Eating Disorders News and Views: June 22, 2012

Sober Days: Anorexia, alcoholism linked?
my desert

Question: I have been in recovery with A.A. for 3½ years; I am also anorexic. Is there a connection between alcoholism and anorexia/bulimia?

answer: There is evidence of a relationship between eating disorders and alcohol abuse in women.

A study of two populations of adult women — those presenting for alcoholism treatment and those
Read Sober Days in full


Why women who starve themselves MUST be force-fed: Liz Jones backs the judge who ruled an anorexic girl must be kept alive against her will
the daily mail

Sitting at my kitchen table with a piece of toast in front of me, I feel stressed, tired and unhappy, so I don’t want to eat it.

I have to eat it, because if I don’t, I’ll be ill. I put it in my mouth. I want to gag, but I chew. I swallow hard. It’s a tiny square of wholemeal bread. I give the crust to my dog.

I force-feed myself — not every day, but often, when life becomes too much to bear. It’s hard, but it saves my life.

A debate is raging about whether Mr Justice Peter Jackson was right to order an anorexic 32-year-old woman in Wales to be force-fed to keep her alive — against not just her wishes, but those of her parents.
Read Starve in full


Should Anorexics Be Force-Fed?
the huffington post

Should Anorexics be force fed? The latest legal ruling could kill the patient - but doing nothing might also condemn her to death.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that a leading judge who sits in the Court of Protection, Mr Justice Peter Jackson, has ruled that a former medical student suffering from severe anorexia nervosa, and who is at a life-threatening low weight, should be force-fed against her wishes by doctors.
Read Force Fed in full


Coroner blames fashion industry for bulimic schoolgirl's death
itv news

The fashion industry was squarely blamed by a coroner today for the death of a schoolgirl who was found hanged after suffering from an eating disorder.

Michael Rose, the West Somerset Coroner, called on magazines and catwalks to stop using thin models after Fiona Geraghty was found dead at her home, near Taunton, last year.

The 14-year-old schoolgirl, who had been suffering from bulimia, hanged herself in her bedroom in July last year. She had confided in health staff that she had been taunted by other girls at her public school because of her weight.
Read Blames in full


Eating Disorders in Women Over 50
Survey Shows Women in Their 50s Binge, Purge, and Diet Nearly as Often as Adolescents
Web MD

Eating disorders don't just strike teens. A new survey shows that middle-aged women binge, purge, and engage in extreme exercise and dieting about as often as adolescents do.

"Strikingly, things are as bad in this age group as they are in the younger age groups. I was sort of gobsmacked that 8% reported purging in the last five years," says researcher Cynthia M. Bulik, PhD, director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program, in Chapel Hill.
Read Women in their 50s in full


New Research Strategy for Binge Eating
psych central

Researchers have discovered that blocking the Sigma-1 receptor, a cellular protein, reduced binge eating and caused binge eaters to eat more slowly.

Binge eating disorder affects 15 million Americans and is believed to be the eating disorder that most closely resembles substance abuse and dependency.

Binge eaters typically gorge on junk foods excessively and compulsively despite knowing the adverse consequences, which are physical, emotional and social in nature.
Read New Strategy in full



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Eating Disorders News and Views: May 18, 2012

  Eating Disorders in Men: An Interview With Dr. Roberto Olivardia
Huff Post Healthy Living

Dr. Roberto Olivardia is a clinical instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and assistant psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Arlington, Mass., where he specializes in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and compulsive skin-picking. He also specializes in the treatment of eating disorders in boys and men. Dr. Olivardia is a co-author of The Adonis Complex, a book which details the various manifestations of body image problems in men, including eating disorders, BDD, steroid use, and cosmetic surgery.

What inspired you to specialize in eating disorders in men?
Read EDs In Men in full.


Brain Reward Systems Of Obese Women Different From Those Of Women With Anorexia: Study
Huffington Post

The brain reward systems of women with anorexia may work differently from those of women who are obese, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that women who are anorexic have sensitized brain reward circuits, while women who are obese have desensitized brain reward circuits.
Read Brain Reward System in full.


Tyra Banks applauds Vogue decision to nix too-thin models; Mag to ban models under 16 who appear to have eating disorders
Daily News

The model turned talk-show host is praising Vogue magazine for its recent pledge to stop using too skinny models or girls who appear to suffering from an eating disorder.

The fashion tome will reportedly no longer feature models under the age of 16.

Banks called Vogue’s decision “the beginning of something huge."

In an open letter to The Daily Beast, Banks talked about her own struggles to keep her weight down to a size 4 and the unhealthy things women did to keep thin.
Read Tyra Banks in full.


Is your daughter or son trying to hide anorexia?
The Mirror

When a child or teenager feels they’re being controlled by the people around them, they use anorexia to seize control back.

I was deeply saddened recently to read that anorexia had claimed the life of Charlotte Seddon, a lovely girl of 17 and a star student who had everything to live for.

Yes, it’s a salutary story. She first stopped eating when she was 12.

Like many anorexics, she was bright and devious enough to fool her parents that she was eating (despite profound weight loss).

Anorexics cleverly cover their tracks spreading crumbs, leaving buttery knives on the table, false traces of toast uneaten and consigned to the bin when no one is looking.
Read Hiding in full.


Dukan Diet guru struck off medical register after saying children who lose weight should be given extra marks at school
Daily Mail

A diet guru whose fans include the Duchess of Cambridge's mother has been struck off the medical register in France after being accused of misadvising teenagers.

Pierre Dukan, 70, asked to be removed from the doctors’ list at his own request because he was facing disciplinary action.

The nutritionist had used a book to propose ideal weights for 17 and 18 year-old school pupils, giving them extra exam marks if they kept to them.
Read Diet Guru in full.


Bournemouth charity I*Eat bridges anorexia divide
BBC News Dorset

There are more than 200 new cases of anorexia and bulimia in Dorset every year. The youngest patient in the county is just 10 years old.

But this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Health professionals estimate there could be as many as 1,500 people with eating disorders in the county, many of whom do not come forward for fear of becoming stigmatised.

