• 10% report onset at 10 years or younger;
  
• 33% report onset between ages of 11-15;
  
• 43% report onset between ages of 16-20;
  
• 86% report onset of illness by the age of 20.

College Eating Disorder Statistics:

• As many as 10% of college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder, including 5.1% who suffer from bulimia nervosa.
• Studies indicate that by their first year of college, 4.5 to 18% of women and 0.4% of men have a history of bulimia and that as many as 1% of females between the ages of 12 and 18 have anorexia;
  

MORTALITY AND RECOVERY RATES:
Without treatment, up to twenty percent (20%) of people with serious eating disorders die.With treatment, that number falls to 2-3%...With treatment about 60% of people with eating disorders recover C O M P L E T E L Y .They maintain healthy weight. They eat a varied diet of normal foods and do not choose exclusively low-cal and non-fat items. They participate in friendships and romantic relationships. They create families and careers. Many say they feel they are stronger people and more insightful about life in general and themselves in particular than they would have been without the disorder.The following graph explains this:

In spite of treatment,about 20% of people with eating disorders make only partial recoveries.They remain too much focused on food and weight. They participate only peripherally in friendships and romantic relationships. They may hold jobs but seldom have meaningful careers. Much of each paycheck goes to diet books, laxatives, jazzercise classes, and binge food.

The remaining 20% do not improve, even with treatment.They are seen repeatedly in emergency rooms, eating disorders programs, and mental health clinics. Their quietly desperate lives revolve around food and weight concerns, spiraling down into depression, loneliness, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.They are,sadly, chronic cases, who, even with the biggest, strongest willpower and desire to beat the disease,could simply NOT do it, because of the long term suffering they have endured.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE EATING DISORDERS?

Studies stated the results as follows:
Eating Disorders in :




ANOREXIA NERVOSA:

Research suggests that about 1% of female adolescents have anorexia. That means that about one out of every one hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to DEATH. There do not seem to be reliable figures for younger children and older adults, but such cases,while they do occur,are not common.

BULIMIA NERVOSA:

Research suggests that about 4% (or four out of one hundred) college-aged women have bulimia.About 50% of people who have been anorexic develop bulimia or bulimic patterns.Because people with bulimia are secretive, it is difficult to know how many older people are affected. Bulimia is rare in children.

MALES WITH EATING DISORDERS:

Only about 10% of people with anorexia and bulimia are male.This gender difference may reflect our society's different expectations for men and women. Men are supposed to be strong and powerful.They feel ashamed of skinny bodies and want to be big and powerful.Women,on the other hand,are supposed to be tiny, waif-like, and thin.They diet to lose weight,making themselves vulnerable to binge eating.Some develop rigid and compulsive overcontrol.Dieting and the resulting hunger are two of the most powerful eating disorders triggers known.

WHAT AGE GROUPS ARE AFFECTED?

Anorexia and bulimia affect primarily people in their teens and twenties, but studies report BOTH disorders in children as young as SIX YEARS OLD and individuals as old as seventy-six.

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY:

Studies suggest that:
-About 60% of adult Americans, both male and female, are overweight;
-About one third (34%) are obese, meaning that they are 20% or more above normal, healthy weight;
-Many of these people have binge eating disorder.

BINGE EATING DISORDER:

A recent study reported in Drugs and Therapy Perspectives reports that:
-About 1% of women in the United States have binge eating disorder, as do 30% of women who seek treatment to lose weight;
In other studies:
-Up to 2%, or one to two million adults in the U.S.,have problems with binge eating.

EATING DISORDERS AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE:

About 72% of alcoholic women younger than 30 also have eating disorders.(Health magazine, Jan/Feb 2002)

Please note: The study of eating disorders is a relatively new field. We have no good information on the long-term recovery process. We do know that recovery usually takes a long time, perhaps on average three to five years of slow progress that includes starts, stops, slides backwards, and ultimately, movement in the direction of mental and physical health.

If you believe you are in the 40% of people who do not recover from eating disorders...

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK

Get into treatment and stay there.

GIVE IT ALL YOU HAVE

...You may surprise yourself and find you are in the 60% after all.

MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS:

From England: A 1998 survey done by Exeter University included 37,500 young women between twelve and fifteen. Over half (57.5%) listed appearance as the biggest concern in their lives.The same study indicated that 59% of the twelve and thirteen-year-old girls who suffered from low self-esteem were also dieting.

-Dieting teens: More than HALF of teenaged girls are (or think they should be) on diets. They want to lose all or some of the forty pounds that females naturally gain between 8 and 14.About 3% of these teens go too far, becoming anorexic or bulimic.

-Unrealistic expectations: Magazine pictures are electronically edited and airbrushed.Many entertainment celebrities are underweight,some anorexically so.How do we know what we should look like? It's hard.The table below compares average women in the U. S. with Barbie Doll and department store mannequins. It's not encouraging. (Health magazine, September 1997; and NEDIC, a Canadian eating disorders advocacy group)

	Average woman	Barbie	Store mannequin
Height	5' 4"	6' 0"	6' 0"
Weight	145 lbs	101 lbs	Not available
Dress Size	11-14	4	6
Bust	36 - 37"	39"	34"
Waist	29 - 31"	19"	23"
Hips	40 - 42"	33"	34"

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WHO IS AT RISK FOR DEVELOPING AN EATING DISORDER?

GENERALITIES:
These disorders usually appear in bright,attractive young women between the ages of 12 and 25,although there are both older and younger exceptions.At least 10% are male,possibly more.Researchers are just now beginning to determine how widespread eating disorders are in men and boys.

Although people with eating disorders don't want to admit it,many fear growing up,taking on adult responsibilities,and meeting the demands of independence.Many are overly engaged with parents to the exclusion of peer relationships.They use dieting and weight preoccupations to avoid, or ineffectively cope with,the demands of a new life stage such as adolescence,living away from home or adult sexuality.

ARE SOME PEOPLE AT "SPECIAL RISK"?

Because of intense demands for thinness, some people are at high risk for eating disorders such as:

• wrestlers;

• jockeys;

• cheerleaders;

• sorority members;

• socialites;

• dancers;

• gymnasts;

• runners;

• models;

• actresses;

• entertainers;

• male homosexuals.

EATING DISORDERS AND PHYSICAL/SEXUAL ABUSE:

Some clinicians find that a high percentage of their clients with eating disorders also have histories of physical or sexual abuse.Research,however,suggests that people who have been abused have about the same incidence of eating disorders as those who have not been mistreated.Nevertheless,the subject arises often enough to warrant discussion here.

People who have survived abuse often do not know what to do with the painful feelings and overwhelming memories that remain,sometimes even many years later.Some try to escape those feelings and memories by numbing themselves with binge food or through starvation.Some try to symbolically cleanse themselves by vomiting or abusing laxatives.Some starve themselves because they believe they are "bad" and do not deserve the comfort of food and the nurture it represents.

-You may read more information on anorexia HERE
-You may read more information on bulimia HERE

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