The World’s Deadliest Psychiatric Disorder

Every 62 minutes in the U.S, someone dies as a direct result of this mental illness. Yet the bulk of medical professionals refuse to recognize it as dangerous.

Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

Having an eating disorder is sort of like being the Boy Who Cried Wolf in the arena of mental illness and the associated medical world.

Part of the reason behind this is because they are so rampantly common — there is a wide array of behaviors and habits that are umbrella’d by the eating disorder diagnosis, all of which being susceptible to fluctuation in acuteness based on individual, age, circumstance, and genetic predisposition.

In short, its normal to have disordered eating. Its normal to hate your body and hurt yourself to try to change it, so long as that disordered eating doesn’t turn into an eating disorder.

At least, that’s how society views it. And more importantly, that’s how the bulk of medical professionals view it as well.

Yet the line between the human foible of self loathing and a diagnosable disorder is so blurred and vague, the mental illness goes untreated and, even if diagnosed, not recognized as an actual threat to the individuals health.

Because there is nothing wrong with a little bit of hunger, right?

Everyone vomits sometimes. It can’t be that bad if you do it on purpose every once in a while. Right?

Etc etc.

The holes in professional treatment for eating disorders are not getting repaired, nor are they at least getting fewer and farther between. This particular brand of illness is largely avoided completely in the medical field, not only because it is so common but also because it is so difficult to actually treat. Or recognize as a threat, for that matter.

Society sees an eating disorder as a phase, as mild, as relatively normal.

Reality sees this fact:

Every 62 minutes, an individual dies as a direct result of their eating disorder in the United States.

Every hour.