Eating Disorders: More Common Than You'd Think
Story by Emma CrowE | Design by Sarah Stewart
When you are a child, you never consider that one day you might struggle with an eating disorder. However, eating disorders are common amongst college students and you or someone you know, may currently be dealing with this issue.
In a 2017 Healthy Minds Survey administered by the CWU Wellness Center, 10% of CWU students who participated had a positive SCOFF result. That means 1/10 CWU students who participated in the survey were identified as possibly having an eating disorder. SCOFF is a baseline questionnaire that detects aspects of eating disorders through five questions, which make up the acronym:
Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
Do you worry that you have lost Control over how much you eat?
Have you recently lost more than One stone (14 lbs.) in a 3 month period?
Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
Would you say that Food dominates your life?
If you or someone you know answered yes to two or more of the questions you may want additional screening for an eating disorder.
There are various types of eating disorders, identifying behaviors and support and treatment options.
Types of Eating Disorders
According to Leah Dambacher and Marissa Miles, registered dieticians and graduate students at CWU, the common types of eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. There are other types of eating disorders, but they are less common. People can also have aspects of disordered eating without necessarily having a diagnosable eating disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa, more often referred to just as anorexia, is a common eating disorder. Registered Dietician and owner of Peace & Nutrition Shena Jaramillo describes it as a, “severe reduction in intake that can result in rapid weight loss.” According to Dambacher, anorexia can also consist of excessive exercise to “compensate” for food consumption.
Marissa Howat, director of health promotion and wellness at CWU, says there’s a lot of stigma and assumptions surrounding eating disorders and who has an eating disorder. Anorexia specifically is commonly associated with an image of a thin white woman.
“It’s not just thin white women,” Howat says. “It’s a range, and it doesn’t usually discriminate, just the way all types of mental illnesses don’t discriminate.”
Howat is not the only professional affirming that anyone, no matter assumptions or stigma, can have an eating disorder.
“It can exist in any body weight, shape or size,” Jaramillo says. The preconceived notions concerning what eating disorders look like can discourage people with eating disorders to seek help.
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa, more commonly referred to just as bulimia, is an eating disorder with binge and purge components. Bulimia begins with food restriction and can look similar to anorexia. However, the difference between bulimia and anorexia is that people with bulimia will reach a point where they consume a large amount of food in one sitting. According to Miles, this binge is then followed by some type of purge to rid the body of the food that was just consumed.
Binge Eating Disorder
Binge eating disorder is all about someone’s rituals surrounding food and how they feel about food. Someone with binge eating disorder will frequently consume a large amount of food in one sitting.
“The predominant characteristic of binge eating is not necessarily the quantity of food but how you feel emotionally after you consume the food,” Jaramillo says. “So if there’s a lot of guilt and shame, and then potentially restriction after, then that’s going to be classified more as binge eating.”
Paije Maas, senior professional and creative writing major and PULSE writer, has struggled with eating disorders since she was 13.
Her story begins as many others do. Maas was a competitive gymnast who already restricted her food intake to increase her performance. The restriction became extreme as Maas developed anorexia. Her anorexia developed into bulimia, then binge eating disorder after two years before going back to anorexia.
“I could really feel myself afraid of eating too much,” Maas says, despite her increased physical activity. That fear is what spurred on her eating disorder.
The Effects
Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, according to Howat, who says that they’re associated with the highest rates of suicide, and also self-injury.
The effects of eating disorders rely heavily on the type of eating disorder and the person with it.
Mental
When someone has an eating disorder, most of their thoughts are around food. Their entire day revolves around it. According to Dambacher, it can cause people to cancel plans with their friends, not show up to events due to worries over food and stay home more often. The anxiety surrounding food continues to grow with the eating disorder. Eating disorders can have a serious impact on a person’s social life.
The mental symptoms of the eating disorder can also depend on the patient’s level of nourishment.