I*Eat in Bournemouth is a charity that aims to bridge the gap and help vulnerable people get their lives back on track - people like Vicky Field.
Read I*Eat in full. 
Find I*Eat Org here. 


Birmingham TB victim Alina Sarag 'given bulimia warning'
BBC News Birmingham & Black Country

A 15-year-old girl died of tuberculosis (TB) after being told she may have bulimia during appointments with health professionals, an inquest has heard.

A GP allegedly advised Alina Sarag, who attended Birmingham's Golden Hillock School, that her physical deterioration was due to mental health problems.

Alina was treated for TB after being diagnosed with the disease in 2009, Birmingham Coroner's Court heard.

She appeared to recover from the condition, but died in January 2011.
Read TB Victim in full.


Healthbeat Report: Uncontrollable Overeating
ABC News

When healthcare professionals diagnose mental illness, they usually turn to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders or DSM. This so-called bible of psychiatry is undergoing a major and somewhat controversial overhaul. Already under the category of eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. Now something called binge eating disorder may join the list as its own diagnosis.

So when is eating too much a true illness? Experts say there are telling signs.

The stories of binge eating patients are similar. Embarrassed, ashamed, they would eat at times till it hurt.
Read Uncontrollable Overeating in full.


Mirror, mirror: Palo Alto JCC event looks at media’s role in negative body image
J.Weekly

Sydney Calander is so accustomed to hearing her women friends tear down their own appearances that she hardly notices it anymore.

“Honestly? It’s been like that ever since I can remember,” says Calander, 20, a junior at Pitzer College in Southern California. “Around the time I turned 12 or so, I became aware of all my friends getting really critical about their bodies, the way they looked — how they felt they had to look in order to be loved, or to attract a partner.”

As a student at San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay, Calander made sure not to let her own similar thoughts spiral into negative behavior.
Read Negative Body Image in full. 


Could airbrushing ban curb desire to be thin?
Express and Star

We have a love-hate relationship with food – and both extremes of consumption come with a massive health warning.

A young woman who almost died in a four-year battle with anorexia that plunged her weight to four and a half stone has now launched a campaign to ban airbrushed images showing super-slim celebrities in glossy magazines.

Rachael Johnston, who is now aged 20 and a “healthy” size eight, wants children to be protected from the kind of images she says led to her eating disorder.

On the one hand, we want to stop the obesity epidemic that is making many of us – and our children – so unhealthy.

But on the other we don’t want to drive youngsters to extreme dieting.
Read Airbrushing in full. 


Diagnosing a public health problem: Photoshop
Philly.com

Why is it that the fatter America gets, the more unrealistically thin our ideal of what people should look like becomes? It's not just a perplexing paradox. It poses a threat to the public’s health: our nation’s obesity crisis may eventually be coupled with anorexia and bulimia crises as well.

As noted in my post last week, America is in the midst of an obesity era. Thirty-seven percent of adults and 17 percent of kids are obese, and no one is particularly happy about it. All the while, Americans are bombarded with digitally manipulated (a.k.a. “photoshopped”) images of models that are impossibly thin and blemish free.

As highlighted by recent stories by the New York Times and BBC, young women in the U.S. and abroad have began to protest the photoshopped female form and the notion that they should strive for a body that — by virtue of skeletal constraints — is literally unobtainable.
Read Photoshop in full.


Eating disorders increase risk of dying prematurely, large study shows
Examiner

A disease of vanity? Think again. Although this stereotype of eating disorders continues among the public and even some mental health professionals, new research confirms that eating disorders are serious —and lethal. Jaana T. Suokas, MD., presented findings from a new, large scale study at the prestigious American Psychiatric Association Conference held in Philadelphia yesterday.
Read Increased Risk in full.


Research Study for Moms of Anorexic Boys
Laura's Soap Box

Are you the Mother of a Son who has received inpatient treatment for Anorexia Nervosa?

If so, please consider participating in this important study, which seeks to explore and document the psychological and social caregiving experiences of these mothers.
To date, there have not been any published research studies that have focused exclusively on parents of sons with anorexia.
Read Research Study in full.


all sources linked above

Eating Disorders News and Views: April 24, 2012

The following News and Views presented do not necessarily reflect the opinion or beliefs of Weighing The Facts.
Warning: Some articles may be triggering.

Internet Crackdown on Pro-anorexia Sites

Two years ago, when Madeleine Bowman began treatment for anorexia, she stopped looking at a pro-anorexia website that for years had served as her community and her source for ideas to nurture her secret illness.

But on Tuesday she was curious and decided to take a look. Fortunately, her login had expired.

Bowman 26, of New York, is in recovery from a decade-long battle with anorexia, she said.

She'd stumbled upon the website in eighth grade, after googling "eating disorders." Bowman had been skipping meals to lose weight and she wanted to find out if she was anorexic. She then visited the site often to find new ways to hide her condition from friends and family.

Given the many social aggregators that spread information to wider and wider audiences, Bowman says that today it would be even easier for someone to find their way to a pro-anorexia site.

That might not be the case for much longer.
Read Internet Crackdown in full.


Self-Harm Banned by Instagram

Instagram, the popular online photo-sharing service that was recently bought by Facebook for US$1 billion, is banning images and accounts that condone "self-harm" behavior such as eating disorders, cutting oneself, or committing suicide.

In a blog post Friday, the company said the following:

Going forward, we won't allow accounts, images, or hashtags dedicated to glorifying, promoting, or encouraging self-harm. Should users come across content of that nature, we recommend flagging the photo or flagging the user as a "Terms of Service" violation for our Support team to review.

It is important to note that this guideline does not extend to accounts created to constructively discuss, or document personal experiences that show any form of self-harm where the intention is recovery or open discussion. While we strongly encourage people to seek help for themselves or loved ones who are suffering, we understand the importance of communication as a form of support, in order to create awareness and to assist in recovery.
Read Banned in full.


Family of Padiham victim (17) warn other families of signs of anorexia

THE family of a talented and caring Padiham teenager who died battling anorexia have called for more to be done to raise awareness and help youngsters with the disease.

