Eating disorders are not new, but the change in vocabulary and how we understand them have evolved over the years.
The history of eating disorders goes back to the 12th century. It is not something that started now with people’s obsessions with social media and their bodies.
The first time that we are able to look or observe eating disorders was in the 12th and 13th centuries, when people started to use starvation as a sacrifice to God. This was because of the belief in religious starvation, and this made starvation become something that was glorified or something that was considered selfless.
In the year 1689, Richard Morton is described as the first example of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa. This was something that started to be seen because medicine and science evolved, and eating habits started to be seen in a more medical way, and this affected the way the illness of anorexia nervosa was seen, when this was seen as a form of religious practice it was seen as a choice made by specific people and from the medical point of view it started to be considered an illness. He named it or noted it as a “nervous consumption”.
In the early 1900s, they were considered or were thought to be endocrine disorders, and this was because the medical field started to explore eating disorders more thoroughly, and they thought it came from the endocrine system. They wanted to find a medical and logical reasoning because of this, and they tried different forms to fix it, such as prescribing pituitary hormones in order to get this treated. This is definitely something that affects eating disorders, but it is also deeply psychological, and it is no longer considered the main reason why this happens.
In the 20th century, the way that they approached these disorders was through parentectomy, and this is when children are removed from their parents. This was something that was considered useful at the time because the thought process at the time was that eating disorders were the parents’ fault, and they had caused them. However, this was a limiting belief, and it created great pain to the children suffering from this as well as to the parents who received all of the blame.
In 1903, Dr. Pierre Janet started to see bulimic behaviors in some of her patients, and this led to eating disorders and gave them a new light as a form of behavior, not just medical.
In the 1930s to 1940s, eating disorders started to be understood as psychological conditions. This was the moment in which they stopped being seen as something that was purely in the body, but that it had a mental aspect, and they started to become part of the mental health spectrum, which led to treatment being much more focused on behavioral and psychological treatment. This was considered a better approach because it focused on the root cause. This completely changed the way this disease was viewed and how it could or should be approached.
In 1959, there was the first conversation about binge eating disorders because before this year, people thought that eating disorders were just anorexia, which was not eating food and extreme thinness, as well as bulimia, which consisted of throwing up or the use of laxatives. Binge eating was something that came at this time; even though it was something that had existed before, it was thought that this was just a part of bulimia, and it took years for people to realize that it was its own type of disorder.
In 1973, Hilde Burch published a book that examined case studies of eating disorders, noting that this field had started in psychology and was beginning to explore different treatments that might be needed. He shared very specific details about people struggling with these disorders. The book is called “The Golden Cage,” and it really shows the challenges and issues that come with a person suffering from eating disorders. Since the book was published, he has worked with countless patients and has been a source of information for professionals in this specific psychological area.
In 1980, the DSM added an eating disorder section, which completely changed the way that eating disorders started to be seen and treated, and made people realize how serious they are and the type of care they require.
In 1987, Bulimia became its own eating disorder in the DSM, and this was really important because it made sure that people understood that it was a different type of disorder, specifically from Anorexia. This meant that people with these different disorders began to ensure that the approach to diagnosing and treating them was in place.
In 2013, Binge eating disorder was recognized by the DSM as well, and this is relevant because this is a disorder that is completely different from Bulimia and Anorexia, which are the most commonly known. However, this is the disorder that most people suffer from, and it is extremely hard to deal with for those who suffer from it. This really shows all the different ways in which eating disorders can rage so differently and shows how they may not be seen in different specific ways.
Leave a Reply