Not just a teenage illness: Adults suffer from eating disorders too

Adult eating disorders are not as well documented as those in children and teenagers, but according to the National Eating Disorders Information Centre (NEDIC), there are signs that they are on the rise.

"Canada does a very poor job of tracking national level data about eating disorders and their increases especially within the hospital system," said Ary Maharaj, NEDIC's outreach and education coordinator, adding that there's been a lot more public information about pediatric patients from places such Sick Kids in Toronto.

However, Marahaj said that last year hisorganization spoke to about 6800 people via its toll-free eating disorder helpline, which was up 59 per centfrom the previous year, and that most of those calls came from adults.

"I think people thought there'd be this initial spike after COVID," he said,but the numbers continued to climb in 2021 and he's seeing similar trends in 2022.

How is a global pandemic a trigger?

As for why, he said it's partly due to the fact that so many people had their regular routines disrupted, but also because we've become more open to talking about mental health.

"I think over the course of the pandemic [we've seen] people who are potentially more comfortable in reaching out, or more comfortable in saying that this is an issue that I might have, and a bunch more people who I think are really at their breaking point,"he said.

Maharaj said that certain people are more likely to develop eating disorders than others.

Part of it is genetic: "You see a lot more eating disorders running in families," he said.

And part of it is psychological: "[They're] more likely to be perfectionistic, more likely to be a black-or-white thinker. They have a hard time maybe labelling their emotions."

Jennifer Li felt she was doing really well with her recovery but then relapsed during the pandemic.The 22-year-old student, who also does outreach and education work for NEDIC, found that she was unable to do the main thing she relied on to keep in shape dance.

"With studio closures it became like: What am I going to do? Am I going to be able to keep up with the physique that I want for my body and the aesthetic I want for my body ... and the kind of eating disorder thoughts came back," she said.

And it wasn't just the thoughts. She cut down on how much she was eating, and started purging again (making herself throw up), and although she's improving now, she thinks she may never be 100 per centbetter.

That's something that resonates with personal trainer Dara Bergeron.

She's currently trying to assess whether or not her anorexia has made a come-back, and compares her experience of living with an eating disorder to an addiction:

"It's something I have to wake up every day and think 'I'm not going to go down that path today.'"

One thing she practices herself, and recommends to her clients, is to not weigh yourself, or count calories, or even steps.

"I think there's like a long haul period of removing those kinds of influences from our lives if we are someone who wants to have a better relationship with exercise and food," Bergeron said.

Many of the people she works with on improving their body image, have gone throughdramatic physical changes during the pandemic and are distressed at the prospect of having to go back to in-person situations, like working in an office, she said.

Return to the office could be tough

Maharaj, of NEDIC, said the feelings of self-consciousness that many people with eating disorders feel about their bodies could make the transition back to the office more difficult, and said employers need to consider this as part of any workplace health and wellness plan.

"For many of us who have the privilege and opportunity to work remotely all we had to do was worry about [was] the upper body, and the part of our face on screen and there were a lot of people who actually found comfort with that," he said.

"I really want people who are impacted to know it's okay if they are a bit sensitive or a bit raw. Or if their normal coping mechanisms aren't working, because I don't know if many of us have had to return to work after a global pandemic, right?"

Maraharaj said recovery from eating disorders is not "linear,"and that if people find themselves relapsing from an illness they thought they had left behind with childhood, they deserve a little self-compassion.