HEALTH - How celebrities influence can be bad for you

JUST as young girls can be influenced by images of unrealistically thin models and actresses, mature women, it seems, are becoming increasingly affected by older celebrities and their superhuman ability to defy age.

Surrounded by images of stick-thin and toned mature celebrities, middle-aged women are exposed to increasingly unrealistic images of how they should look as they age, pushing them harder than ever to counter the effects of getting old.

As a result, the past 10 years has seen a significant increase in the number of middle-aged women with anorexia, according to Susan Ringwood, chief executive of national eating disorders charity Beat. She says: “Ten years ago, there were very few women in their 30s, 40s, 50s and older who were diagnosed with anorexia. That has changed significantly, especially in the past five years.”

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes an eating disorder characterised by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Those with the illness control body weight by voluntary starvation, purging, vomiting, excessive exercise or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs.

Previously it was most commonly associated with adolescent girls reacting to the pressure of their peers, the media and a host of other more complex psychological factors. But the recent surge of middle-aged anorexia cases proves the disorder can affect anyone at any age.

However, Dr Peter Rowan, a consultant who specialises in eating disorders at psychiatric clinic Cygnet Healthcare, maintains that in the majority of cases, anorexia has its roots in a girl’s formative years. “Almost all women who have an eating disorder later in life have been suffering with it for many years, usually since they were in their teens or early twenties. It doesn’t arise at all commonly later in life,” he says.

Despite this, he does acknowledge that unrealistic images of mature celebrities only serve to aggravate the disorder in women. “In the main, women are likely to grow out of an eating disorder if it is fairly mild, but the increasing focus of women on their appearance as they get older may influence this trend adversely,” he says.

The fact that a larger number of older women are being diagnosed with an eating disorder is a reflection of two things, according to Rowan. First, the illness has become much more common since the 1960s and these sufferers are now older women. Second, Rowan believes that during the past two decades or so the disorder has become more acceptable, enabling women to acknowledge their illness.

“Most women who have a chronic form of anorexia later in life have been ill for many years. They often do not really want to make a full recovery but want help to live with their eating disorder in a more healthy way,” says Rowan.

Treatment for the illness varies from patient to patient but it often consists of some dietary advice and cognitive behaviour therapy. However, severely underweight patients are often advised to stay in a psychiatric clinic to increase their weight initially.

Sadly, despite the life threatening nature of the disorder, many women prefer to receive only limited help, according to Rowan, and seldom join an anorexic programme or wish to return to a normal body weight.

For more information about the programmes available at Cygnet Health Care go to www.cygnethealth.co.uk.

 

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