Charlotte Rose Seddon (17), a straight A student, died suddenly at home in Balliol Close 12 days after leaving the Priory, Altrincham, following four months of treatment. She weighed just 6st.

An inquest into her death at Burnley Coroner’s Court heard Charlotte’s heart failed after becoming small due to a lack of nutrients.

Pathologist Dr Jane Edwards, who carried out the post-mortem examination, said there would have been no symptoms or warning, despite Charlotte having regular health checks.
Read Warn Other Families in full.


K 06 Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder

Feeding and Eating Conditions Not Elsewhere Classified

These Conditions should be considered only if the individual has a feeding or eating disturbance judged to be of clinical significance that does not meet the criteria for any of the Feeding and Eating Disorders described above. The Conditions are described briefly; detailed criteria are not provided pending additional research. Although a diagnostic hierarchy (“trumping”) is not explicitly described, only a single condition should be assigned to an individual reflecting the description that best fits the individual's symptoms.

Sufficient data are not available at present to justify designating these Conditions’ as Disorders. However, these Conditions may be associated with levels of distress and/or impairment similar to those associated with the recognized Feeding and Eating Disorders, and may require intensive clinical intervention.
Read Other Specified in full.


Study: 16 Percent Increase in Men with Eating Disorders

New data from the NHS shows a shocking rise in the number of men with eating disorders (ED’s). Over the last year, there has been a 16% increase in the number of men and boys admitted to the hospital for eating disorders. While this is a huge jump, it may only hint at the true number of men suffering from an ED.

By its very nature, disordered eating is a secretive and guilty practice. Sufferers develop an unhealthy relationship with food over time and often go to great lengths to hide the symptoms of their condition. In particular, men have a difficult time admitting they have a problem because of the stigma that still surrounds eating disorders. Conditions such as anorexia and bulimia are often seen as a women’s disease and may be labeled “unmanly”.
Read 16% Increase in full. 


Image is everything: Unfortunately, that's the case in our society

Half the girls in this country between the ages of 11 and 13 believe they are fat.

That startling statistic comes from The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders in Philadelphia and echoes what others say about the way girls think about food and their bodies.

Some young women go on fad diets or exercise binges at a time in their lives when they should be enjoying childhood and succeeding in school. Instead, they are overly preoccupied with their appearance — or better said, what they think they should look like.
Read Half The Girls in full.


Instagram, Pinterest latest to ban 'thinspo,' other 'self-harm' content

Many online communities have seen issues with "thispo" or "thinspiration" content, promotion anorexia or bulemia, and Instagram, Pintarest, and Tumblr are among services which have responded by banning "self-harm content," with Instagram the latest.

Blogging service Tumblr made its move in February, saying that while it is ”deeply committed to supporting and defending our users’ freedom of speech, [but] we do draw some limits.”
Read Latest to Ban in full

Binge Eating Disorder Continues to Rise Among Men

About 8 million men and women suffer from Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which is nearly three times the amount of those affected by Anorexia and Bulimia. With as many men affected by BED as women, The Eating Disorder Center of Denver (EDCD) aims to offer a treatment program that is accommodating and effective for both genders.

A newly recognized condition, those suffering from BED eat more than normal meal portions, feel a loss of control when eating and do not purge after binging.

Men are traditionally underrepresented in clinical trials for BED that gauge the effectiveness of treatments and are often overlooked when developing treatment programs, according to Dr. Tamara Pryor, EDCD clinical director.
Read BED Continues to Rise in full.


Demi Lovato: Bullies Sparked Bulimia

Demi Lovato's bulimia was sparked by school bullies who branded her 'fat'.

The 20-year-old former Disney star - who was admitted to rehab in 2010 for help with an eating disorder, self-harm and depression - believes her problems started at the tender age of 12.

Talking about her tormentors, she said: 'They called me a whore and told me I was fat and ugly. I shouldn't have listened, but I took it to heart and it hurt. I thought maybe I didn't have friends because I was too fat.'
Read Demi Lovato Bullies in full.


Anorexia May Be Caused By Brain Abnormality

London, April 22 (ANI): A new study has suggested that anorexia may be triggered by a defect in the brain, offering new hope that the potentially deadly eating disorder can be treated.

The pioneering research, carried out on anorexics as young as eight and using powerful new brain-imaging techniques, could lead to different treatments.

Anorexia is defined as a body weight at least 15 per cent below that expected, the Daily Express reported.

"We believe subtle problems in early brain development make patients susceptible to anorexia. We need to re-examine other mental health problems," said Psychologist Dr Ian Frampton of Exeter University, one of two researchers leading the study.
Read Anorexia Brain in full.


Pro-Anorexia 'Thinspiration' Photos Shouldn't Be Banned from Social Media

First, they came for the thinspiration pictures.

Internet censors are always agitating to ban one thing or another, and it's rarely the same thing twice. Instead, there's a revolving carousel of images that are deemed in succession to be beyond even the online pale. Each one seems to present a plausible occasion for, this once, curtailing free speech. The king wearing a pig snout. A swastika. Naked children.

Right now it's semi-naked women that the distressed classes want to cover up -- the very images on which the entirety of Western visual culture is founded.

This time, the anxiety about graven images has nothing to do with how they might arouse desire in men. We're afraid of what's known as " thinspiration," it seems, because glamorous photos of very skinny women, together with admiring captions, might arouse self-loathing in women, and thereby inspire self-mortification, and in particular anorexia.
Read Shouldn't Be Banned in full.


Scots man reveals his battle with anorexia as number of sufferers rise 

JONATHAN Hill has a year to start eating or he could die.
That is the stark warning he was given by doctors trying to help him overcome anorexia.
And he is an example of a worrying trend, with a rising number of males fighting the disorder which is usually associated with young women.
Jonathan, 29, has battled an eating disorder since he was 12.
His weight is currently six and a half stone – he used to be as low as four and a half – and hopes he is doing enough to see his fourth decade.
“I’ve accepted I’ll always have this illness. I won’t get better,” said Jonathan.
Read Scots Man in full.

