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What are they?

If a person is diagnosed with an eating disorder they may deny themselves the nourishment they need, or they may eat continuously. There are several main conditions to be considered: Obesity is the most common eating disorder, where the person eats too much food, often for comfort. Anorexia is when a person doesn’t eat enough and Bulimia is when someone binge eats and then makes themselves sick.

How common are they?

Recent research indicates that as many as 1 in 20 young women have some sort of eating disorder and around 1 in a hundred will experience anorexia. Only one man is diagnosed with the condition for every ten women.

What age range do they affect?

Typically women between the ages of 14 and 25, although others may be affected

Other information

People can have eating disorders and be normal weight, although this is less usual. With bulimia, for example, the person may have absorbed enough nutrients to maintain the same shape before they are able to excrete the food.

Symptoms

• Large weight loss or weight gain
• Anxiety, depression or obsessive behaviour
• Avoiding eating in public
• Believing they are fat when they are underweight
• Withdrawing from friends, lack of confidence
• Using drugs to speed up the digestion process or give a laxative effect

Regular Causes

• Stress from school, exams, work or other source
• Media pressure – women are ‘supposed’ to be thin and men muscular – in fact the average model is thinner than 90% of the population
• Spiritual reasons – fasting is part of some religions, and people may believe that since starving yourself makes it easier to dissociate you can get in touch with your spiritual self more easily. They may also think that their bodily needs and desires are impure
• Family problems (e.g. an ill parent or bad marriage)
• Sexual abuse or other prolonged traumatic experience

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