Eating Disorders

Over the past 50 years, there has been an increased awareness of eating disorders. Eating disorders involve either insufficient or excessive food intake. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating are the most common forms of eating disorders. Although the prevalence of eating disorders is increasing worldwide, they are more common in Western cultures: Europe, the United States, and Canada. Eating disorders primarily affect females, especially bulimia and anorexia, but there are some males who have eating disorders. While the exact causes of eating disorders remain unknown, some studies have shown a link between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and eating disorders. Other studies have shown that those who have experienced a significant childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse, may have a higher incidence of eating disorders. One study has shown that girls in foster families experience eating disorders at higher rates than others. Another study has shown that children who have been through parental divorce are more likely to experience eating disorders than those who have not. Almost 50% of those with eating disorders have also been diagnosed as experiencing depression.

Some have argued that eating disorders have been heightened by our society's focus on physical appearance. Many observers believe that media portrayals of women, and increasingly of men, convey the notion that to be attractive one must be thin. The body type portrayed as ideal on television and in advertising is a body type occurring in only

5% of females. Anorexia has also been linked with avoidant personality disorders, such as perfectionism, being emotionally and sexually inhibited, having a less active fantasy life, needing to be perceived as good and not rebellious, and being terrified of ridicule or feeling humiliation. Other personality disorders have also been linked to anorexia, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and borderline personality disorders. One in four individuals who have been diagnosed with anorexia also exhibit obsessive compulsive disorder.

Although studies show that the incidence of eating disorders is lower in men than in women, the results may be skewed because clinicians may be less likely to diagnose eating disorder in men than in women; instead, men are more likely to be diagnosed with depression or with appetite changes. While the media portray thinness in women as the cultural ideal of beauty, with men the ideal is muscularity; thus body image becomes a self-esteem issue in both women and men. In adolescent boys, eating disorders are the third most common illness, despite being rarely diagnosed (Vogler, 1993). The images of muscularity may also pull some men toward abuse of anabolic steroids.