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Middle Aged with Eating Disorders

© Heather Mudgett.

Many people associate eating disorders with adolescent and teenage girls. Unfortunately, statistics now show that this is only a portion of the true population, currently struggling with eating disorders. In addition to the adolescent and teenage girls who are dealing with eating disorders, there are also young boys, men and older women who also battle eating disorders.

I have addressed eating disorders in men and boys in past articles (and will re-visit the topic again next month). This month, lets take a few minutes to consider middle aged women (and men) with eating disorders.

Let me start by addressing the term middle aged. As I am in my mid-thirties, I confess that I cringe at the term 'middle aged'. However, for the purposes of this article, the term middle aged specifically includes those of us who have passed their mid twenties.

A Mirror-Mirror.org article explains "Many people believe that eating disorders affect only teenage girls, but that could not be further from the truth. Women are under just as much pressure to be thin as teenagers are. We are seeing more and more women developing eating disorders in their twenties, thirties, forties, and beyond. The onset on anorexia, bulimia and compulsive eating can occur at any time in a person's life." The article goes on to explore reasons that a woman might develop an eating disorder later in life... marriage problems & divorce, coping with an 'empty nest' and society & media messages.

A 1996 article at MentalHealth.com summarizes a presentation Dr. Paul Hewitt PhD. gave to the 16th International Congress of Psychology. Dr. Hewitt noted the increased mortatlity rate among older anorexics, noting that " Almost four out of every five deaths (78.6%) that involved anorexia nervosa occurred in those more than 45 years of age." He also noted an increase in older male anorexics. "It appears that men are in greater proportion of people who die of the disease later in life," Dr. Hewitt said. "Probably one of the most interesting things is the gender and age association. What happens is among everybody under 45, about 10% of the deaths are in males. That dramatically increases after age 45."

A recent article in TheState.com newspaper, discusses this issue: "Eating disorders increasingly are turning up in women coping with the crises of middle age. At the Remuda Ranch in Arizona, the country's second-largest eating disorder treatment program, only 3 percent of those admitted before 1997 were older than 40. Since then, that figure has more than doubled, said Dr. Edward Cumella, Remuda's director of research. Experts say middle age, like adolescence, can be a time when women feel their lives are out of control."

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