A Reminder that Eating Disorders can be a Very Serious Medical Risk

The general population knows more about eating disorders now than ever before. These illnesses can be found in modern culture through all sorts of media: television, social media, podcasts etc. As a result, the stigma around eating disorders has decreased. More people and families speak up about their struggles. The overwhelming secrecy and shame are no longer as all consuming.

Anorexia, Bulimia, binge eating and ARFID are in our daily vocabulary. The basic understanding of what these terms mean is within the grasp of a much larger swath of the population.

I can see the effects in many significant ways: people seek help earlier in the course of the illness, families are more open to learning and support, patients know so much more from the start and can dive into recovery.

Even so, these diseases are still conflated with vanity, the desire to lose weight, be as thin as possible or control one’s body due to our thinness-obsessed culture. From a more in depth point of view, more people see eating disorders as a way of coping with the emotional challenges of daily life and as a means to find accomplishment or satisfaction in the behaviors and results of the illness.

However beneficial this information is for awareness and acceptance of eating disorders, one critical complication is often overlooked: the serious medical complications.

The severity of eating disorders may not be as evident to a lot of people, but anorexia is the psychiatric illness with the highest mortality rate (along with schizophrenia). Education about eating disorders has to include a basic understanding of the severe medical and health risks too.

Although classified as psychiatric disorders, eating disorders are also medical diseases, sometimes very serious and even terminal. Anorexia can lead to damage to the cardiovascular system, organ failure, fluid retention around organs and paralysis of the gastrointestinal system. Bulimia may cause abrupt changes in electrolytes that can result in heart arrhythmias. Binging sometimes leads to a complete halt in the gastrointestinal system.

Eating disorders need medical attention, especially when the symptoms are most severe, in order to facilitate the beginning stages of recovery.

This post is not meant to be a warning but more a reminder of the medical concerns underlying eating disorders. Medical stabilization has to be a first priority before any and all steps in treatment. Let’s not forget that people can get very medically ill from these illnesses. Health has to be the first step before anything else.