Eating Disorders

For more information about Eating Disorders, or to discuss counseling, please contact our Fort Washington office.

• What is an Eating Disorder? Some Basic Facts

• What Causes Eating Disorders?

• Treatment of Eating Disorders

• Health Consequences of Eating Disorders

• Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders and the Family

What is an Eating Disorder?
Some Basic Facts

Eating disorders — such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder — include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues. Eating Disorders are serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for females and males.

ANOREXIA NERVOSA is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Symptoms include:

• Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for height, body type, age, and activity level
  
• Intense fear of weight gain or being "fat"
  
• Feeling "fat" or overweight despite dramatic weight loss
  
• Loss of menstrual periods
  
• Extreme concern with body weight and shape

BULIMIA NERVOSA is characterized by a secretive cycle of binge eating followed by purging. Bulimia includes eating large amounts of food — more than most people would eat in one meal — in short periods of time, then getting rid of the food and calories through vomiting, laxative abuse, or over-exercising.

Symptoms include:

• Repeated episodes of bingeing and purging
  
• Feeling out of control during a binge and eating beyond the point of comfortable fullness
  
• Purging after a binge (typically by self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, diet pills and/or diuretics, excessive exercise, or fasting)
  
• Frequent dieting
  
• Extreme concern with body weight and shape

BINGE EATING DISORDER (also known as COMPULSIVE OVEREATING) is characterized primarily by periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling comfortably full. While there is no purging, there may be sporadic fasts or repetitive diets and often feelings of shame or self-hatred after a binge. People who overeat compulsively may struggle with anxiety, depression, and loneliness, which can contribute to their unhealthy episodes of binge eating. Body weight may vary from normal to mild, moderate, or severe obesity.

OTHER EATING DISORDERS can include some combination of the signs and symptoms of anorexia, bulimia, and/or binge eating disorder. While these behaviors may not be clinically considered a full syndrome eating disorder, they can still be physically dangerous and emotionally draining. All eating disorders require professional help.

What Causes Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors. Scientists and researchers are still learning about the underlying causes of these emotionally and physically damaging conditions. We do know, however, about some of the general issues that can contribute to the development of eating disorders.

While eating disorders may begin with preoccupations with food and weight, they are most often about much more than food. People with eating disorders often use food and the control of food in an attempt to compensate for feelings and emotions that may otherwise seem overwhelming. For some, dieting, bingeing, and purging may begin as a way to cope with painful emotions and to feel in control of one's life, but ultimately, these behaviors will damage a person's physical and emotional health, self-esteem, and sense of competence and control.

Psychological Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:

• Low self-esteem
  
• Feelings of inadequacy of lack of control in life
  
• Depression, anxiety, anger, or loneliness

Interpersonal Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:

• Troubled family and personal relationships
  
• Difficulty expressing emotions and feelings
  
• History of being teased or ridiculed based on size or weight
  
• History of physical or sexual abuse

Social Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:

• Cultural pressures that glorify "thinness" and place value on obtaining the "perfect body"
  
• Narrow definitions of beauty that include only women and men of specific body weights and shapes
  
• Cultural norms that value people on the basis of physical appearance and not inner qualities and strengths

Other Factors that can Contribute to Eating Disorders:

• Scientists are still researching possible biochemical or biological causes of eating disoders. In some individuals with eating disorders, certain chemicals in the brain that control hunger, appetite, and digestion have been found to be imbalanced. The exact meaning and implications of these imbalances remains under investigation.

Treatment of Eating Disorders

• Eating disorders are serious health conditions that can be both physically and emotionally destructive.
  
• People with eating disorders need to seek professional help.
  
• Early diagnosis and intervention significantly enhance recovery.
  
• If not identified or treated in their early stages, eating disorders can become chronic, debilitating, and even life-threatening conditions.

What Does Treatment Involve?

The most effective and long-lasting treatment for an eating disorder is some form of psychotherapy or counseling, coupled with careful attention to medical and nutrituional needs. Ideally, this treatment should be tailored to the individual and will vary according to both the severity of the disorder and the patient's individual problems, needs, and strengths.

Typically, care is provided by a licensed health professional, including but not limited to a psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, nutritionist, and/or medical doctor.

Care should be coordinated and provided by a health professional with expertise and experience in dealing with eating disorders.

• Psychological counseling must address both the eating disordered symptoms and the underlying psychological, interpersonal, and cultural forces that contributed to the eating disorder.

