What are the statistics of having an eating disorder?

[triks]

What are the statistics of having an eating disorder?

What are the statistics of girls with eating disorders? How many of them that start dieting at age 13-14 get an eating disorder? What percent?

[David O]

The stats are staggering

General Eating Disorder Statistics - Eating Disorder Statistics by Age:

Over one person's lifetime, at least 50,000 individuals will die as a direct result of their eating disorder.Without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment,that number falls to two to three percent (2-3%).

Eating Disorders affect a LARGE number of people in the United States.The statistics state that:

* Approximately 7 million girls and women struggle with eating disorders;

* Approximately 1 million boys and men struggle with eating disorders.

Amount of people affected by specific eating disorders:

* 0.5% - 3.7% of females suffer from Anorexia Nervosa in their lifetime;

* 1.1% - 4.2% of females suffer from Bulimia Nervosa in their lifetime;

* 2% - 5% of the American population experience Binge Eating Disorder;

* 10%-25% of all those battling anorexia will die as a direct result of the eating disorder;

* Up to 19% of college aged women in America are bulimic.

Age Eating Disorder Statistics:

* 10% report onset at 10 years or younger;

* 33% report onset between ages of 11-15;

* 43% report onset between ages of 16-20;

* 86% report onset of illness by the age of 20.

College Eating Disorder Statistics:

* As many as 10% of college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder, including 5.1% who suffer from bulimia nervosa.

* Studies indicate that by their first year of college, 4.5 to 18% of women and 0.4% of men have a history of bulimia and that as many as 1% of females between the ages of 12 and 18 have anorexia;

MORTALITY AND RECOVERY RATES:

Without treatment, up to twenty percent (20%) of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, that number falls to 2-3%...With treatment about 60% of people with eating disorders recover. They maintain healthy weight. They eat a varied diet of normal foods and do not choose exclusively low-cal and non-fat items. They participate in friendships and romantic relationships. They create families and careers. Many say they feel they are stronger people and more insightful about life in general and themselves in particular than they would have been without the disorder.

In spite of treatment, about 20% of people with eating disorders make only partial recoveries.They remain too much focused on food and weight. They participate only peripherally in friendships and romantic relationships. They may hold jobs but seldom have meaningful careers. Much of each paycheck goes to diet books, laxatives, jazzercise classes, and binge food.

The remaining 20% do not improve, even with treatment.They are seen repeatedly in emergency rooms, eating disorders programs, and mental health clinics. Their quietly desperate lives revolve around food and weight concerns, spiraling down into depression, loneliness, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. They are,sadly, chronic cases, who, even with the biggest, strongest willpower and desire to beat the disease, could simply NOT do it, because of the long term suffering they have endured.

Hope this 100% plagiarized information helps you. Go to Wikepedia or http://www.geocities.com/edpetition/ED_CENTER/eatingdisorders_stats.html for more information.

Are you struggling with this issue right now? If so, please feel free to share with us. We're a pretty sensitive, compassionate, nonjudgmental and even wise bunch. Good luck!

[Nightwatch]

deleted by poster

Edited November 24, 2009 by Nightwatch

[mscat]

Hi Claire,

That is wonderful that you were able to overcome your ED. ! And drinking addiction. I am certain you are feeling so much better about yourself now , and can go on living a healthy , more fulfilling life.

I suffered from both Anorexia and Bulima for 9 years of my life . It started at 16, It was dreadful. I became very sick from it. ANd did not even reaslise how bad off I was I ended up being in a mental hospital though, and when I got out was heavy, but in a group home , started again with the ED. THE group home monetered the weight, put me back in the hospital each time it went down, but when I got home I was free to lose weight . I also engaged in theft. Sometimes getting caught , however, more often then not , Not getting caught. I was so invloved with the ED , that is all I did in my day. Binging/purging, stealing. The thing was I had mastered it. I tricked myself into thinking I had eaten a lot of food , and was not hungry. And really never felt hungry either, after a day of binging and purging. I was a good purger. i did not place my fingers in my throat . DId not need to . I just drank water and it all came up. That is what made it too easy for me to binge and purge. I use to engage in Laxative abuse as well. However, I got to a point where It made me too ill. Threw off my electrolytes very badly . A few times I had to go to the ER and be rehydrated. And one scary experiece , I had major , painful muscle cramps , all through my body, I was screaming in pain. I just became too thing for LAx. abuse. My foster parents made me join a ED support group. I hated that . I would sit there, bored . Never talked. Sometimes , after being dropped off, I'd go and binge, and then purge in their bathroom. ANd my father pick me up , unknowingly , that I never went. When I would go the person in charge would always look at me, and I hated that. For a long time I was a weight at 87Lbs. I am 5'4 in a half. Pretty thin. That was from both binging and purging too. However , the weight became even thinner after my foster brother got married , my foster mother forced me to not eat, she did not want me purging. SO I lost further weight . Dropped to 72 Lbs . However I agreed to go into a ED treatment program when we got back from the wedding. But by then I was real thin. So thin the ED , it was in patient , made me stay in a wheel chair . thye were concerned I was going to have a heart attack. I had 3% body fat left on me even on the inside . THey measured it. I still did not understand how sick I was, because i never felt it.

I got out of treatment had gained 25 Lbs, however lost all the weight again. Went back down to 88 Lbs. Very quickly. At that time I was seeing a LSW.

Anyway It was a very rough ED , and those years I can never take back or erase. I lose several teeth from the purging .

Gained weight extremely easy , too. So now I flipped over the overweight side of all of this. The moral of the story DO NOT engage in A ED !!! I was lucky to escape with my life .

Edited August 18, 2009 by mscat