Eating Disorder Eating disorders are severe and persistent disturbances of eating and eating behaviors. According to The National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders (ANAD), an estimated 30 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. It spares no gender, age, SES, religion, or race. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rate among any mental illness (National Institute of Mental Health ). Although the basis of an eating disorder is usually not about food, it manifests as a person’s life feeling consumed by behaviors such as calorie counting, monitoring numbers on a scale, body checking, excessive exercise, or planning the next binge/purge episode. Dropping out from essential areas of life and becoming isolated from loved ones may feel reminiscent of an addiction or a toxic relationship. Still, for many, this is also a descriptor of what it may feel like to struggle with an eating disorder. Due to the complex nature of eating disorders
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