Comments on: The bio-psycho-social-economical model

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:45:34 +0000

A few things:
First, I completely agree that those suffering from EDs struggle when they have too much time. So, being laid off is definitely a problem, as there is too much head time.

I also think that a rough economy creates a lot of internal stress. In my experience my ED is at its worst when I am stressed in any sense (i think my ED has developed in an effort to control my anxiety.. thoughts on this?). So instead of focusing on the anxiety, some may gravitate towards eating and exercise. Personally, I control my anxiety through exercise. In the event that I am unable to exercise I tend to freak out (not always, but when I am stressed out, yes). If exercise is limited eating habits can become worse.

I think the question of whether or not the poor economy causes more people to seek treatment is a matter of environment and the state of the person. If the person is unstable to begin with, it is less likely he/she will seek help. And, I think there would be less time for family to recognize problems- most are too wrapped up in their own issues.

I like your points, though. If the person is more stable and the proper environment is present, it is completely reasonable that that person would seek help. But again, it all depends.

I hope this makes sense! I kind of rambled.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:02:52 +0000

Wait, you are talking about eating disorders and not just anorexia aren’t you? Because people with bulimia eat A LOT, and so do compulsive overeaters and binge eaters. They may or may not purge by exercising or vomiting. They may or may not be losing weight or even care about their weight. And they still, also, have eating disorders.

By: BL

BL — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:25:30 +0000

I agree that this article could have been interesting, but it just completely missed the point and shows how little people understand about eating disorders. Deciding to limit one’s food intake simply because you can’t exercise doesn’t lead to eating disorders – restricting may start to trigger further restricting and produce a downward spiral, but I would argue that the person who is simply going to the gym to control their weight instead of starving already has the eating disordered thoughts. Someone with a healthy approach to exercise wouldn’t see it as “starve or workout to control weight”, they would think that the gym was part of a healthy lifestyle, and not being able to afford it simply meant trying to find another way (like walking or biking outside) to get in some exercise.

In other words, it is articles like this that really trivialize how serious eating disorders really are. This makes it sound like they are all about controlling weight and looking good! In reality, anyone who develops an eating disorder because they lose their gym membership already has some ED thoughts prior to this event and this might just be the “trigger” to fully set off the behaviors that signify the underlying problem.

I do like your thoughts, though. There have been numerous studies done on the relationship between the bad economy and depression/suicide, and I think a number of the conclusions in those studies could probably be extrapolated to eating disorders. To add to your list, I would say that I catch myself feeling guilty whenever I spend a lot of money on food. I usually try to think of food in the way that someone else might think of medicine – I need to make buying it a priority, but when I keep seeing all over the TV the need to “cut back” it is easy for my mind to think “i shouldn’t be spending this much on food”. But again, that thinking doesn’t cause an eating disorder, it is indicative of an underlying problem in the way I think about food.