Of the population in Australia, nine percent of them are struggling with an eating disorder - a serious and potentially life threatening mental illness. Health professionals say, that up to 20 percent of women may have undiagnosed eating disorder and often misunderstood as a 'lifestyle choice' that only impacts young women.
Elaine, an anorexia nervosa sufferer said that she was diagnosed having a disorder at the age of 15 and was in treatment until she was 26 years old.
At first, she thought going on a diet would help her to become better, until one day she could not eat and her mother took her to the doctors for help. She was then scared, realizing this was just more than a diet.
With this, The Hunter Institute of Mental Health (HIMH) is currently working now on new resources or ways on how to assist those with eating disorders together with their family, to better understand the types of illness.
Nicola Ingold of the Families, Workplaces and Targeted Prevention Program Manager at HIMH said that "eating disorders are very serious mental illness and we also know now that eating disorders are affecting boys, very young girls, older women as well."
Most often, eating disorders are triggered at transitional points like women after having a baby, going through menopausal stage, those experiencing body shapes and body weight changes.
Conversely, the common misconception of this disorder is that we mostly think that eating disorders impact the young women only, but it can be also damaging to men and boys.
However, people also believe the different myths of eating disorder, which affects the fast and prolonged recovery of the patient.
Many believed that parents are the cause of eating disorders in their sons and daughters. The truth is they are not, but they are crucial to recovery.
At the same time, most believed that eating disorders are a matter of choice, or lifestyle. To break this, a reasonable plan to get healthy through diet and exercise can often lead to unhealthy and potentially life threatening illness.
