Facts and Myths
- More than half of anorexia sufferers have been sexually abused or experienced some other major trauma.
- <150,000 women die from anorexia each year in America.
- During the past five years, bulimia has increased at a greater rate than anorexia. It is estimated that between 3 and 10% of young women have bulimia
(New York Online Access to Health, 29th September, 1998) - 67% of young people envy someone else's body, 31% feel guilty about food every day, 27% use laxatives and 21% smoke as a way to lose weight. 30% are more worried about their weight than anything else including the environment, racism, Australia or their job.
(Cosmopolitan, February, 1998) - It is estimated that 5-20% of females and 1-7% of males in college have eating disorders. Perhaps more alarming are the results from a study indicating that as high as 38% of college females were statistically underweight but only 5% believed they were below average
- ANAD has run a ten year study on the statistics of Eating Disorders and, as of 1996, reported that 86% of all victims of Eating Disorders reached onset of their illness. Prior to the age of 20. Experts now estimate that 1 of every 100 women between the ages of 12 and 25 suffers from anorexia, while 1 of every 7 women in the same age group develops bulimia. Men develop eating disorders; yet, the occurrence of such diseases is less frequent, with only 10% of all anorexics and bulimics are men.
- Only about five to ten percent (5-10%) of people with anorexia and bulimia are male.
- Without treatment, up to twenty percent (20%) of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, that number falls to two to three percent (2-3%).
- The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that eating disorders affect more than 5 million Americans each year.
- Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychological disease.
- 86% of all victims had reached onset of their illness by age 20.
- There are more than 8500 different web sites that deal with anorexia.