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Eating Disorders News and Views: March 3, 2012

Senate Recognizes National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Surfky

FRANKFORT, KY (3/1/12) – The Kentucky State Senate has recognized that February 26 through March 3, 2012, as National Eating Disorders Week and honored the National Eating Disorders Association on the floor of the Kentucky State Senate.

“Eating disorders are a continually growing problem in Kentucky,” said Jerry P. Rhoads, D-Madisonville. “It is important to raise awareness about this issue so that our citizens will achieve a healthier lifestyle.”
Read Recognizes in full.


Anorexia on the Rise Among Kids and Anti-Obesity Campaigns Blamed
MedicalNet

According to Dr Jane Morris, chairwoman of the Scottish Eating Disorder Interest Group, healthy eating drives are causing anorexia in children. She said children were obsessing about their diet because of drives to combat obesity.

Last week reports of children as young as six were being treated for anorexia emerged, and figures showed medical treatments were on the rise. Dr Morris, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, said it was a ‘huge concern.’
Read On The Rise in full.


Anorexia Research Finds Government Intervention Justified
The Guardian

Governments are justified in using the law to prevent modelling agencies from using very skinny women on catwalks and stop magazines from printing adverts and photographs that suggest extreme thinness is attractive, according to research from the LSE.
The first-ever economic analysis of anorexia, studying nearly 3,000 young women in the UK and the rest of Europe, found that the social and cultural environment influences decisions by young women to starve themselves in search of what they perceive to be an ideal body shape.
Young women, who make up 90% of anorexia nervosa cases, are influenced by the size and weight of their peer group.
Anorexia, say the researchers, is a socially transmitted disease and appears to be more common in countries such as France, where women are thinner than the European average. It mostly affects girls and women between the ages of 15 and 34, they found, who were willing to trade off their health against self-image.
Read Justified in full.


Peer Pressure Drives Spread of Anorexia: Study
HealthNews

LONDON (Reuters) - Anorexia is a socially transmitted disorder and appears to be more prevalent in countries such as France where women are thinner than average, according to new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The "economic analysis" of anorexia, using a sample of nearly 3,000 young women across Europe, concluded that peer group pressure is one of the most significant influences on self-image and the development of anorexia and appeared just as the autumn/winter season is winding up with Paris Fashion Week.
The research by LSE economist Dr Joan Costa-Font and Professor Mireia Jofre-Bonet of City University, showed that it is becoming increasingly apparent that standards of physical appearance are important and powerful motivators of human behavior, especially regarding health and food.
Read Peer Pressure in full.


Research Fail: New Anorexia Study Focuses On Weight, Not Behavior
Blisstree

Anorexia is widely seen as a disease of isolation and loneliness–but according to a new study, it could be a “socially transmitted disease,” passed from one skinny woman to another. Researchers in London have found that body image and weight are greatly impacted by the behaviors, attitudes, and even weights our peers, which is all well and good. Unfortunately, the study has one gigantic flaw that makes it difficult to take seriously: the definition for who is “anorexic” seems to be based solely on weight, not behavior. Which may be how they do it in the DSM, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate.

Reuters reports that the researchers used a sampling of 2,871 women ranging in age from 15 to 34. The participants reported their age, gender (even though they were all female), marital status, weight, eating habits, political attitudes, education level, and body image perception.
 Read Research Fail in full.


Binge Eating is Common Yet Misunderstood
NewsWorks

It's the most common eating disorder, but it often goes undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed. Participants in this week's Binge Eating Disorder conference in Philadelphia want to change that.

Binge eating disorder can easily look like obesity since people who have it tend to be overweight. But it goes far beyond food choices and exercise. Binge eating is triggered by deep psychological distress and eating offers relief -- albeit short-lived.

Chevese Turner said she felt extremely depressed and upset after an eating binge, yet felt unable to stop this behavior which started early on in her life.

Turner was an overweight child experiencing trauma at home and at school, and food became a momentary escape. She said she was able to break the vicious cycle and get better once she understood what she was dealing with, and found a therapist specializing in this disorder
Read Misunderstood in full.


Eating Disorders Quietly Plague Black Communities
The Grio

Although white women were once thought to be the sole group battling eating disorders, over the past few years, reports of eating disorders among minorities -- particularly African-Americans -- have increased.

Stephanie Covington Armstrong, an African-American woman, shares her struggles with bulimia with theGrio.

Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Covington said she grew up poor and dealt with a series of issues that impacted her childhood, including poor eating habits, low self-esteem, and rape. She believes these traumas led to her eating disorder.

"I started thinking that something was wrong with me... that I wasn't lovable... and that I was damaged," she said. "So the way that I was able to kind of calm those fears was with food. My eating would push down all of those fears, and my eating disorder pushed over the edge."

Covington emphasized that the eating disorder gradually took over her entire life.
Read Quietly Plague in full


Weight History May Be Vital to Bulimia Treatment
PsychCentral

In a new study, researchers discovered a majority of women with bulimia nervosa reach their highest-ever body weight after developing their eating disorder — even though bulimia is characterized overall by significant weight loss.

The study concludes that exploring a woman’s weight history and the course of the eating disorder will improve productive discussion of weight and weight history, and thus improve treatments.
Read May Be Vital in full.


Anorexia Loved Me: Victim of Officer's Sex Abuse
smh.com.au

"Anorexia became my friend, it loved me"
"I could not come to terms with what he did to me"
"I have learnt that no one is above the law"
"I now have the power and no one can take that away from me"

A young woman has spoken of her battle with anorexia and depression, which left her "an inch away from death" following the sexual abuse inflicted upon her as a child by a NSW police officer.

The woman fought back tears as she delivered an extended victim impact statement in the sentencing of former Senior Constable Gregory Ernest Urch, 61, who sexually assaulted her and another minor during the mid-1990s.
Read Loved Me in full.


Is Anorexia A Female Disease? Think Again
FairfieldMirror

What do Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Billy Bob Thorton and Elvis Presley have in common? They have all suffered from eating disorders.

