What’s Eating Your Child // Eating Disorders // Part 1
Part 1 of 3
“What do you see right now?”
“Fat, nothing but fat.”
“But what is ‘fat’? What does it mean?”
Everyone has different opinions of themselves, outwardly and inwardly. People say that our opinions don’t change anything, but we all know that parental and peer opinions have influenced us at some point of another. Many things shape these opinions, such as the media, genetics, upbringing, and culture. For some people, these opinions, or beliefs, can lead us to self-destruct. For many, this can be in the form of an eating disorder.
Eating disorders as a term are definitely well known, but what causes them is misunderstood by many, which obviously isn’t a good thing. If you don’t know the cause of an illness, you’re going to have difficulty in finding effective ways to help someone with said illness. Also, they are diagnosed at a higher “rate than the number of American adults diagnosed with heart disease”, and these disorders are typically start during adolescence.
Much of my experience with eating disorders is first hand. I developed anorexia when I was 16, and have been through treatment extensively over the last couple of years.
When everything started as a teenager, I would periodically be in charge of buying all the groceries, and would decide to “diet.” I would buy everything marketed as diet, and I couldn’t stand buying groceries that had calories. I’d lose weight and then gain it when people noticed, but at a certain point, I decided that I was getting unhealthy, so I pulled myself together. My body image was always different though, and I constantly obsessed over it. I had severe social anxiety, and that just made it that much harder to associate with people.
But it never really became out of control until I was 18, and I couldn’t take living with my mind anymore. I started to realized that the less I ate, the less I felt, the less I thought. Once that happened things spiraled pretty rapidly, and I couldn’t put myself back together anymore. After months of pushing everyone away I was hospitalized and received treatment. I’ve periodically accumulated quite a bit of more time hospitalized since then. Every time I go in, I see and hear the same things; the same misconceptions, the same kind of articles, the same frustrations due to ignorance and culture.
So I’m making this blog series to help parents and caretakers of those with or at risk for eating disorders understand how these disorders come about, and what can be done to treat and prevent them. I’m focusing on factors to better help children and teens who could be at risk, and are early in their disorders to discuss ways to help with early intervention. Because while eating disorders develop at any age, [they’re more commonly seen] during the teen years. I’m focusing on factors to better help children and teens who could be at risk, and are early in their disorders to discuss ways to help with early intervention.
The 3 primary eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Anorexia is probably the most widely known, as it’s the eating disorder mentioned the most by the media. It also was dated furthest back in history.
Anorexia dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder haven’t been found as much in history, but that could be due to lack of research previously, and old misunderstandings regarding the two.
Anorexia was put in the DSM in 1957, with Bulimia following in 1980, and Binge Eating Disorder was just added to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 2013.
The general public first became aware of [anorexia] at the end of the twentieth century. It was not until the 1960s-1970s and the arrival of the supermodel Twiggy that the American media started writing about [it].
That’s probably why when I was growing up, in the 2000’s anorexia was “what models and actresses were.”
Another form of eating disorder is EDNOS, which is common but not mentioned much. EDNOS stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. A person with EDNOS doesn’t fit the exact criteria for anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
As you can see, people with this disorder often swap symptoms between disorders. I think most of the people I’ve met with EDNOS are people who swap symptoms commonly between anorexia and bulimia. When they’re not starving, they’re binging and purging, or they’re overexercising.
EDNOS is a subtype of eating disorder on it’s own, but often inhabits the same actions that other eating disorders have, and is dangerous just the same. To put it into perspective a bit, binge eating disorder was under EDNOS in the DSM until 2013, and binge eating disorder definitely has it’s complications.
- In elementary school fewer than 25% of girls diet regularly. (Smolak, 2011; Wertheim et al., 2009)
- 60% of elementary school girls (ages 6–12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat. (Smolak, 2011)
- Of American elementary school girls who read magazines, 69% say that the pictures influence their concept of the ideal body shape. 47% say the pictures make them want to lose weight (Martin, 2010).
- Anorexia Nervosa ranks as the third most common chronic mental illness among adolescent U.S. females.
Looking at the statistics above, it’s easy to see that risk factors for eating disorders, or at least poor self esteem and poor outlooks on eating with children. In a BBC News story below, you see that they have similar issues in the UK, as well.
