There appears to be several common behavioural patterns associated with eating disorders. These patterns are called anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, and increasingly becoming a concern, chronic dieting. While the symptoms associated with anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, and chronic dieting may vary, they all share some common elements. They are all reinforced by a culture that imposes rigid ideals about weight and body size on women and they typically begin with dieting. In addition, eating disorders represent a way of coping with emotional issues and stressful situations. Eating disorders are disturbingly common in Western cultures. Research statistics suggest:
- 90 - 95% of people with eating disorders are women
- 5% of adolescent and adult women have an eating disorder
- 1 - 3% of female adolescents have anorexia, or 1 to 3 out of every 100 young women have anorexia
- 4 - 10% of young women or 4 to 10 out of 100 young women have bulimia
Many organisations that treat eating disorders are opposed to using the term disorder to describe a woman's problematic relationship with food and body shape because disorder implies that something is wrong with women. These organisations recognise that it is quite natural for women to have problems and issues centring on food and weight, since women live in a culture that dictates unattainable standards of thinness and slenderness for women.
Western cultures label women's natural shapes and variations in body size as fat and unacceptable and these cultural forces lead women to believe that there is something inherently wrong with themselves. Thus, in order to recognise eating problems as logical adaptive responses to illogical cultural demands and attitudes, North Shore Women's Centre prefers to join other feminist organisations in calling eating disorders, eating problems or eating difficulties. When addressing eating difficulties, it is important to realise that problems with eating are real. In some way, we are all affected by the social and cultural pressures that dictate ideal weight, body size, and body shape. A person at one end of the spectrum may feel mildly dissatisfied with their body and wish they better resembled our cultural ideals of thinness. Another person may exercise constantly, fitting their day into their exercise routine rather than their exercise routine into their day. Compulsive dieting, compulsive eating, anorexia, and bulimia occupy spaces further along the continuum and represent a more problematic relationship with food and body image.
An eating problem often exists in conjunction with other mental and emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, and other compulsive behaviours around alcohol, drugs, sex, etc... Thus, it is important to consider all areas of a woman's life that may be distressed.