While eating disorders in females are often identified, male celebrities are not publicized as much but they too have fallen victim to the same disease.

In 2008, a student was diagnosed with an eating disorder after witnessing many female schoolmates obsessing over how “fat” they were. Currently receiving treatment four years later at age 14, Avi Sinai is one of many males who have suffered from anorexia nervosa.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, anorexia nervosa is a “life-threatening eating disorder”, but sex or gender is not mentioned.

Compared to women, men tend to be more secretive about anorexia due to cultural and social expectations within their own society. Thinness amongst women is advertised within the media, allowing them to battle with weight issues without it being socially unacceptable.
Read Think Again in full. 


Binge Eating: Patients Struggle to Break Free When Food Takes Control
USA Today

Peterson had been struggling with binge-eating disorder since the mid-'90s, from the time she was just 11. By late 2009, she carried more than 200 pounds on her 5-foot-2-inch frame.

"I was feeling miserable," said Peterson, who works in retail. "I couldn't walk across the parking lot, couldn't run, my back hurt. I felt like my customers thought I was stupid and were judging me."

But her vision kicked her into action, inspiring her to seek help to control her binges and lose weight.

"I lost it, because if I didn't, the binge-eating disorder would have killed me," said Peterson, 29, and more than 70 pounds lighter.
Read Struggle in full.


Anorexia Sees No Age, Color, or Gender
DailyRx

Many people believe that anorexia and bulimia are disorders most apparent amongst white teenage girls, yet a recent report demonstrates that they’re increasingly affecting minorities, children, and boys.

David Rosen, M.D, M.P.H. professor of pediatrics at University of Michigan Medical School, is the author of a new clinical report entitled "Identification and Management of Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents".

He explains, “the epidemiology of eating disorders has gradually changed.”

He calls upon his fellow pediatricians to “be familiar with early detection and appropriate management of these disorders.”
Read Anorexia Sees No in full.



Eating Disorders Consume the Lives of the Affected
Iowa State Daily

Most people are familiar with the two main types of eating disorders: anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia involves limiting the amount of food one eats while bulimia involves ridding oneself of the eaten food through purging or excessive exercise.

With this week being National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, it is the perfect time for people to become educated about what eating disorders are, who they affect and where to get help.

Eunice Bassler, senior lecturer of food science and human nutrition, explained a common misconception about eating disorders. “Eating disorders are disordered eating patterns with a psychological component.”

Bassler most often deals with disordered eating patterns, which are simply irregular eating patterns. These do not get classified as eating disorders until a psychological condition, such as a distorted view of the body or a fear of gaining weight, is identified along with the disordered eating pattern.
Read Consume in full.


Five Warning Signs of Eating Disorders in Your Teen
TimesUnion

To help attract attention to National Eating Disorders Week (February 26-March 3, 2012), eating disorders and food addictions expert Tennie McCarty offers tips to parents on how to spot eating disorders in their teen children.

“Over the years, most of the talk about eating disorders in teens has focused on anorexia and bulimia, typically blamed on unrealistic body images portrayed in the media. Increasingly however, the discussion has turned to the opposite end of the spectrum - compulsive overeating and food addiction. As the obesity rates in American children continue to skyrocket, teen overeating and addiction to food are becoming serious concerns to many parents,” said McCarty.
Read 5 Warning Signs in full.


Why You Should Care That New Eating Disorders Might Make The DSM-V
BlissTree

When most people hear ‘eating disorder,’ they think anorexia or bulimia. But there are lots of different types of disordered eating—binge eating, compulsive night eating, obsessively health-conscious eating—and psychiatrists may officially recognize several ‘new’ eating disorders in the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistic manual. The DSM guides the way psychiatrists diagnose and treat mental health patients, how insurance companies cover treatment, what researchers get grants for studying and the drugs pharmaceutical companies develop. I asked Dr. Janet Taylor, a clinical psychiatry instructor at Columbia University’s Harlem Hospital, about the DSM, new eating disorders and what these mean for mental health care.
What is the DSM-V?
Read Why You Should Care in full.


May Institute: What Women Over 40 Should Know About Eating Disorders
Wicked Local

It’s not just teenage girls who are willing to starve themselves or “binge and purge” in order to become as thin as the movie stars and fashion models they admire. Today, more and more women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are seeking help for eating disorders they have developed as they battle slowing metabolisms and thickening waistlines.

"A growing number of older women are developing eating disorders or have hidden them for years," confirms Lauren Solotar, Ph.D., ABPP, May Institute’s Chief Executive Officer and a clinical psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of eating and anxiety disorders.
Read Women Over 40 in full.


Drawing on Experience to Tell Their Eating Disorder Stories
Derby Telegraph

The idea was developed through users of the charity who found it difficult to express how they felt with words.
Lauren Hind, 20, has been using the First Steps programme for the past four years and now volunteers with the organisation.
Her creation involves a picture of her face and words, such as "fat" and "worthless", describing how she has felt.
She said: "When we first had the workshops, I got really angry because I couldn't draw.
"But then the teacher told me that art didn't have to be drawings, it could be words too. Then I came up with my piece. It doesn't have a name. It's all my thoughts and feelings that I've ever had but couldn't say."
Lauren, who lives in Sinfin, used to binge-eat and said she had avoided getting help sooner because she was afraid of being turned away.
Read Drawing On Experience in full.



Healthy Eating Campaigns ‘Causing Anorexia’
Deadline News

A SCOTS expert has said government healthy eating drives are causing anorexia in children.

Dr Jane Morris, chairwoman of the Scottish Eating Disorder Interest Group, said children were obsessing about their diet because of drives to combat obesity.
Last week reports of children as young as six were being treated for anorexia emerged, and figures showed medical treatments were on the rise.
Dr Morris, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Royal Edinburgh hospital, said it was a ‘huge concern.’
Read Causing Anorexia in full.


Anorexia and Aging: Is There a Silent Crisis of Eating Disorders in Older Women?
Family Goes Strong

Expert: "Eating disorders are the deadliest mental illnesses and premature death is very common."

