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The Treatment Of Eating Disorders Essay

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Eating disorders are one of the most common psychiatric illnesses in today’s world, yet they receive the least amount of attention. In the United States alone, “approximately 8 million people” have currently been diagnosed with a clinically significant eating disorder while it is estimated that over “20 million women and 10 million men have suffered from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their lives”(Crash Course). There is a huge disparity between the amount of people who suffer from eating disorders and those that have actually been diagnosed and treated for eating disorders. Why? Because despite being serious, and often deadly, mental disorders, these psychiatric illnesses are often overlooked and unrecognized due to the lack of accurate information available about them. Eating disorders are complex psychological disorders that severely affect a person’s physical and mental health and require intense, personalized treatment. Eating disorders have existed throughout history, with only slight variances in incidence and distribution. However, the frequency of eating disorders in the general population has been steadily increasing since the 20th century (Crash Course). More than 50% of people have revealed the use of unhealthy dieting techniques and chronic disordered eating patterns while at least 10% of people (in the United States) have been diagnosed with a clinically significant eating disorder (Stice, et al). As a result of the increased

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