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How to recognize an eating disorder

An estimated 2 million men, women and children in America are diagnosed with an eating disorder

  • Sarah is the captain of her high school volleyball team with a 4.0 grade point average and college scholarship offers. Everyone tells her she has a lot going for her, but Sarah doesn’t feel successful. Over the last year she has been actively dieting to lose weight and has an intense fear of becoming fat. She refuses to eat in public and has stopped interacting with her friends. She exercises constantly and still feels she is too fat.

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness

  • Todd is a 29 year-old long distance runner who began counting calories and obsessing about his nutrition to improve his athletic performance. He became obsessed with restricting his food intake, and feels like a failure if he eats more than the minimal calories he has allowed for himself. He drinks caffeine to keep alert throughout the day and is constantly weighing himself. Co-workers have noticed that Todd is irritable, depressed and is not getting his work done.

Bulimia nervosa affects an estimated 5% of American women

  • Janine is a 36 year-old mother of two, married and employed in the health care field. She has always worried about her appearance, and has been watching her weight carefully since adolescence. Frequently, she eats large amounts of food in private and then vomits for fear of gaining weight. No one knows about her bingeing and purging, or that she often uses diuretics and laxatives to get rid of food she has eaten. Janine wants to stop these behaviors but feels out of control with her eating.

Girls are more afraid of being fat than nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents

  • At age 9, Lisa has an intense fear of becoming overweight. She has begun skipping meals at school and lying to her parents and teachers about it. She refuses to eat anything with fat in it and has begun to lose weight.

These are different faces of an eating disorder - - demonstrating a range of weight and food issues experienced by both males and females. They include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. All are serious emotional, psychological and physical problems that may affect people at any age with sometimes life-threatening consequences. These prevalent disorders appear to be on the rise.

Signs and Symptoms of an Eating Disorder

  • Fear of becoming fat
  • Preoccupation with dieting, fat grams, weight or food, sugar/carbohydrates, nutritional composition
  • Disturbed body image
  • Use of dangerous weight control methods
  • Excessive exercising
  • Low self-esteem and perfectionist standards
  • Moodiness, irritability, depression
  • Weight fluctuations
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