• Many people with eating disorders respond to outpatient therapy, including individual, group, or family therpay and medical management by their primary care provider. Support groups, nutritional counseling, and psychiatric medications under careful medical supervision have also proven helpful for some individuals.

• Inpatient care (including hospitalization and/or residential care in an eating disorders specialty unit or facility) is necessary when an eating disorder has led to physical problems that may be life-threatening, or when an eating disorder has reached a level of severe psychological or behavioral problems. Inpatient stays typically require a period of outpatient follow-up and aftercare to address the underlying issues in the individual's eating disorder.

Health Consequences of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that affect a person's emotional and physical health.

Eating disorders are not just a "fad" or a "phase." People do not just "catch" an eating disorder for a period of time. They are real, complex, and devastating conditions that can have serious consequences for health, productivity, and relationships.

People struggling with an eating disorder need to seek professional help. The earlier a person with an eating disorder seeks treatment, the greater the likelihood of physical and emotional recovery.

Health Consequences of Anorexia Nervosa: In anorexia nervosa's cycle of self-starvation, the body is denied the essential nutrients it needs to function normally. Thus, the body is forced to slow down all of its processes to conserve energy, resulting in serious medical consequences:

• Abnormally slow heart rate and low blood pressure, which mean that the heart muscle is changing. The risk for heart failure rises as the heart rate and blood pressure levels sink lower and lower.
  
• Reduction of bone density (osteoporosis), which results in dry, brittle bones.
  
• Muscle loss and weakness.
  
• Severe dehydration, which can result in kidney failure.
  
• Fainting, fatigue, and overall weakness.
  
• Dry hair and skin, hair loss is common.
  
• Growth of a downy layer of hair called lanugo all over the body, including the face, in an effort to keep the body warm.

• Electrolyte imbalance that can lead to irregular heartbeats and possibly heart failure and death. Electrolyte imbalance is caused by dehydration and loss of potassium and sodium from the body as a result of purging behaviors.
  
• Potential for gastric rupture during periods of bingeing.
  
• Inflammation and possible rupture of the esophagus from frequent vomiting.
  
• Tooth decay and staining from stomach acids released during frequent vomiting.
  
• Chronic irregular bowel movements and constipation as a result of laxative abuse.
  
• Peptic ulcers and pancreatitits.

• High blood pressure.
  
• High cholesterol levels.
  
• Heart disease as a result of elevated triglyceride levels.
  
• Secondary diabetes.
  
• Gallbladder disease.

Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders and the Family
Originally aired on PBS television stations nationwide
Available on VHS and DVD from the Channel 9 Store at channel9store.com, or by calling 1-800-937-5387

"There will never be a moment in which you are not you. Some may try to hide their existence away, pretending they are someone they're not, but who is this act for? You know the ultimate truth; there is no hiding from yourself. The difficulty of it lies in our societies' ability to create perfect illusions." "My unhappiness continues on. There really is no way to rid myself of this is there? My life is worthless right now. Saying goodbye to such an unfriendly place can't be as hard as believing in it everyday. And essentially my spirit has fled already."

A young woman named Anna Westin wrote these words in her diary in November 1999, contemplating the toll taken by a battle with anorexia that had begun when she was 17. Anna lost her battle a few months later, after she took a fatal overdose of painkillers. She was 21 years old.

Anorexia and bulimia are a growing problem, affecting millions of people in the United States, most of them young women. This "silent epidemic" — which has gained widespread public attention only in recent years — can be lethal. Yet, sufferers often don't look as gravely ill as they really are, hiding their illness behind a "perfect illusion" of normalcy.

The new KCTS Television documentary, Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders and the Family, focuses on the dramatic experiences of four families whose lives have been impacted by eating disorders. What the risk factors are, how to identify early warning signs, where families can turn during the treatment and recovery process: these questions and more are addressed in this documentary about a challenging situation faced by more people in our society than we might think.

The documentary is an exploration of the role that family issues play in eating disorders and the pressures exerted on these young women to live up to what they perceive as the high expectations of their family and society. It also examines the traumatic impact of anorexia and bulimia on the sufferers' loved ones. Families not only deal with the deadly nature of the disease and the threat to their children's lives, but also with the guilt of real and perceived responsibility.

While recovery can be a challenge, treatment for eating disorders is completely effective in many cases. For some, the road is complicated and hard. Recovery takes more than will power. There can be a complex interaction between family, brain chemistry, personality, genetics, and individual history. New research on genetic and biochemical factors may shed light on causes and treatment in the future. Research is ongoing in many areas and the outcome offers increased hope for sufferers and their loved ones.

Back