Doctors See Increase In Older Anorexics

No Longer Just A Young Woman's Disease, More Middle-Aged Women Seeking Help For Eating Disorders

(AP)  Kelli Smith was nervous as she walked into the Philadelphia treatment center, seeking help at last for her anorexia. Looking around at the other patients, she was struck by how young they seemed.

"I just kind of looked around and I thought, 'Oh, where is someone my age?"' recalls Smith. At age 31, she found herself face-to-face with teenagers and 20-somethings.

Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have long been considered diseases of the young, but experts say in recent years more women have been seeking help in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and older. Some treatment centers are creating special programs for these more mature patients.

Most of the women in this age group who seek treatment have had the problem for years, said Dr. Donald McAlpine, director of an eating disorders clinic at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "The epidemiology is pretty clear that anorexia and bulimia both peak in the late teens, early 20s," yet "a lot of (patients) continue to be symptomatic right on through to middle life."

People who study eating disorders suggest several reasons there might be more women over 30 seeking treatment for what is typically a young woman's problem: growing public awareness, social pressure to be thin and an aging group of baby boomers.

National statistics on eating disorders are hard to come by, but data from some treatment centers suggest a steady increase.

In the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, Park Nicollet Health Services' Eating Disorders Institute saw 43 patients ages 38 and older in 2003 — about 9 percent of its total patients. For the first six months of this year, the institute has treated nearly 500 patients 38 and older, about 35 percent of its total.

The Renfrew Center, a network of treatment centers in the eastern U.S., said it saw a steady increase in the percentage of patients 30 and older who sought treatment at its Philadelphia center for eating disorders, peaking at 20 percent of 522 patients in 2005 before declining in 2006.

[shoujoboy-2009]

This disturbs me but not for the obvious reason. This should be a young persons problem. They are trying to be attractive and popular and that's part of youth and the slow growth from adolescence. However if we are having 30 somethings and above doing this same thing now than there is a deeper problem. If these people who should be mature enough by now to know that this is a bad idea and that they should have bigger issues than their weight then they are not anorexic so much as outright retarded. I mean you are 30+ you should be worried about your career, your family etc etc not whether you weight 100 pounds and can fit into a size -2 dress. If you are still that childish then you have deep seeded problems that isn't anorexia.

[rushman71]

To the ladies out there who feel uncomfortable about their size and weight: There is absolutely nothing, I repeat, nothing wrong with being a little bit bigger than a celebrity. You are fine, or shall I say beautiful, the way you are. People who are the size of Paris Hilton, Nicole Richy, the Olson Twins, etc., make me sick to look at. They are nothing but skin and bones. To me, a lady looks beautiful with a voluptuous body. I'm not a masseuse, but I enjoy giving ladies a little shoulder and back rub. It feels much more nicer to massage a lady who has a little weight, compared to a lady who looks like a tooth pick.