Don't we all diet? When does a little preoccupation with weight and food point to an eating disorder? Anorexia and bulimia are on the rise and seem to affect the girls and young women who "have it all." How can we recognize the signs and, most importantly, what can we do to help people with eating disorders?
In a society that always seems to focus on beauty and perfection as a measure of one's success, it is easy to get swept up in the romantic notion of body idealism. Suddenly our young girls think that a healthy and strong body is a fat body, and they go to drastic and dangerous means to lose weight. What often starts out as a seemingly harmless diet can spiral into obsessive, out of control weight loss.
What is an Eating Disorder?
With so many things in life, there can be a fine line between normal and abnormal. Black and white merge into shades of gray. Yet when the line is crossed, the results can be shattering. There is no doubt that people of all ages tend to focus on food in our society. It has become the norm to hear women, especially, complaining about their hips or their thighs or muttering about how skinny or heavy another woman may be. Who isn't dieting at one time or another? Who hasn't experienced that sense of bliss when deciding to start the dreaded diet in just one more day?
However,
when food and eating become a constant preoccupation,
when weight loss is perceived as the only way to achieve happiness,
and a good day is defined solely by which clothes fit or how much willpower you were able to muster,
there is a problem larger than the need to get into shape.
An eating disorder exists when food is used in an extreme way to cope with painful feelings. It becomes the symptom of a much bigger problem.
When you no longer care about, or can control, the harm that you are doing to your body as you spiral down the never-ending journey to get just a little thinner, or when the need to compulsively eat everything you can get your hands on is larger than life, you are among the ever-growing group of people with eating disorders.