationships, biochemical (physical) abnormalities, and society's preoccupation with thinness all may contribute to their onset.

Eating disorders are virtually unknown in parts of the world where food is scarce. They also are rarely seen in less prosperous groups in developed countries. Although these disorders have been documented throughout history, they have gained attention in recent years. This attention has come, at least in part, because some famous people have died as a result of their eating disorders.

Young people are more likely than older people to develop an eating disorder. The condition usually begins before the age of 20. Although both men and women can develop the problem, it is more common in women. Only about 5 percent of people with eating disorders are male. In either males or females, eating disorders are considered serious and potentially deadly health problems. Many large hospitals and psychiatric clinics have programs designed especially to treat these conditions.

Anorexia nervosa

The word anorexia comes from the Greek adjective anorektos, which means "without appetite." But the problem for people with anorexia is not that they aren't hungry. They starve themselves out of fear of gaining weight, even when they are severely underweight. The anorectic's self-image is so distorted that he or she sees himself or herself as "fat" even when that person looks almost like a skeleton. Some anorectics refuse to eat at all; others nibble only small portions of fruit and vegetables or live on diet drinks. In addition to fasting, anorectics may exercise strenuously to keep their weight abnormally low. No matter how much weight they lose, they always worry about getting fat.

This self-imposed starvation takes a heavy toll on the body. Skin becomes dry and flaky. Muscles begin to waste away. Bones stop growing and may become brittle. The heart weakens. With no body fat for insulation, the anorectic has difficulty staying warm. Downy hair starts to grow on the face, back, and arms in response to lower body temperature. In women, menstruation stops and permanent infertility may result. Muscle cramps, dizziness, fatigue, even brain damage and kidney and heart failure are possible. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of people with anorexia die, either as a direct result of starvation or by suicide.

Researchers believe that anorexia is caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. They are still trying to pinpoint the biological factors, but they have discovered some psychological and social triggers of the disorder. Many people with anorexia come from families in which parents are overprotective and have unrealistically high expectations of their children. Also, the condition seems to run in families, which leads researchers to believe it may have a genetic basis. Anorexia often seems to develop after a young person goes through some stressful experience, such as moving to a new town, changing schools, or going through puberty. Low self-esteem, fear of losing control, and fear of growing up are common characteristics of anorectics. The need for approval, combined with American culture's idealization of extreme thinness, also are believed to contribute to the disorder.

The obvious cure for anorexia is eating. But that is typically the last thing a person with anorexia wants to do. It is unusual for the person himself or herself to seek treatment. More commonly, a friend, family member, or teacher initiates the process. Hospitalization, combined with psychotherapy and family counseling, is often needed to control the condition. Force-feeding may be necessary if the person's life is in danger. About 70 percent of anorexia patients who are treated for about six months

return to normal body weight. About 15 to 20 percent can be expected to relapse, however.

Anorexic bulimia

Anorexic bulimia gets its name from the Greek term boulimos, meaning "great hunger," or, literally, "the hunger of an ox." The condition is commonly known simply as bulimia. People with bulimia go on eating binges, often gorging on junk food and then forcing their bodies to get rid of the food, either by making themselves vomit or by taking large amounts of laxatives.

Like anorexia, bulimia results in starvation. But there are behavioral, physical, and psychological differences between the two conditions. Bulimia is much more difficult to detect because people who have the disorder tend to be of normal weight or may even be overweight. They tend to hide their habit of binge eating followed by purging by vomiting or using laxatives. In fact, bulimia was not widely recognized, even among medical and mental health professionals, until the 1980s.

Words to Know

Binge-eating: Unrestrained eating.

Euphoria: A feeling of elation.

Laxative: A chemical that is designed to relieve constipation, often used by bulimics to rid the body of digested food.

Morbid: Having the tendency to produce disorder or disease.

Pinch test: A method of estimating the percent of fat in a person's body by grabbing a small area of skin between the fingers.

Risk factor: Any habit or condition that makes a person more susceptible to a disease.

Serotonin: A naturally occurring chemical that affects nerve transmissions in the brain and influences a person's moods, among other emotions.

Unlike anorectics, bulimics are aware that their eating patterns are abnormal, and they often feel remorse after a binge. For them, overeating offers an irresistible escape from stress. Many suffer from depression, repressed anger, anxiety, and low self-esteem, combined with a tendency toward perfectionism. About 20 percent of bulimics also have problems with alcohol or drug addiction, and they are more likely than nonbulimics to commit suicide.

Many people overeat from time to time but are not considered bulimic. According to the American Psychiatric Association's definition, a bulimic binges on enormous amounts of food at least twice a week for three months or more.

