Christian Approaches to Treating Eating Disorders in Women

Introduction

According to Le Grange, Swanson, Crow, and Merikangas (2012), eating disorders impact approximately 30 million Americans every year. Moreover, of all known mental illnesses, eating disorders have the highest rate of mortality (Smink, Van Hoeken, & Hoek, 2012). For women of all ages, eating disorders are particularly problematic. Roughly 13% of women over the age of 50 exhibit some form of behavior associated with an eating disorder (Gagne, Von Holle, Brownley et al., 2012). Some 3.5% of college-age women develop eating disorders (Diemer, Grant, Munn-Chernoff et al., 2015). Approximately 8% of women in the military have eating disorders, while nearly 1% of all women in the U.S. are anorexic at some point in their lives, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD, 2018). Approximately 1.5% of women are bulimic at some stage, and almost 3% of all American adults engage in binge eating (ANAD, 2018). In short, eating disorders are prevalent in the West and especially among women. Many strategies and treatments are available for treating women who suffer from eating disorders, but this paper analyzes the problem from the Christian perspective and provides a Bible-based, Christian approach to treatment for women who have an eating disorder.

The Image of Woman

In the West in the modern era, the image of woman has become erotically heightened and sexualized to an impossibly idealized extent, with female models posing as the emblems of fashion and sensuality—even though their images are typically and routinely modified using airbrushing techniques that remove blemishes, shrink figures, and expand and amplify other parts of the female anatomy in order to make the image conform to the unrealistic ideals generated by advertising agencies (Tavel, 2013). With the stigma of being fat and the threat of fat-shaming weighing on the minds of many modern women (Bailey, 2010), along with the threat of obesity spreading at pandemic levels throughout the world (Hruby & Hu, 2015), some women can develop a mental obsession or disorder that causes them to swing too far in the opposite direction: instead of risking becoming obese, they risk becoming too thin or engage in behavior that reflects an evident eating disorder (Cederstrom & Spicer, 2015).

The unrealistic expectations placed upon women in the modern era—thanks to advertising and cultural norms propagated through the media (Unger, 2010)—contrast sharply with the image of woman as presented in the Old and New Testaments, as well as with the image of spiritual perfection as represented by Christ in the New Testament. Instead of focusing on virtues, principles, duties, and vocation, women in the modern era are subjected to a barrage of images that convey to them the need to look a certain way in order to be respected and admired. The result is that women adopt unhealthy eating habits that are symptomatic of a mental disorder, associated with trying to fit into the hypersexualized, unrealistic body image promoted throughout popular media.

1 Timothy 2:9–10 states that "women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works." This urgent call from Timothy to the early Christians gives the Biblical perspective on how women should see their own image—not as ornaments to attract the "male gaze," but rather as focusing on "good works" appropriate for godly women. Timothy explicitly states that women "will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty" (1 Tim 2:15). In the modern era, women are pulled away from Timothy's exhortation to grow in faith, love, holiness, and modesty and to seek to become mothers. Instead, they are urged to put themselves alongside men rather than adopt the kind of submissive role Timothy advocates. As a result, they are conflicted. Instead of "eating for two," as the saying goes, they starve themselves to match the skinny, idealized models of modern womanhood, or they overeat in order to compensate for the depressed feelings that arise in the wake of pursuing goals opposite to those Timothy identifies as proper for women.

Types of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders common in the West include the following. Anorexia nervosa involves weight loss or low weight gain characterized by a person deliberately avoiding eating or taking in the calories appropriate to their body mass index. Bulimia nervosa is the disorder most often associated with body-image consciousness and an obsessive desire to lose weight; it is characterized by overeating, depression, and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. Binge eating disorder is characterized by prolonged periods of excessive eating due to emotional distress. Purging disorder involves routine self-induced purging or vomiting of food eaten earlier. Night eating syndrome is characterized by the consumption of most of an individual's calories after the dinner period and before breakfast—that is, late at night or throughout the night. Atypical anorexia is described as anorexia without a clinically low body weight, and low-frequency bulimia refers to bulimic behaviors occurring at a lower rate than in classic bulimia nervosa.

Conclusion

In conclusion, eating disorders affect millions of Americans. Women especially are subject to social and environmental pressures that drive some to pursue an unrealistic body image conveyed and propagated by irresponsible media outlets. This unreal image can serve as a stressor or contributing factor in women's lives, causing them to develop an eating disorder. Other factors stemming from emotional disturbance, abuse, isolation, and similar experiences may be causes as well. A significant portion of women in the West suffer from eating disorders, and these disorders are in fact the leading cause of mortality among mental illnesses—they can be deadly. Helping women adopt a healthier perspective of themselves, the world around them, and, if possible, their relationship with God, can be of tremendous benefit to women and to society as a whole. While counselors and therapists are unlikely to prevent unrealistic body images from being promoted by advertisers, they can use the Christian perspective to provide a therapeutic program that helps patients overcome the struggles associated with the disorder and lead happy, healthy lives.