The National Eating Disorders Association launched National Eating Disorders Awareness Week on Sunday, aiming to expand public understanding of eating disorders and the issues that cause them.
As many as 10 million women and one million men are “fighting a life and death battle with an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia,” and 25 million more people struggle from binge eating disorder, according to the NEDA.
In college, about 10 percent of women suffer from a “clinical or near clinical” eating disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Men represent one in five cases of anorexia and about one in ten cases of bulimia, according to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc. The percentage of men suffering from eating disorders could be larger, because men are less likely to accept having an eating disorder, which is commonly identified as a female problem, according to ANRED.
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are two of the most common eating disorders with which college identify . Anorexia nervosa is characterized by “excessive weight loss from self-starvation,” according to NEDA. People with anorexia nervosa may have unusual eating habits, restricting their food intake and keeping track of everything they eat, and may exercise excessively.
People with bulimia nervosa may have “a secretive cycle of binge eating that is followed by purging,” according to NEDA. People may “purge” themselves by vomiting or using diuretics or laxatives. Many people don’t purge themselves, however.
Binge eating disorder diverges from bulimia nervosa because it doesn’t involve purging food, but people with binge eating disorder may sporadically fast or diet. “(It) is identified by periods of uncontrolled, continuous or impulsive eating
beyond the point of feeling comfortably full,” according to NEDA.
While many people may identify with one specific eating disorder, it’s more likely they have a combination, said Brooks Morse, a University Counseling and Testing Center psychologist who oversees eating disorders resources at the counseling center. Many people will show symptoms of several problems. For instance, a person with bulimic tendencies may also compulsively exercise, she said.
Morse said a host of issues contribute to college students developing eating disorders.
“The age is a time of individuation,” Morse said. “There’s that sort of conflict of being on one’s own but at the same time feeling more vulnerable.”
Not only are students moving from adolescence to adulthood, but they’re doing it in a “semi-closed environment” where they’re comparing themselves to others and trying to fit in, Morse said.
“For women in particular, that whole ‘Am I good enough?’ question expresses itself on the body,” she said.
Morse said eating disorders can also develop from feelings of powerlessness. She said if people are
anxious from uncontrollable issues such as racism or homophobia, their anxiety may be taken out on the body because “the body is one way that people identify.”
The social implications of dealing with a changing body, trying to fit in and dealing with feelings of powerlessness can contribute to college students who are already restricting their eating developing a full-blown eating disorder when these influences are combined with psychological and biological factors, Morse said. The proportion of the problem that is psychological, biological or social is different for each person who has an eating disorder, but culture and experience play a prominent part, she said.
“Eating disorders didn’t come out of a vacuum,” Morse said, noting that models became thinner and the country began to emphasize “healthy” numbers rather than behavior around the 1970s. “Underneath the body issues is some kind of psychological pain, but the form that pain takes is on the body because of the media and cultural issues.”
Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a height-weight ratio used to measure body fat and to set a range of ideal weights. But a person’s health is too complex to be characterized by a simplified set of numbers, Morse said.
“Our society wants quick answers,” she said. “But I think it actually makes more problems, because people look at (BMI) to see if they’re healthy instead of looking at things holistically. Studies actually show that people, women in particular, are likely to think they’re overweight even if they meet those weight requirements.”
When looking at a person’s height and weight, factors such as body type, blood pressure, resting heart rate and ethnicity are also important to determine overall health, she said.
The University uses a team approach to treating eating disorders, combining psychological, medical, nutritional and exercise services for clients. After students decide they want help, they sign a “release of information” form authorizing the team to discuss their treatment and goals.
The University Counseling and Testing Center offers two different programs for people with eating disorders. The Eating Awareness Workshop helps people to change their attitudes and feelings about food and weight by focusing on issues such as body image, self-esteem, anger, perfectionism and stress. The Eating Disorders Group is a program offered to women who have or have had an eating disorder and “are ready to address the issues that have caused it,” with a focus on feelings and relationships, according to the center’s Web site.
Eating disorders have a range of short-term and long-term consequences on a person’s health, including heart muscle shrinkage, slow or irregular heart beats, heart failure, kidney failure, osteoporosis, tooth erosion and death, according to the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy and Action.
Of all psychiatric disorders, anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate, killing up to 20 percent of those afflicted, according to the EDC.
Eating disorders and their causes are not limited to a specific group of people, Morse said.
“We have the stereotype that it’s upper class, white females, but that’s not accurate,” Morse said. “Everyone is vulnerable.”
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Students at high risk for eating disorders
Daily Emerald
February 28, 2005
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