Bulimics plan their binges carefully, setting aside specific times and places to carry out their secret habit. They may go from restaurant to restaurant, to avoid being seen eating too often in any one place. Or they may pretend to be shopping for a large dinner party, when actually they intend to eat all the food themselves. Because of the expense of consuming so much food, some resort to shoplifting.

During an eating binge, bulimics favor high-carbohydrate foods, such as donuts, candy, ice cream, soft drinks, cookies, cereal, cake, popcorn, and bread, consuming many times the amount of calories they normally would consume in one day. No matter what their normal eating habits, they tend to eat quickly and messily during a binge, stuffing the food in their mouths and gulping it down, sometimes without even tasting it. Some bulimics say they get a feeling of euphoria during binges, similar to the "runner's high" that some people get from exercise.

The self-induced vomiting that often follows eating binges can cause all sorts of physical problems, such as damage to the stomach and esophagus, chronic heartburn, burst blood vessels in the eyes, throat irritation, and erosion of tooth enamel from the acid in vomit. Excessive use of laxatives can be hazardous, too. Muscle cramps, stomach pains, digestive problems, dehydration, and even poisoning may result. Over time, bulimia causes vitamin deficiencies and imbalances of critical body fluids, which in turn can lead to seizures and kidney failure.

Some researchers believe that bulimia, as well as other types of compulsive behavior, is related to an imbalance in the brain chemical serotonin. The production of serotonin, which influences mood, is affected by both antidepressant drugs and certain foods. But most research on bulimia focuses on its psychological roots.

Bulimia is not as likely as anorexia to reach life-threatening stages, so hospitalization usually is not necessary. Treatment generally involves psychotherapy and sometimes the use of antidepressant drugs. Unlike anorectics, bulimics usually admit they have a problem and want help overcoming it. Estimates of the rates of recovery from bulimia vary widely, with some studies showing low rates of improvement and others suggesting that treatment usually is effective. Even after apparently successful treatment, however, some bulimics relapse.

Obesity

A third type of eating disorder is obesity. Obesity is caused by excessive overeating. Being slightly overweight is not a serious health risk. But being severely over one's recommended body weight can lead to many health problems.

Doctors do not entirely agree about the definition of obesity. Some experts classify a person as obese whose weight is 20 percent or more over the recommended weight for his or her height. But other doctors say standard height and weight charts are misleading. They maintain that the proportion of fat to muscle, measured by the skinfold pinch test, is a better measure of obesity.

The causes of obesity are complex and not fully understood. While compulsive overeating certainly can lead to obesity, it is not clear that all obesity results from overindulging. Recent research increasingly points to biological, as well as psychological and environmental, factors that influence obesity.

In the United States, people with low incomes are more likely to be obese than are the wealthy. Women are almost twice as likely as men to have the problem, but both men and women tend to gain weight as they age.

In those people whose obesity stems from compulsive eating, psychological factors seem to play a large role. Some studies suggest that obese people are much more likely than others to eat in response to stress, loneliness, or depression. As they are growing up, some people learn to associate food with love, acceptance, and a feeling of belonging. If they feel rejected and unhappy later in life, they may use food to comfort themselves.

Just as emotional pain can lead to obesity, obesity can lead to psychological scars. From childhood on, many obese people are taunted and shunned. They may even face discrimination in school and on the job. The low self-esteem and sense of isolation that typically result may contribute to the person's eating disorder, setting up an endless cycle of overeating, gaining more weight, feeling even more worthless and isolated, then gorging again to console oneself.

People whose obesity endangers their health are said to be morbidly obese. Obesity is a risk factor in diabetes, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis (hardened arteries), angina pectoris (chest pains due to inadequate blood flow to the heart), varicose veins, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease. Obesity can cause complications during pregnancy and in surgical procedures. Obese people are about one-and-one-half times more likely to have heart attacks than are other people. Overall, the death rate among people ages 20 to 64 is 50 percent higher for the obese than for people of normal weight.

Since compulsive eating patterns often have their beginnings in childhood, they are difficult to break. Some obese people get caught up in a cycle of binging and dietingsometimes called yo-yo dietingthat never results in permanent weight loss. Research has shown that strict dieting itself may contribute to compulsive eating. Going without favorite foods for long periods makes people feel deprived. They are more likely, then, to reward themselves by binging when they go off the diet. Other research shows that dieting slows the dieter's metabolism. When the person goes off the diet, he or she gains weight more easily.

The most successful programs for dealing with overeating teach people to eat more sensibly and to increase their physical activity (exercise) to lose weight gradually without going on extreme diets. Support groups and therapy can help people deal with the psychological aspects of obesity.

Eating Disorders

views updated May 14 2018

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are psychological conditions that involve either overeating, voluntary starvation, or both. No one is sure what causes eating disorders, but researchers think that family dynamics, biochemical abnormalities, and society's preoccupation with thinness may all contribute. Eating disorders are virtually unknown in parts of the world where food is scarce and within less affluent socioeconomic groups in developed countries. Although these disorders have been known throughout history, they have gained attention in recent years, in part because some celebrities have died as a result of their eating disorders.

