The Thin Twin
I did not know that "anorexia is the most deadly mental illness--more likely to kill its victims than depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder." Nor did I know that there was so little research being done in that field. Maybe things will change with the high-profile treatment of Mary-Kate Olsen; then again, Karen Carpenter was the Mary-Kate of her day, wasn't she?
posted by mo pie at 2:49 PM
1 Comments:
Hi! I've never commented before, but as a doctoral student in clinical psychology writing a dissertation on media influence on body image and eating disorders, I think Big Fat Deal is an awesome endeavor. Thanks for spending so much time collecting these important bits of information and sharing them with the rest of us!
Just a few comments on this article: the reason anorexia is the most deadly mental illness is because of all the medical complications that go along with it- in addition to the potential of starving to death, anorectics have a host of medical problems from electrolyte imbalance, osteoporosis, hair loss, the growth of fine body hair to help keep the body warm, etc. The loss of vital minerals affects so many body systems that it poses huge health risks, and thus the statistic on being the most deadly mental illness.
Also, I think the article was a little misleading about research in this area. Of course there could always be more, and I would *love* to see some breakthroughs in science, but part of the problem is that we haven't been able to come to a concensus about the cause of eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa. There are theories about biological causes, anxiety, depression, dysfunctional family patterns, the effect of media influence, and a host of personality variables like perfectionism, etc. The truth is that a lot of these factors probably work together to cause anorexia, and probably in different combinations for different people. This makes it very difficult to treat. Most of the research I've read (over the last several years) is just scratching the surface of trying to understand this complicated disorder, so effective "breakthrough" treatments are probably far off. Right now research focuses more on treating smaller individual components of the disorder (addressing dysfunctional thought patterns, treating any anxiety that is present, doing family therapy to restructure the environment at home, etc). Anorexia has often been described as one of the most challenging disorders to try to treat because it is so complicated and the patients are (often) so reluctant to change. Hopefully we'll find some new and more effective treatments soon... keep your fingers crossed.
Sorry for taking up so much space. I could talk about this for days. :)
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