Eating disorders are epidemic in America, and are likely to be at their most destructive and intense during this holiday period from Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve because holidays tend to stir up suppressed feelings.
Obesity, especially, is epidemic with millions of Americans overweight.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health 34 percent of Americans are obese and 32.7 percent are overweight with six percent extremely obese. These figures are based on the Institute's Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight. (Go to the NIMH website to compute your own BMI).
In addition, 3.7 percent suffer from Anorexia and 4.2 percent from Bulimia with approximately five percent suffering from binge-eating.
These disturbing numbers show clearly that we have lost sight of the simple concept of eating for nourishment.
Food has become something other than fuel for the body, a basic component of human survival. Instead, food has become a drug to soothe our tensions, a friend to cure our loneliness, or a bad thing that we need to rid our bodies of or avoid.
What causes such an obsessive preoccupation with food and eating? Therapists view family influences as a key factor in eating-disordered behavior. This is not surprising since family environment is one of the most important contributors to human development. For better or worse, the attitudes and behaviors within our families affect us.
Perfectionistic families, for example, take a tremendous toll on the emotional health of their members. They're outward centered ("How do we look to others?") rather than inward ("How are we feeling? Are we OK?"). They value appearances and achievement above all.
In the perfectionistic family there is constant pressure to be the best at everything — an impossible order for any person to fill. You are not valued as an individual but for what you can contribute to the family's public reputation. The messages you grow up with are "Measure up!," "Be good!" and "Please people."
Life, as most of us realize, is complex; no one can always be perfect. But if you are in a perfectionistic family, any slip makes you feel like a failure, as though you are out of control. Sometimes, you may think that one way to be in control is to control your weight. So, you diet rigorously, binge, or eat and purge.
Food-focused families are another source of dysfunctional eating behavior. Parents who constantly count calories and fat or who exercise compulsively send their children the message that food is a negative thing and that eating is bad.
Equally unhealthy are families that use food to reward or punish behavior or to express love or consolation. People who grow up in these kinds of families do not understand that food is not good or bad, it is just sustenance.
Families that suppress feelings or forbid conflict often have members who are eating disordered. If you grow up in this kind of dysfunctional atmosphere, you may become a compulsive overeater, trying to stuff down — with food — the feelings that you have not been allowed to express.
In families where there has been sexual abuse, victims frequently become eating disordered, starving to keep a childlike, nonsexual body or overeating to create protective, nonsexual fat. Dysfunctional family patterns are just one piece of the eating disorder puzzle. There are other contributing patterns as well, such as personality, biochemistry and culture.
With proper, specialized treatment, destructive eating patterns can be unlearned and replaced with healthy eating behaviors. People can recover from eating disorders and finally put food in proper perspective — as fuel for the body.
The American Anorexia/Bulimia Association offers in depth information about eating disorders. If any of these disorders are affecting you or someone you love, ask your physician, local hospital and/or counselor for information about eating disorder treatment providers in the Boston area.
Based in Rockport, Life and Relationship Coach Susan Britt, M.Ed., a psychotherapist and former university director of career and counseling services, teaches individuals, couples, and families to resolve relationship conflicts, achieve life and career goals, and accelerate personal growth. Questions and comments may be addressed to her at susanbritt1@verizon.net.
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