Young people are more likely than older people to develop an eating disorder—the condition usually begins before age 20. Although both men and women can develop the problem, it is more common in women. Only about 5% of people with eating disorders are male. In either males or females, eating disorders are considered serious and potentially deadly. Many large hospitals and psychiatric clinics have programs especially designed to treat these conditions.

Anorexia nervosa, anorexic bulimia, and obesity are the most well known types of eating disorders. The word anorexia comes from the Greek word meaning "lack of appetite." But the problem for people with anorexia is not that they are not hungry. They starve themselves out of fear of gaining weight, even when they are severely underweight. The related condition, anorexic bulimia, literally means being "hungry as an ox." People with this problem go on eating binges, often gorging on junk food. Then they force their bodies to get rid of the food, either by making themselves vomit or by taking large amounts of laxatives. A third type of eating disorder is obesity caused by uncontrollable overeating. Being slightly overweight is not a serious health risk. But being 25% or more over one's recommended body weight can lead to many health problems.


Anorexia

People with anorexia starve themselves until they look almost like skeletons. But their self-images are so distorted that they see themselves as fat , even when they are emaciated. Some refuse to eat at all; others nibble only small portions of fruit and vegetables or live on diet drinks. In addition to fasting, they may exercise strenuously to keep their weight abnormally low. No matter how much weight they lose, they always worry about getting fat.

This self-imposed starvation takes a heavy toll on the body. Skin becomes dry and flaky. Muscles begin to waste away. Bones stop growing and may become brittle. The heart weakens. With no body fat for insulation, it's hard to keep warm. Downy hair starts to grow on the face, back, and arms in response to lower body temperature . In women, menstruation stops and permanent infertility may result. Muscle cramps, dizziness, fatigue, even brain damage, kidney and heart failure are possible. An estimated 10–20% of people with anorexia die, either as a direct result of starvation or by suicide.

Researchers believe anorexia is caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors. They are still trying to pinpoint the biological factors, but they have zeroed in on some psychological and social triggers of the disorder. Many people with anorexia come from families in which parents are overprotective and have unrealistically high expectations of their children. The condition seems to run in families, which leads researchers to believe it may have a genetic basis. Anorexia often seems to develop after a young person goes through some stressful experience, such as moving to a new town, changing schools, or going through puberty . Low self-esteem, fear of losing control, and fear of growing up are common characteristics of anorectics (people with anorexia). The need for approval, combined with our culture's idealization of extreme thinness, also contributes.

The obvious cure for anorexia is eating, but that is the last thing a person with anorexia wants to do. It is unusual for the person himself or herself to seek treatment—usually a friend, family member, or teacher initiates the process. Hospitalization, combined with psychotherapy and family counseling, is often needed to get the condition under control. Force feeding may be necessary if the person's life is in danger. Some 70% of anorexia patients who are treated for about six months return to normal body weight. About 15–20% can be expected to relapse, however.


Bulimia

Like anorexia, bulimia results in starvation. But there are behavioral, physical and psychological differences between the two conditions. Bulimia is much more difficult to detect because people who have it tend to be of normal weight or overweight, and they hide their habit of binge eating followed by purging, vomiting, or using laxatives. In fact, bulimia was not widely recognized, even among medical and mental health professionals, until the 1980s. Unlike anorectics, bulimics (people with bulimia) are aware that their eating patterns are abnormal, and they often feel remorse after a binge. For them, overeating offers an irresistible escape from stress . Many suffer from depression , repressed anger, anxiety , and low self esteem, combined with a tendency toward perfectionism. About 20% of bulimics also have problems with alcohol or drug addiction , and they are more likely than other people to commit suicide.

Many people occasionally overeat, but are not considered bulimic. According to the American Psychiatric Association's definition, a bulimic binges on enormous amounts of food at least twice a week for three months or more.

Bulimics plan their binges carefully, setting aside specific times and places to carry out their secret habit. They may go from restaurant to restaurant, to avoid being seen eating too much in any one place. Or they may pretend to be shopping for a large dinner party, when actually they intend to eat all the food themselves. Because of the expense of consuming so much food, some resort to shoplifting.

During a binge, bulimics favor high carbohydrate foods, such as doughnuts, candy, ice cream, soft drinks, cookies, cereal, cake, popcorn, and bread, consuming many times the amount of calories they normally would consume in one day. No matter what their normal eating habits, they tend to eat quickly and messily during a binge, stuffing the food in their mouths and gulping it down, sometimes without even tasting it. Some say they get a feeling of euphoria during binges, similar to the "runner's high" that some people get from exercise.