It's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week from Feb. 26 – March 3. There is a lot of helpful information available on how younger and younger kids are struggling with eating disorders, how 5-year-old girls are complaining they are "fat," and how boys are now struggling in significant numbers with one of the deadliest mental illnesses there is.
Read Anorexia and Aging in full.

Eating Disorders Bloggers: What Some Are Discussing This Month

Natasha's Story: "I Was Raised Thinking I Had No Worth, No Place In This World."
Medusa

Hi Medusa,
My name is Natasha and I am 18 years old. When I think about my life, I'm never really sure when exactly I started hating myself. I had suicidal thoughts when I was around 9 years old. I was raised thinking I had no worth, no place in this world. My stepmother starved me, beat me, and ridiculed me daily.
Read in full: Natasha's Story



Being Rational
ED Bites

Although I've never experienced a full-blown psychotic episode, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with this neuroscientist's description of her own psychosis.

"Erin, you are a scientist," they'd begin. "You are intelligent, rational. Tell me, then, how can you believe that there are rats inside your brain? They're just plain too big. Besides, how could they get in?"

They were right. About my being smart, I mean; I was, after all, a graduate student in the neuroscience program at the University of British Columbia. But how could they relate that rationality to the logic of the Deep Meaning? For it was due to the Deep Meaning that the rats had infiltrated my system and were inhabiting my brain. They gnawed relentlessly on my neurons, causing massive degeneration. This was particularly upsetting to me, as I depended on a sharp mind for my work in neuroscience.

The rats spent significant periods of time consuming brain matter in the occipital lobe of my brain. I knew, from my studies, that this was the primary visual cortex. And yet, I experienced no visual deficits. Obviously, I realized, I had a very unique brain: I was able to regenerate large sections of my central nervous system—and to do so extremely quickly. I relaxed a bit, but not entirely. Surely no good could come of having rats feed on my brain cells. So I sought means of ridding my body of them. I bled them out through self-cutting and banging my head until the skin broke, bloody. Continually, I kept my brain active, electrocuting the rats that happened to be feasting on the activated neurons.   
Read in full: Being Rational



Don't You Realize That Fat Is Unhealthy?
Shapely Prose

Here’s the thing: I blog about fat acceptance.
Fat acceptance, as you can probably guess from the words “fat” and “acceptance” being right together like that, does not go over so well in some circles. Even in some progressive circles — which are usually known for not hating entire groups of people because of their appearances, not thinking what other people do with their bodies is anybody’s beeswax, and not uncritically accepting whatever moral panic the media tries to whip up, but wev. Fat is different! Don’t you know there’s an obesity epidemic? Don’t you know that fat kills? Haven’t you ever heard of Type 2 diabetes? Don’t you realize how much money this is going to cost society down the line? Won’t someone please think of the children?

So, before I start getting comments like that, I want to lay out ten principles that underlie pretty much everything I write about fat and health.

1. Weight itself is not a health problem, except in the most extreme cases (i.e., being underweight or so fat you’re immobilized). In fact, fat people live longer than thin people and are more likely to survive cardiac events, and some studies have shown that fat can protect against “infections, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, osteoporosis, anemia, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes.” Yeah, you read that right: even the goddamned diabetes. Now, I’m not saying we should all go out and get fat for our health (which we wouldn’t be able to do anyway, because no one knows how to make a naturally thin person fat any more than they know how to make a naturally fat person thin; see point 4), but I’m definitely saying obesity research is turning up surprising information all the time — much of which goes ignored by the media — and people who give a damn about critical thinking would be foolish to accept the party line on fat. Just because you’ve heard over and over and over that fat! kills! doesn’t mean it’s true. It just means that people in this culture really love saying it.
Read in full: Don't You Realize...



Eating Disorder Recovery: From Inpatient Treatment To Life
Margarita Tartakovsky

I’m thrilled to publish today’s guest post by Elizabeth Short. Just recently Elizabeth shared her story of recovery and resiliency here at Weightless (part 1 and part 2). Currently, she’s a Masters student in Counseling at The University of New Orleans, and writes the blog Fiding Hope.. Elizabeth is also in the process of  writing a memoir about her recovery. I love that Elizabeth is reaching out to others with her positive and hopeful message, and I love her guest post. It’s raw, insightful, brave and beautifully written. Plus, it offers really valuable advice. And I can’t say enough great things about it. I’m so grateful to her for sharing this with us.

Inpatient treatment for eating disorders:  Locked bathrooms.  Staff watching your every move, including time in the bathroom.  Meals and snacks are closely monitored.  No shoelaces, tweezers, coffee, gum or mouthwash.  6 a.m. weigh-ins.  Room searches.  Individual and/or group therapy all day long.

Sounds a little like prison to some, but for me, it was safety.  It meant I couldn’t restrict my intake or purge after eating.   I couldn’t use laxatives or diet pills.  I couldn’t weigh myself 50 times a day. I couldn’t stay isolated in my house for days at a time.
Read in full: From Inpatient Treatment To Life



Watch It
Happy Bodies

The other night, when refusing a second helping at a dinner party, a guy said: “None for me, I’m watching my figure.”

We all laughed.

What a silly thought, a guy, who’s young and looks fit, dieting? Ridiculous. And yet this is just expected for so many people. So often people who are read as fat (and therefore automatically unhealthy) are subjected to judgements and unwanted advice: if you only ate a little less, worked out a little more, watched your figure, you could look young and fit too!

This comment struck me particularly because I’m reading two book right now (by white men) where major female characters are made into joke figures because of their weight. While the eating habits and fitness of other characters are not chronicled, paragraphs are dedicated to Lizzyboo stopping for ice cream before dinner and every time Vera moves across a scene her jiggles or heavy breathing are remarked upon. The joke is not just fat = funny (which it isn’t) but also how stupid these women are! If she didn’t have those extra snacks she wouldn’t be such a fattie! Silly Vera, always going on binges after diets and gaining the weight back. They make it character flaw that they are fat. A flaw that they don’t know how to properly watch their figures.

