Overview
Eating disorders are characterized by an all-consuming desire to be thin, a desire that is unrealistic and threatens an individual’s physical and emotional health. Fear of weight gain is exhibited through cycles of self-starvation and/or cycles of binge eating/purging. In anorexia nervosa, the individual’s weight has fallen more than 15% below normal and, with females, menstruation (once it has occurred) has not occurred in over three months. Bulimia is much more common than anorexia. It involves an abnormal and continuous craving for food followed by self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse, compulsive exercise, and/or strict dieting, with binging and purging episodes occurring at least twice per week and typically, feelings of loss of control.
Bulimia, although 2 or 3 times more common than anorexia, wasn’t recognized as a distinct disorder until 1976. Prior to that time, most persons with this disorder had been labeled anorexic. Nearly half of diagnosed anorexics can be suffering from bulimia. The reverse is also true. Both are learned behaviors that can be unlearned. Both are, in part, disorders of our culture, reflecting the emphasis on “thin” as the ideal body type, particularly for girls and women. Eating disorders typically occur during adolescence when youth are most concerned about appearance and acceptance and most susceptible to the influences of peers and the media (Fisher, Golden, Katzman, Kreipe, Rees, Schebendach, Sigman, Ammerman, Hoberman, 1995).
It is estimated that about 1% of the population will be diagnosed with anorexia, and about 4% with bulimia (following strict diagnostic criteria). Additionally, many adolescents, particularly girls, exhibit many characteristics of eating disorders (chronic dieting, preoccupation with weight, abuse of diet pills, excessive exercising) without meeting criteria for a “disorder.” Of the population with an eating disorder, 90%-96% are female........