The self-induced vomiting that often follows eating binges can cause all sorts of physical problems, such as damage to the stomach and esophagus, chronic heartburn, burst blood vessels in the eyes, throat irritation, and erosion of tooth enamel from the acid in vomit. Excessive use of laxatives can be hazardous, too. Muscle cramps, stomach pains, digestive problems, dehydration, and even poisoning may result. Over time , bulimia causes vitamin deficiencies and imbalances of critical body fluids, which in turn can lead to seizures and kidney failure.

Some researchers believe that an imbalance in the brain chemical serotonin underlies bulimia, as well as other types of compulsive behavior . The production of serotonin, which influences mood, is affected by both antidepressant drugs and certain foods. But most research on bulimia focuses on its psychological roots.

Bulimia is not as likely as anorexia to reach life-threatening stages, so hospitalization is not usually necessary. Treatment generally involves psychotherapy and sometimes the use of antidepressant drugs. Unlike anorectics, bulimics usually admit they have a problem and want help overcoming it. Estimates of the rates of recovery from bulimia vary widely, with some studies showing low rates of improvement and others suggesting that treatment is effective. Even after apparently successful treatment, some bulimics relapse.


Obesity

Obesity is an excess of body fat. But the question of what constitutes an excess has no clear answer. Some doctors classify a person as obese whose weight is 20% or more over the recommended weight for his or her height. But other doctors say standard height and weight charts are misleading. They maintain that the proportion of fat to muscle, measured by the skinfold "pinch" test, is a better measure of obesity. A person who is overweight, they point out, is not necessarily obese. A very muscular athlete, for example, might have very little body fat, but still might weigh more than the recommended weight for his or her height.

The causes of obesity are complex and not fully understood. While compulsive overeating certainly can lead to obesity, it is not clear that all obesity results from overindulging. Recent research increasingly points to biological, as well as psychological and environmental factors that influence obesity.

In the United States, people with low incomes are more likely to be obese than are the wealthy. Women are almost twice as likely as men to have the problem, but both men and women tend to gain weight as they age.

In those people whose obesity stems from compulsive eating, psychological factors seem to play a large role. Some studies suggest that obese people are much more likely than others to eat in response to stress, loneliness, or depression. As they are growing up, some people learn to associate food with love, acceptance, and a feeling of belonging. If they feel rejected and unhappy later in life, they may use food to comfort themselves.

Just as emotional pain can lead to obesity, obesity can lead to psychological scars. From childhood on, obese people are taunted and shunned. They may even face discrimination in school and on the job. The low self-esteem and sense of isolation that result may contribute to the person's eating disorder, setting up an endless cycle of overeating, gaining more weight, feeling even more worthless and isolated, then gorging again to console oneself.

People whose obesity endangers their health are said to be morbidly obese. Obesity is a risk factor in diabetes, high blood pressure , arteriosclerosis , angina pectoralis (chest pains due to inadequate blood flow to the heart), varicose veins , cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease . Obesity can cause complications during pregnancy and in surgical procedures. Obese people are about one and one half times more likely to have heart attacks than are other people. Overall, the death rate among people ages 20-64 is 50% higher for the obese than for people of normal weight.

Since compulsive eating patterns often have their beginnings in childhood, they are difficult to break. Some obese people get caught up in a cycle of binging and dieting—sometimes called yo-yo dieting—that never results in permanent weight loss. Research has shown that strict dieting itself may contribute to compulsive eating. Going without their favorite foods for long periods makes people feel deprived. They are more likely, then, to reward themselves by binging when they go off the diet. Other research shows that dieting slows the dieter's metabolism . When the person goes off the diet, he or she gains weight more easily.

The most successful programs for dealing with overeating teach people to eat more sensibly and to increase their physical activity to lose weight gradually without going on extreme diets. Support groups and therapy can help people deal with the psychological aspects of obesity.


Resources

books

Epstein, Rachel. Eating Habits and Disorders. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990.

Matthews, John R. Eating Disorders. New York: Facts On File, 1991.

Porterfield, Kay Marie. Focus on Addictions. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1992.

periodicals

Berry, Kevin. "Anorexia? That's a Girls' Disease." Times Educational Supplement (April 16, 1999): D8.

Dansky, Bonnie S., Timothy D. Brewerton, and Dean G. Kilpatrick. "Comorbidity of Bulimia Nervosa and Alcohol Use Disorders: Results from the National Women's Study." The International Journal of Eating Disorders 27, no. 2 (March 1, 2000): 180.


Nancy Ross-Flanigan

KEY TERMS

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Morbid

—From the Latin word for sick, pertaining to or inducing disease.

Risk factor

—Any habit, condition, or external force that renders an individual more susceptible to disease. Cigarette smoking, for example, is a significant risk factor for lung cancer and heart disease.