National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

February 26 to March 4 is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week in Canada. The National Eating Disorder Information Centre (NEDIC) is a great resource for Canadians looking for treatment for themselves or for a loved one. It has easy to understand information that goes into more detail about what constitutes an eating disorder. Canada Drug Rehab has listings of private practice therapists as well as residential treatment facilities that focus on eating disorders. Today’s blog looks at what an eating disorder is, why body image in children needs to be monitored, and treatment options.

How do you know if you have an eating disorder?

Similar to substance addictions, if your thoughts, feelings, and subsequent actions in regards to food, weight, and/or body image are overtaking other areas of your life then you may have disordered eating. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the more well known eating disorders, but there is a wider range. Signs and symptoms of anorexia include: food restriction, intense exercise, strong fear of gaining weight, and a very distorted body image. Signs and symptoms of bulimia are similar but the key difference is that after a period of food restriction, the person binge eats and then attempts to purge their body of these unwanted calories.

Children and eating disorders

The mental and physical toll of eating disorders is great. If an eating disorder appears in childhood it can seriously damage the child’s mental and physical growth development. Young girls and boys are now at risk of developing an eating disorder at rates not seen in the past. A 2002 survey reported almost 30% of early high school girls engaged in weight loss strategies. 19% of children who were deemed normal weight according to their BMIs still believed they were overweight. This is often attributed to the images portrayed in the media, and the mass availability of media and social media.

Treatment

Treatment varies person to person, but the conventional therapy ideology is that there are two kinds of issues that need to be addressed. The physiological issues such as the actual weight loss and the unhealthy actions around food and weight and body image. As well as the underlying psychological issues that lead to the eating disorder. Many private practice therapists specialise in eating disorders and this can often be enough to assist someone to recovery. However, there are residential treatment centres in some provinces that are eating disorder specific that you can access here.

References:

• Understanding Statistics on Eating Disorders
• Clinical Definitions of Eating Disorders
• Understanding Treatment Options for Eating Disorders
• Eating Disorder Treatment Listings

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