However, the experience drove her and her final-year project mates to raise awareness on eating disorders through a campaign called Breaking Mirrors: You’re More Than What You See.
They were prompted to raise awareness on these disorders, given that body dissatisfaction – a major causal factor for eating disorders – is common, according to a survey they did.
The survey found that 85 per cent of the 267 female participants aged between 18 and 24 were dissatisfied with their body.
TYPICAL EATING DISORDER PATIENT FEMALE IN HER 20s: DOCTORS
Indeed, the typical eating disorder patient is typically female and from this age profile, doctors Channel NewsAsia spoke to said.
Dr Ng Kah Wee, director of the Eating Disorders Programme at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), said the clinic sees patients who are 13 years old and above. They usually present symptoms between the ages of 17 and 22, he said, with the average age being 20.
Doctors said that there are several types of eating disorders, and that the most common are anorexia and bulimia. They said that anorexia involves severe restriction of food intake, resulting in a low body weight, often in a relatively short span of time, while bulimia involves eating, followed by compensatory measures to get rid of the ingested food, such as by purging.
Dr Ng said that almost half of the cases at the clinic fall in the category of anorexia, 30 per cent are bulimia and the rest are Binge Eating Disorder and unspecified eating disorders.
Symptoms of anorexia include consistent excuses to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food, denial of hunger and feeling fat or overweight despite dramatic weight loss.
Symptoms of bulimia include evidence of purging behaviours, like self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse, and creation of complex lifestyle schedules or rituals to make time for binge and purge sessions, and withdrawal from usual friends and activities he said.
Dr Chee Tji Tjian, from the National University Hospital’s Department of Psychological Medicine added that while eating orders are complex and “affect everyone”, research points to certain risk factors more common in people diagnosed with eating disorders, such as a “perfectionistic” personality and dissatisfaction with body image.
MEN CAN SUFFER FROM EATING DISORDERS TOO
While Dr Chee said eating disorders disproportionately affect women, men are also susceptible, he said.
There appears to be an increase in the number of men diagnosed with an eating disorder, he said, pointing to factors such as an increasing rate of body dissatisfaction among males, “perhaps driven by media depiction of the pursuit of a certain type of muscular, lean physique”.
“As eating disorders were often seen as a female illness, cultural stigma of men with eating disorders had likely led to under-reporting and diagnosing in the past,” he added.
Psychologist Dr Lim Boon Leng form Gleneagles Hospital said that from his clinical experience, more males are starting to suffer from eating disorders.
“This is due to the fixation on masculinity in males these days, again influenced by western media. In male eating disorders, the fixation is often on muscle definition and exercising instead of the obsession on thinness.”
While local data is not available, in the United Kingdom, a 70 per cent increase in eating disorders among males was seen between 2010 and 2016, he said.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF EATING DISORDERS AND HOW TO HELP SUFFERERS
Eating disorders can have a serious impact on the physical, emotional and social well-being of sufferers, Dr Ng said. Depending on the type of eating disorder, they could suffer a myriad of physical issues.
These include cardiovascular complications such as low heart pressure and irregular heart rhythm that could be fatal, gastrointestinal difficulties and infertility.
“At times, co-morbid psychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder may surface and these conditions would need to be addressed adequately as well,” Dr Ng said.
