A True Mid-Life Crisis On The Rise

Eating disorders, which were once mainly found in young adults are now becoming increasingly common in middle-aged women and women even older than that. Some of these women are those who had an eating disorder at a younger age and have relapsed; however, a number of these older women develop these symptoms for the first time in their middle ages. According to a the director of Eating Disorders Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, eating disorders were initially aimed at adolescents, but since 2003 half of those diagnosed with eating disorder symptoms have been adults. Older women are still feeling the societal pressures of thinness and the need to look fit - women in their 50's, 60's, and sometimes even older than that. The symptoms in adolescents are similar as those seen in adults, in that they are engaging in destructive behaviors to their health such as restricted eating, abusing the use of laxatives, exercising excessively, and binge eating. The triggers of eating disorders for adolescents and adults differ, but the basis is the same in that their eating disorders are most commonly triggered by a stressful transition. For instance, an eating disorder could be triggered in an adolescent for the stressful transition of his/her parents getting divorced or heading off to college. For an adult, eating disorders can be triggered by the stressful transition of going through a divorce or his/her own, sending a child off to college, or having a baby. Some researchers on eating disorders believe that the percentage of adults with eating disorders is much higher than currently known, but most adult females fly under the radar because with age, adults get better at concealing problems and also because the symptoms can easily be attributed to age. One adult female recovering from an eating disorder was interviewed and said that her doctors attributed the development of anemia and osteoporosis to aging and the loss of menstruation to early menopause rather than the real underlying factor, malnourishment due to an eating disorder. Researchers are on this topic are trying to raise awareness, especially in physicians so that these doctors can distinguish between the symptoms of an eating disorder and the traits of aging in their patients. These researchers believe that people need to be more aware of the fact that eating disorders affect people of all ages and that is not simply an adolescent problem.

This article relates to the world today because there are areas of the world in which a great percentage of the population has some type of eating disorder. In the United States especially, it goes unnoticed that the percentage of adults with eating disorders is rising. As stated in the article, this is important to note because it could mean that the percentage is much higher due to the fact that so many adult women are going undiagnosed. Thus, with this information physicians are gaining knowledge and are able be more skeptical of eating disorder-like symptoms without passing them off as the aging process. The information also raises society's awareness of the fact that more adults are getting diagnosed with eating disorders, which will potentially be beneficial in that people will be more skeptical of rapid weight loss in an individual they know, which could lead to that individual getting needed help before it is too late. Society needs to understand that eating disorders are no longer an adolescent targeted disease and begin to evaluate why this change has occurred and why older women are now feeling the pressures of thinness and being fit more than ever before.

Eating disorders have always been of interest to me and the psychology behind them, but they also hit close to home for me, so I decided to write up on this article. I feel that the information in it is really important for people to know because what the researchers were saying really makes sense. Most of the symptoms of eating disorders could easily pass as old age in women. It would be really difficult for anyone to get the idea that an older women they know who has been eating less and using laxatives, stopped menstruating, and has brittle bones has an eating disorder rather than just assuming she is getting old. I know that if my mom began experiencing these symptoms in about ten to fifteen years, I would never in my life assume that she has developed an eating disorder - I would have attributed all of those symptoms to old age. The line between these symptoms is very unclear and so it is important that people who are very educated in fields involving health, specifically physicians and doctors, gain awareness and knowledge about this information so that they can recognize an eating disorder when it is there, but may not be very obvious to family and friends.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/an-older-generation-falls-prey-to-eating-disorders/?ref=science