Women over 30 struggling with eating disorders too

A friend broke down in tears while we were on our way to dinner one night freshman year and confessed she had an eating disorder. She had been struggling with anorexia and bulimia since high school, and she asked me to help her. Twice a week for a few months I accompanied my friend to the mental health center and sat in the waiting room while she spoke with a nutritionist/counselor. She began to feel better about herself and her body and slowly began to eat like a healthy young woman again. Today, she says she still struggles with this problem occasionally although it's not as bad. Anytime I think about her, I wonder if eating disorders stay with people forever or if it's possible to completely recover.

New research suggests eating disorders, which have often been thought of as a disease for teens and earlier 20s, may remain an issue in a person's life through their 30s, 40s and even 50s. Additionally, more women are developing eating disorders later in life, according to an Associated Press article, "More women over 30 battling eating disorders."

"The epidemiology is pretty clear that anorexia and bulimia both peek in the late teens, early 20s," said Dr. Donald McAlpine, director of an eating disorders program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in the AP article, yet "a lot of (patients) continue to be symptomatic right on through to middle life."

Although national statistics are difficult to find, data from some treatment centers suggest a steady increase, according to the article. For the first six months of this year, 35 percent of the patients were over 38 years old at the Park Nicollet Health Services' Eating Disorders Institute in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park.

That's 500 women over 38 seeking treatment in one institute!

Holly Grishkat, who directs outpatient programs at the Renfrew Center, a network of treatment centers in the eastern U.S., said in the AP article that women over 30 who seek treatment fall into three categories: women that have had an eating disorder for years, women who had an eating disorder in remission that resurface because of new stress in life, such as divorce or loss of a parent, or women who develop an eating disorder late in life (the smallest group).

People who study eating disorders say that growing public awareness, social pressure to be thin and an aging group of baby boomers may be reasons for the over 30 crowd to be seeking treatment for something that is typically a young woman's problem, according to the article.

Whatever the reasons, I hope that my friend does not have to seek help into her middle age years.

For more information on eating disorders and what you can do it you or a friend is in need of help visit the National Eating Disorders Web site.