Gaining the facts on Eating Disorders

I have found many claims as to exactly how many people in the United States actually suffer from eating disorders, since so many suffers keep their eating disorders a secret and never get diagnosed, I don't think we will ever really know exactly how many people are actually struggling with an eating disorder.

I've found that conservatives estimate that after puberty, 5-10% of girls and women, which translates to 5-10 million and 1 million boys and men are fighting this life and death fight with eating disorders. This includes anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and borderline conditions.


First, I'll share some definitions of certain eating disorders:



Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is a serious, & potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. In order for someone to meet anorexia diagnosis, they must exhibit the following:

• Resistance to maintaining body weight above 85% of their expected weight for height.


• Intense fear of weight gain or being “fat” even though underweight.


• Disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight.


• Loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty.

It kind of surprised me that fasting is not on this list. So, you don't have to skip every meal to be considered anorexic. Which was something that Twister threw at me a few times to try & convince me that I didn't have an ED.



Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of binging and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating. Bulimia has three primary symptoms:

• Regular intake of large amounts of food accompanied by a sense of loss of control over eating behavior


• Regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse, fasting, and/or obsessive or compulsive exercise.


• Extreme concern with body weight and shape

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a type of eating disorder not otherwise specified and is characterized by recurrent binge eating without the regular use of compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.

It is characterized by the following:

• Frequent episodes of eating large quantities of food in short periods of time.


• Feeling out of control over eating behavior


• Feeling ashamed or disgusted by the behavior


• There are also several behavioral indicators of BED including eating when not hungry and eating in secret.

There are many other eating disorders, including Eating Disorder not Otherwise Specified, Pica, Sleep Eating Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, and many more. (I really don't have enough time to define all of them! I may do another post about that.)


So, now lets get to the facts & statistics. These are just a few, I could have found many more, but this is a start.


The age of individuals that are diagnosed with eating disorders vary greatly. Being as young as 6 , and as old as 60.

• 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner.


• 45% of boys & girls in 3rd-6th grade want to be thinner.


• 37% have already dieted.


• 6.9% score in eating disorder criteria


• 51% of 9-10 year old girls feel better about themselves when they are dieting.


• 9% of 9 year olds have vomited to loose weight.


• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of becoming fat.


• 53% of 13 year olds are unhappy with their bodies.


• 78% of 18 year olds are unhappy with their bodies.


• The #1 wish of girls age 11-17 is to loose weight.


• 5 year olds are concerned about diet.

That last one absolutely breaks my heart. When your that age you DO NOT need to worry about your weight and body.When I think about young girls becoming victims to ED's it tears me up. I don't want their life to be taken over by worthless things that ruin their lives.


These facts show how serious and life-threatening ED's really are.

• Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.--up to 20%


• At least 50,000 individuals will die as a direct result of an eating disorder.


• Up to 10% of women with anorexia may die due to anorexia related causes. Such as heart failure.


• The risk of death among individuals with anorexia is 12 times higher than their same age peers without anorexia.

These are just some general statistics about eating disorders.

• Between 0.3-1% of adolescence have anorexia, which makes it as common as autism.


• About 1-3% of adolescence have bulimia.


• Around 3% of the population has binge eating disorder.


• Athletes in certain sports are at high risks for developing an eating disorder, such as gymnasts, ice skaters, dancers & swimmers.


• Male athletes are also at a higher risk including those involved in wrestling, bodybuilding, crew, running, cycling & football.


• 90 + % of ED victims are adolescence & young women.


• 0.5-3.7% of females (not adolescence) struggle with anorexia.


• 1.1-4.2% of females (not adolescence) struggle with bulimia.


• 2-5% of males & females struggle from binge eating disorder.


• Only one-third of people with anorexia in the community receive mental health care.


• Only 6% of people with bulimia receive mental health care.


• The majority of people with severe eating disorders do not receive the proper treatment needed to recover.

This is a chart I found on the NEDA website, it really shocked me.


Illness Prevalence Research Funds

Eating disorders--- 10 million---$ 12,000,000

Alzheimer's--- 4.5 million--- $ 647,000,000

Schizophrenia--- 2.2 million--- $ 350,000,000

• Research money on Eating Disorders averaged $1.20 per affected individual, compared to $159 per affected individual for Schizophrenia.


• Most health care companies do not treat eating disorders as a mental illness.


• Americans believe that government should require insurance companies to cover treatment of eating disorders.


• 3 out of 4 Americans believe eating disorders should be covered by insurance companies just like any other illness.


• 4 out of 10 Americans have either suffered from an eating disorder themselves, or know someone who has.

Usually if you talk to anyone about eating disorders, they have struggled with it themselves or know someone who has. It's ridiculous.



Eating disorders are a very serious, life-threatening disease. Please don't play around with them, they do kill.




Doing this research has actually helped me. Not only has it given me something to do, it has made me realize how horrible ED's really are. It makes me want to do something about it. I don't want anyone to have to suffer from the same pain that I am suffering with. If I can help prevent just one person from falling victim to an eating disorder, it would all be worth it.



Refrences:

nationaleatingdisorders.org

eatingdisorderscoalition.org

eatingdisorderinfo.org

healthywithin.com