HEALTH & WELLNESS
Deadly eating disorders are felling more women in mid-life By PAMELA DURKIN
A
T 47 Victoria resident Sarah Jackman (not
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her real name) thought anorexia was merely an unpleasant part of her past — a demon she had vanquished in her twenties. But after a stressful year, which included the death of her father, the break-up of a long-term relationship, and the loss of her job, her eating disorder returned with a vengeance. “It was humiliating, says Jackman, “People associate anorexia with teenage waifs, and here I was in mid-life battling the disorder again ... Aside from my grief around all the loss, I felt a profound sense of shame.” Jackman is no anomaly. In her book, Lying in Weight, the Hidden Epidemic of Eating Disorders in Adult Women, American science writer Trisha Gura details an alarming trend: eating disorders are felling women in their 30s and beyond in increasing numbers. In the United States, women over the age of 35 with eating disorders have skyrocketed by 42 per cent in the past decade at all 11 locations of the Renfrew Center, one the leading treatment programs in that country. Other treatment centres are experiencing similar increases in older patients. “Last summer we only had two patients under 20, the rest were all women over 30,” says Jeanne Rust, director of the Mirasol Treatment Center in Arizona. The staff at Victoria’s own Eating Disorder Program on Jutland Road is also witnessing women in their 50s and 60s seeking treatment. The phenomenon has even given birth to an advocacy group — Advocacy for Adults with Eating Disorders in BC (advocacyforadultsedinbc.webs.com). Its goal is to raise awareness about eating disorders among this demographic and the struggles they face to receive adequate treatment in BC. ACCURATE DIAGNOSES ARE TOUGH Kathryn Koehler, a founding member of the group, has struggled with her eating disorder for over 20 years. At 42, Koehler has been in and out of St. Paul’s Eating Disorder Program in Vancouver numerous times. According to Trisha Gura, women like Koehler represent one facet of the affected numbers — women whose illness began in adolescence, became chronic and “endured.” The rest of the upsurge consists