Eating Disorders... Then & Now

I'm sure many people do not know just how far back eating disorders go.  England was the first country to diagnose patients with anorexia in the 1870's.  It is also said that many of the ancient greeks practiced bulimia by binging and purging on a daily basis.  There is no known "cause" for eating disorders because there are so many factors believed to contribute to them.  If one has low self-esteem, that can be a big contribution. Some other causes of these disorders could simply be feeling helpless, using it as a way to handle stress and concerns, or just wanting to have control over something in your life. For other people, the main cause might be just being fearful of becoming over weight. But some eating disorder sufferers do not have much of a choice when it comes to having this disease, because genetics play a big part. If an eating disorder runs in your family, then that may also be a main cause. In some families, the mother is extremely concerned about her daughter's weight, and that concern can lead to the child becoming over cautious as well, which then can lead to an eating disorder.  

Five to ten years ago, eating disorders were just about as prevalent as they are today.  There are many more technological advances in todays world however than there was a few years ago.  Previously, when diagnosed with an eating disorder, doctors would focus primarily on the physical effects of the patients rather than the psychological causes.  A process called “re-feeding” would begin to get someone back up to a normal and healthy weight.  Once physicians found out that after a patient met this goal, they would almost automatically revert back to old ways, and lose the weight again.  That is why now eating disorders are considered psychological disorders.  

In previous years, people with eating disorders did not have the support that I found in technology.  A common treatment for “ED,” was therapy, more specifically, cognitive behavioral therapy, which is still used today.  That type of therapy taught the patient to change the way they thought about things, and to help them have a higher self image of themselves.  Instead of what many people striving towards recovery now use, which is blogging to fellow ED sufferers, they used journaling to get their thoughts out.  This was and still is a very common technique used, however, there is no feedback as there is when you are connecting with someone through technology.  There were limited amounts of support groups, whereas today, one can find a support group in just about any city just by typing “eating disorder support groups,” into a search bar.  

The only future challenges that are foreseeable are the pro-eating disorder websites.  More and more of these sites go up everyday, and can be very “triggering” (make someone who has an eating disorder want to revert back to old habits) to someone newly in recovery.  Also, another challenge that threatens technology and eating disorders are the wrong people getting into the supposedly “safe” chat rooms and blog sites.  The only solution I can see at this point is to just be careful as to what websites you visit, and have an entrusted friend be with you if needed while you are looking up your information. 

-Jessicca G :)