Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse

An estimated 23 million Americans abuse -- or are dependent upon -- either alcohol or illicit drugs. And more than 12 million Americans currently suffer from eating disorders.

Up to half of all people with eating disorders abuse substances and up to half of women who abuse substances suffer from eating disorders.

Between 12 and 18 percent of individuals with anorexia and between 30 and 70 percent of those with bulimia abuse tobacco, alcohol, pills, illegal drugs or "over-the-counter" substances.

FACT: The adolescent years are when women are at greatest risk of eating disorders. These are precisely the years when they are at greatest risk of substance abuse.

FACT: During substance abuse treatment and early recovery, it is not unusual for an individual to turn to binge eating.

FACT: A student who has dieted in sixth grade is more than 20 percent more likely to drink alcohol in the ninth grade than one who has never dieted.

FACT: The more often and more severely an incoming college female diets, the more likely she is to use drugs and abuse alcohol. Seventy-two percent of severe freshmen dieters and bulimics have used alcohol in the past month, compared with less than 44 percent of those who did not diet. Freshmen women with bulimia are more than four times likelier to have smoked in the last month than those who did not diet. The more severe the dieter, the more likely the abuse will involve more than one substance.

FACT: More than twice as many individuals with a history of weight control respond positively to two or more questions on the CAGE Questionnaire assessing alcoholism, signaling the likelihood of a serious alcohol problem, than those without such a history.

FACT: A People magazine survey revealed that 12 percent of women consider smoking a weight reduction method.

FACT: Girls who smoke to suppress their appetites are among the largest group of new nicotine addicts. Among white teenagers who smoke, girls are three times likelier than boys to smoke to suppress their appetites.

FACT: Women who smoke are more than twice as likely as men to cite weight concerns as a reason not to quit.

The tobacco companies understood the relationship between smoking and weight control long before the public health experts. Nicotine pushers began pitching cigarettes as a route to thinness in the 1920s when they first tried to reach women as a market. Lucky Strike ads told women to "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet."

When the 1964 Surgeon General's report spotlighted the harmful effects of smoking and the male market leveled off, tobacco companies targeted women.

They created Virginia Slims with its tagline "slimmer, longer, not like those fat cigarettes men smoke." They placed their ads in women's magazines that rarely reported on the health dangers of tobacco. Thanks in part to these ads, the rate at which girls started smoking rose sharply between 1967 and 1973. Among 12-year-old girls it jumped by 110 percent; among 17-year-old girls the numbers leaped 35 percent.

Polls repeatedly show that the number one wish for females ages 11 to 17 is to lose weight. Sixty percent of 12- and 13-year-old girls with low self-esteem are watching their weight and on diets. Tobacco companies manipulate this desire, capitalizing on girls' low self-esteem, a risk factor for both eating disorders and substance abuse.

The slogan for Misty cigarettes is "Slim n' Sassy." Capri claims, "There's no slimmer way to smoke" and calls its cigarettes, "The slimmest slim in town." Virginia Slims' famous tagline is "You've come a long way, baby." But as Gloria Steinham once pointed out, "If we've come such a long way, why are we still smoking?"

Cigarettes and eating disorders are linked in more ways than the tobacco companies let on. Cigarette smoking and eating disorders share many of the same health consequences such as osteoporosis, heart problems and infertility.

The most sordid exploitation of the connection between eating disorders and substance abuse is found in the fashion industry. Drug use, especially heroin and cocaine, is not uncommon. And for many models it is the chosen route to wafer thinness.

Grotesque as it may be, heroin chic -- the thin, hollow-eyed, emaciated figure caricatured as social X-rays by novelist Tom Wolfe -- has been promoted as the standard of beauty by fashion photographers and their principals.

Researchers have discovered that dieting attitudes and behaviors in young women may be related to increasing susceptibility to alcohol and drug abuse. Other research shows that some people abuse illicit drugs because they think the stuff will help them lose weight.

We have the facts, the research continues, but the ignorance of our society also continues. The promotion of perfection, not progress, will haunt us as long as we hang on to the denial about the consequences of any self-destructive behavior.

-Rebecca Cooper

Article written for: http://www.eatingdisordersblogs.com/children_bullying_eating/2012/02/eat...