Statistics show that it’s actually a very small amount of people that develop eating disorders — 4% of people are diagnosed with bulimia in their lifetime, and somewhere between 4.2 and just 1% of people are diagnosed with anorexia.
So why all the eating disorder awareness fuss?
Because this week is about much more than just the eating disorders that make it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. It’s about addressing an entire culture of dieting and disordered eating.
In the United States there are more than 108 million people who are on a diet. The weight-loss industry — which includes diet books, diet drugs, and weight-loss surgeries — amounts to more than $20 billion. We as a society have a dysfunctional relationship to food, whether that’s being scared by fad diets into undernourishing ourselves, mindlessly eating unhealthy amounts of food, or anything in between.
Aren’t you tired of working so hard and worrying so much about all of this?
Please read my article for Proud2BMe on Day 5 of NEDAwareness Week, which spotlights dieting, orthorexia, and subclinical eating disorders. In it, I discuss why eating disorder awareness is not just for the eating disordered.
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I'm a writer, a mental health activist, and a 20-something in recovery from an eating disorder. This blog chronicles my journey through the middle ground toward full recovery.
