ASSESSING SEVERITY OF EATING DISORDERS

All forms of eating disorders are dangerous. Electrolyte imbalances caused by over-exercise and other forms of purging can lead to heart failure. Health effects associated with binge eating obesity, sleep apnea, and diabetes. Anorexia is associated with the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Regardless of type, eating disorders exist along a spectrum of severity, which, for brevity's sake, we will divide into three categories:

INCONSISTENT (irregular or intermittent):

People with inconsistent symptoms of an eating disorder may occasionally became obsessed with weight or body image, and sometimes engage in one or more behaviors that are hallmarks of a classic eating disorder: restriction of intake, bingeing, use of laxatives, enemas, exercise, or other forms of purging. Such people may or may not develop a full-blown eating disorder or be aware that their behavior is dangerous. People with occasional symptoms are usually able to maintain something that looks like a normal life and may be relatively unconcerned about changing.

CONSISTENT (regular and persistent):

People who routinely engage in eating- disordered thoughts and behaviors may be very ill, but may respond favorably to one or more treatment options such as nutritional counseling, individual therapy, intensive outpatient therapy, or inpatient treatment.

RESISTANT (obsessive and intractable):

People who become obsessed in their engagement with eating-disordered thoughts and behaviors often report feeling hopeless about their condition; many get to a point where a normal life seems impossible. Most have tried one or more forms of treatment, yet despite progress toward recovery, patterns of negative thinking (thoughts that lead to anger, resentment, fear, self-piety, shame, guilt, confusion, frustration and despair) seem impossible to escape. When such thoughts occur, people with more severe eating disorders revert to restricting, binging, and/or purging no matter how dire the consequences. People thus situated have lost faith in the idea they can walk away from their eating disorders; they have fundamentally lost trust in themselves.