A study came out recently that reported that when Forty dietetics and health promotion students enrolled in a university obesity course followed a a calorie restricted diet (1,200 calories for women and 1,500 calories for men) for just one week their was a significant change in their fat-phobias. It makes sense that once these future dietitians and health professionals realized how high the expectations were of their fat patients they would become more sympathetic. It so easy to look at someone else and think you know what is best for them, but in actuality, individuals are in the best position to make choices about their lives and bodies. Even doctors trained to take care of our health can be subject to fat-phobia, and take it out on their patients.
Read in full: Watch It 


 Reboot
Defining Wellness 

I’m proud to say I’m an optimist. Even when I’m feeling stressed, anxious or upset, and even when I’ve felt so low that I couldn’t summon the strength to get out of bed, there’s always been that voice inside of me that says, “It WILL get better. There IS hope.”
And I don’t just feel that hope for myself. I feel that hope for anyone who needs it. I believe that we all have the power to be thankful for what we have even in the midst of sadness, to take the necessary steps to make life better.
But even with this optimistic attitude, there are times when I get in a funk. I wake up and feel anxious and think, “Huh, where’d that come from?” Or I get in some kind of existential rut and I obsess about my place in the world. Or eating disorder symptoms re-emerge and I think, “You again? I thought I folded you up, packed you in a box, and buried you in a bottomless pit.”
It’s at times like these that I use that optimistic energy within me to reboot.
In a recent post, I discussed my desire to plan less . . . do more . . . NOW.
When I get in a funk, that’s half of the solution. Stop thinking about everything that’s going wrong and start living.
Read in full: Reboot



sources linked above

ED News: Recent Eating Disorders' News Articles

Claudia Faniello Speaks Out About The Monster That Ruled Her Life

Times of Malta

For years, the first thing popular singer Claudia Faniello thought about when she woke up was how she would get rid of the food she ate that day.
That thought remained with her until she closed her eyes in the evening.
"It was like a monster living inside me, something which stole my identity," she said about bulimia, the eating disorder that ruled most of her teenage years.
Speaking at the University as part of a campaign by medical students to raise awareness about eating disorders, the 21-year-old recounted how she first fell prey to bulimia.
"I was always very conscious of my body image and knew that if I wanted to take up a singing career I had to watch my weight. I felt chubby and was unhappy with the way I looked. I don't remember the moment I realised I could get rid of the food I ate by throwing up," she said.
But at 14 she began poking her fingers deep in her mouth to throw up after eating something she felt was not good for her. After some time, this became a daily routine and Ms Faniello started inducing vomiting even after drinking a glass of water.
"The situation was getting worse and whatever went into my mouth had to come back out. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up in the morning and the last thing before going to sleep at night."

Read in full here.

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New Campaign Helps Parents with Kids with Eating Disorders

kyw1060

Miss America 2008 has joined with Pennsylvania's Renfrew Center in a new program to help parents fight eating disorders in their children.
The Renfrew Center's Mom's L.U.V campaign is designed to encourage parents to help their teens battle eating disorders. Miss America 2008 Kristen Haglund battled anorexia nervosa when she was 12. Her parents, both nurses, identified what was going on and took Kristen for treatment.
Kristen says many times, parents suspect but are not empowered enough to get involved:

Read in full here.

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Teenage Latinas Stitch Together A Positive Body Image
by Meribah Knight

The six girls sitting in the church basement come here every Thursday to learn the 101’s of sewing and pattern making, but tonight they are in for a very different lesson.
“Do any of you watch the media or watch TV and say ‘I want to be that person and if I don’t dress like her I don’t feel good about myself?’” asks Kerstin Collett, who leads the class in Holy Cross Church in Chicago’s Back of the Yards.
A resounding “noooooooo, no, no, no,” reverberates across the room.
Today the sewing machines have been put away and instead drawn on the board are three shapes: the hourglass, the triangle and the inverted triangle. They represent the variety of shapes that women come in, and Collett hopes they will provide a frame of reference for the girls to categorize their own figures.
Measuring tapes are brought out and the students, ages 12 to 16, take their measurements in preparation for the patterns they will create for themselves. No sizes and no brands, just their ideas and their bodies.
A growing population at risk
While these girls are adamant that the allure of stick-thin models has no hold on them, their age and demographic tell a different story.

Read in full here.

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There She Is, Strong and Healthy: Miss America 2008 Speaks Out On Eating Disorders

By Korie Wilkins

She poses like a champion, one foot in front of the other, a dazzling -- yet not forced-looking -- smile at the ready.
And even when she's asked the same questions over and over, when she has to shake one more hand, smile for one more picture or when yet another little girl begs to see her sparkly crown, Farmington Hills, Mich., native Kirsten Haglund -- Miss America 2008 -- obliges.
After all, she's more than a beauty queen. She's a role model for women, especially those who suffer from eating disorders.
Her mother, Iora Haglund, never thought she'd see her daughter go to college -- let alone be crowned Miss America. Just five years ago, Kirsten Haglund was so sick, so deep in the throes of anorexia, her family had shelved dreams of a normal future and was just trying to get her back to being healthy.
But Haglund managed to overcome it, and is now trying to help others with eating disorders though a nonprofit she started, the Kirsten Haglund Foundation.
"I have to give back," says Haglund, 20. "That's very important to me. We're all given struggles in our lives. We have to use those struggles for good.

Read in full here.

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Emotions Can Help Predict Future Eating Disorders

ScienceDaily

A PhD thesis at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has analysed the role played by a number of emotional variables, such as the way in which negative emotions are controlled or attitudes to emotional expression, and to use these variables as tools to predict the possibility of suffering an eating disorder.