Becoming anorexic at only 11, her story puts a picture to the face of many stories like this one. Developing an eating disorder before puberty has even started is too common, seeing articles like “Anorexia Can Strike and Kill as Early as Kindergarten”
So, why do so many children and teenagers develop eating disorders?
Is it “the media?”
Well, as mentioned in my interview with Lisa, many different things can be a risk factor, there’s been extensive research done connecting media and culture to self-esteem and eating disorders.
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
“There’s no such thing as too rich or too thin.”
It’s pretty common knowledge what the “ideal body” is generally portrayed as in America. Thin, sometimes tall, and no blemishes. But that has changed more recently, and with plus size modeling becoming more popular, one could argue that the “ideal body” many people would refer to now is more subjective. But still, weight is still mentioned in great detail.
We have “fat shaming” thrown around in conversation, and we also now have a rise of “Skinny Shaming” which doesn’t help body image either.
We have people telling obese people “you’d look ugly if you were ‘average’,” and “if you lost weight, you’d probably get some really good guys.”
We have people telling thin people “I wish I looked like you, then I could turn heads for different reasons,” and “you know, guys like girls that actually have some meat on them…”
There was an article recently that gave a suggestion on how a mother can promote healthy body image:
Something that I’ve seen with everyone I’ve met with an eating disorder is the desire to please everyone, to a pretty extreme extent. When you have people telling you so many different things about what kind of body you should have, how you should view it, what diet will make you look good, or that diets will make you look bad, it can make one wonder something.
If the focus on having the ‘perfect’ body can contribute to such anxiety, then why don’t we focus less on the look of our bodies, and more important things?
The more you we teach children to, subliminally or not, base their worth on their body, the more we’re teaching them to base their worth on external things. Telling a child when they look good, when they don’t, based on such superficial things, is setting them up to look for this assurance for the rest of their life. The danger with this is that many people will have different opinions, and these opinions will conflict.
So how can you find assurance through that if some are telling you look good, and others the exact opposite? How can you decide how you look, how you feel about yourself, when no one else is around? With this moral, you can’t.
There are obviously other things that go on, as eating disorders have been around for a long time, there are obviously other things that go on. The media hasn’t always existed the way it does now.
Researchers are starting to see it’s likely the reason behind that it can be partially based off of genes. One study found that “family member[s] with eating disorder[s] are 7–12 times more likely to develop one”
My father passed me long eyelashes.
My father passed me long legs.
My father passed me self hatred.
*
My mother taught me to… be obedient.
My mother taught me to… work hard.
My mother taught me to… throw up.
Another role played by parents, is upbringing.
Meeting and talking to countless people with eating disorders over the years, it’s been very rare that they don’t mention their parents, and how their actions influenced how they viewed themselves. Whether is be by their parents degrading their body or personality, constantly bullying them for “perfection,” or instead neglecting them. In rehab, groups that focused on family and childhoods were the ones I hated the most. Those are the kind of groups that a vast majority of people with eating disorders hate the most, because they bring up the worst emotions. But they yield the most results.
It makes sense that what you learn and experience growing up would tie in. Many people with troubled childhoods turn to drug or alcohol addiction, but with eating disorders, there isn’t an age limit that could be a barrier. You don’t need to be 18 to skip meals or triple them, and you don’t need to be 18 to throw either up. You don’t need to be 18 to compulsively exercise for hours.
To further that point, a study conducted by University of Washington researchers found that “[children] as young as 5 years self-esteem is established strongly enough to be measured” and “It is a social mindset children bring to school with them, not something they develop in school.”
A big possible factor that can fit into childhood is abuse.
That makes sense, as many people with eating disorders also have PTSD. A study observed that “74% of 293 women attending residential treatment indicated that they had experienced a significant trauma, and 52% reported symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of current PTSD” and “About 15% to 43% of girls and 14% to 43% of boys go through at least one trauma”
In 2013, parents, acting alone or with another parent, were responsible for 78.9 percent of child abuse or neglect fatalities.
While it is true that parents or families are not always contributor to eating disorders, it can’t be overlooked that they are a cause, and they are very commonly a primary cause.
For a more in-depth look at things, I interviewed a therapist specializing in eating disorders in Part 2 of this post.