“When someone has something like anorexia nervosa or potentially bulimia nervosa, their brain is actually starving,” Jaramillo says.
This can lead to an inability to concentrate and disoriented thoughts. When the mental symptoms reach that point, it may be time to seek in-patient care.
Physical
Physical effects will vary depending on the type of eating disorder more than the mental effects will.
People with an eating disorder may experience:
Stress fractures
Weight fluctuations
An electrolyte imbalance
Low blood pressure
A disrupted menstrual cycle
Malnourishment
Throat soreness
Throat damage
Damage to the mouth, stomach and/or rectum
And other symptoms
Maas says she certainly felt the physical and mental effects of her eating disorder. She stopped having her menstrual cycle for over a year. She also developed severe body aches, hair loss and began to bruise easily. One accidental smack against a coffee table could leave a nasty bruise.
Another side effect of her eating disorder was black outs. Maas says she would black out “in class, walking around, doing anything.” She wouldn’t become aware that she’d blacked out until she finally came to. Anything could have happened to her during that time.
The mental effects were a different problem. Maas began to feel like everyone was out to judge her, and the anxiety caused her to stop going out. That anxiety would lead to panic attacks if she was out for too long.
Her eating disorder also caused a change in mood.
“I felt almost angry at everything all the time because I was really hungry, you know, but then I was constantly fighting it,” Maas says.
Recovery is Possible
There are treatment options available, as well as ways to support friends and family with eating disorders.
Treatment Options
The first step of treatment is to be diagnosed. Professionals will look at the type of language and rituals their patient has involving food. There are several different habits that can indicate disordered eating.
Treatment for eating disorders typically involves a team of professionals to treat both the mind and body. There is in-patient and out-patient care. The severity of the eating disorder and the health of the patient determines what type of treatment they may receive. If a patient’s health is stable, they may qualify for out-patient treatment. In-patient care is typically reserved for people who need medical care such as a feeding tube, or patients whose mental health is not stable enough to follow a nutrition or meal plan.
Once a person has been diagnosed with an eating disorder, a registered dietician can begin to work with them on a nutrition plan.
Jaramillo, who works with patients with eating disorders, says her patients get adequate nutrition while not slipping back into patterns of their disordered eating by developing meal plans that don’t use calories or energy measurements.
Alongside nutritional treatment, people with eating disorders should also consult a doctor and a mental health provider. Jaramillo usually works with a mental health provider and a doctor when treating her patients. Eating disorders are mental illnesses, according to Howat. Treating the physical aspects is important, but they are symptoms of a larger problem.
Support
It is crucial to have a support system in place for the lengthy process of eating disorder treatment. That support system can consist of friends, family members, counselors and others. It is important for people with eating disorders to surround themselves with people who are positive and validate their struggle with their disorder. A negative person can disrupt the recovery process.
Jaramillo works with her patients’ support systems as part of the treatment process. It is a great way for caregivers and family members to learn more about eating disorders and how to help their loved ones.
One aspect of treatment that Jaramillo focuses on is identifying a patient’s “eating disorder voice.”
“The person has their own thoughts, desires, emotions [and] goals, which are often hijacked by what we call the eating disorder voice,” Jaramillo says. “A lot of people will internalize that and take it in as part of their own character or even a personal flaw. So we will actually distinguish that as a separate voice.”
Some patients will name their eating disorder voice to make it easier to separate the disordered thoughts from their own.
Maas is now 22 years old and well into her recovery.
She began receiving treatment after her friends went to their school counselor and asked for help. They learned how to approach someone with an eating disorder in a way that didn’t feel like a personal attack, and Maas was able to face her diagnosis head on. Her friends, along with her mother, are her support system. They are the people she can lean on when she needs a helping hand.
Maas still struggles with aspects of her eating disorder, but she doesn’t let it affect her anymore. When she struggles, Maas uses healthy coping mechanisms such as writing down the reasons behind her stress. She also likes to lean on humor. The idea is to not give the eating disorder any power.