The author of the thesis, Ms. Aitziber Pascual Jimeno, presented her work under the title, Emotions and emotional control in eating disorders: predictor role and emotional profiles.*
This work focused on two objectives: to find out if certain emotional variables play an significant role in the development of these disorders; and to know in more detail the emotional profiles, both of women at risk of contracting an eating disorder as well as of those already suffering from one.
To this end, the following emotional variables have been specified: those relative to emotional experience —the frequency of positive and negative emotions, anxiety, low self-esteem and the influence of diet, weight and the body shape on the emotional state—; negative perception of emotions, negative attitude to emotional expression, alexithymia —the inability to identify own emotions and to express them verbally— and the manner of controlling negative emotions.
Moreover, another variable has also been taken into account: the need for control. This variable is not strictly emotional, but has a clear emotional component, given that people with a high need for control, experience anxiety and unwellness when perceiving lack of control.

Read in full here.

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Running On Empty Can Be Deadly For Young Female Athletes

By Tom Held

Research has pinpointed the physical components of the female athlete triad: disordered eating, disrupted menstrual cycles and osteoporosis.
Doug DeVinny lives the emotional element: grief.
His daughter, Alex, was a state champion in cross country and track at Racine Park High School in 2003 and 2004. She won scores of races but lost the battle with anorexia nervosa, and died of heart failure at age 20.

It’s her memory that compelled DeVinny to organize the “Running on Empty” conference at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside this Friday, bringing together experts on the specific threats to young female athletes. Anne Hoch, director of women’s sports medicine at the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin will be the keynote speaker.
“It is very difficult for my wife and I to do this,” DeVinny said. “Part of the mission, part of what we owe to our daughter, what we couldn’t do for her, perhaps we can do for somebody else.
“I hate to sound so evangelical about it, but we are obligated to that in a sense, and we want to do that.”
Much of the public knows the story of Alex DeVinny, the high school champion who earned an athletic scholarship to South Carolina University. She drew acclaim and attention with her instant success as a tiny freshman.
That public shine hid much of her private struggle.

Read in full here.

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Students In Bid To Beef Up Awareness Of Eating Disorders
by Cynthia Busuttil

Medical students have taken it upon themselves to raise awareness about eating disorders after finding that university students are poorly informed about such conditions.
A survey carried out last week among some 150 students found that many were under the impression that it was only the stick-thin people who suffered from eating disorders and that these problems all revolved around weight loss.
"In fact, compulsive overeating was never mentioned," student Alexia Farrugia said, adding that very few students thought of eating disorders as a psychological problem.
This was not an unexpected result since an exercise by the Malta Medical Students Association last December found that adults had very little knowledge about eating disorders.
Very few students knew that eating disorders could affect both males and females and even fewer were aware that it could affect adults, thinking it was a disorder that solely affected teenage girls. Although teenage girls are the most common sufferers, everyone can be affected by the condition.
"We felt the need to raise awareness and inform students about eating disorders and how to recognise symptoms," Claire Cassar, a second-year student, said.

Read in full here.

sources linked above

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2009: ED News

In Good Health: Eating Disorders Awareness Week
The Fedrick News-post

This week is Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Up to 10 million people in the U.S. have some type of eating disorder, according to the National Eating Disorders Association, and the costs are high in both dollars and human life.

Anorexia nervosa, which includes self-starvation and excessive weight loss, has the highest premature mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder, according to NEDA. The annual cost to treat eating disorder patients in the U.S. is between $5 billion and $6 billion.

While eating disorders can start as preoccupations with food and weight, they often have a more complicated cause, according to NEDA. Behavioral, emotional, and social factors often contribute to the development of eating disorders as the affected person attempts to control food as a way to deal with overwhelming issues.

Read in full here.

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Dallas Woman Uses Own Recovery From Eating Disorder To Help Others
Pegasus

Abbie Chesney knows what it's like to be hungry. She also knows what it's like to be depressed. When the Dallas native was 16 and a student at Lake Highlands High School, she fell into a cycle: She would stop eating to make herself feel better, but then feel worse because she was not eating. So she'd abstain from eating even more.

"If I didn't eat, I would focus on the fact that I was so hungry, and not think about being depressed," she says.

The problem got so bad that she lost more than a third of her body weight in eight months. By age 16, she was diagnosed with anorexia and ended up at Baylor Hospital's eating disorder treatment program for five weeks.

"My body had deteriorated so bad that I had four leaking heart valves," she says.

Read in full here.

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GPs Are Failing Patients With Anorexia And Bulimia, Claims Charity
Nursing Times

It found that 59% of respondents had visited their GP about an eating disorder. But only 15% of respondents felt their GP understood eating disorders and knew how to help.

One patient said: 'When I first went to see my GP they didn't listen at all. They just told me it was a phase I was going through.'

Read in full here.
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Children (9) Seeking Help For Eating Disorders
Herald. ie

Children as young as nine are seeking help for eating disorders, a national support group has revealed.

Bodywhys chief executive Jacinta Hastings says the increasingly young age profile of callers is a worrying trend.

"The children affected by eating disorders are not only getting younger, but their conditions are becoming more complex. There is also a rise in the number of boys contacting us.

"There is peer pressure to conform to achieve a certain look, and what with societal pressure and the pressure of their own expectations, young people are becoming increasingly susceptible to eating disorders," said Ms Hastings.

Read in full here.
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Fighting The Inner Anorexic
BBC Today

Statistics released in response to a parliamentary question show an 80% rise in sufferers age 16 or under between 2006-7.

Of the 462 cases there was also a 207% rise in hospitalizations for 12-year-olds - from 13 to 40.

For those who are not anorexic, the condition can seem utterly incomprehensible. To help understand the disorder, Today presenter Evan Davis spoke to Constance Barter and her mother Sarah about their battle to overcome Constance's anorexia.

Read in full here.

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When Your Food Is Your Child's Enemy

IrishTimes

Eating disorders can be hard to diagnose and treat, and it can take five years to get to grips with anorexia once treatment starts, writes SHEILA WAYMAN

WHO DOESN’T have some sort of issue with food these days? It’s not surprising when we’re bombarded with advice on what we should or shouldn’t eat; regularly presented with “miracle” diets endorsed by some glamorous celebrity, and it’s deemed “news” when a pop singer is spotted wearing her size eight jeans days after giving birth.

Read in full here.