Therapy Analysis - Anorexia & Bulimia
Anorexia & bulimia: dying to be slim
It appears to be all the rage; Nicole Richie has one, Calista Flockhart had one, as did Geri Halliwell, Mary-Kate Olsen and even our own dear Princess Diana.
Although this may sound like marketing for a rare Fendi handbag, it actually relates to eating disorders, a topic not to be taken lightly.
Eating disorders are much more than 'slimming diseases'. They are complex mental illnesses that affect both males and females at an increasingly alarming rate, and are characterized by a fear of weight gain and a distorted body image with associated changes in mood, perception, eating behaviours and response to physical and emotional cues. Not surprisingly, such disorders rank as the third most common chronic illness in adolescent females. Eating disorders are catagorized into two major subgroups: anorexia nervosa, a restrictive form in which food intake is severely limited, and bulimia nervosa, where binge eating is compensated for by vomiting, catharsis, exercising or fasting.
