Hilde Bruch called anorexia nervosa a new disease that selectively befalls the young, the rich, and the beautiful. The widespread publicity
that revolved around the disease—anorexia nervosa—in the 1970s
awakened us to its existence and made it seem that an epidemic had
begun. Some anorexic women are indeed rich and beautiful. They were
among those that Dr. Bruch described in The Golden Cage.
1
More
often, though, the illness afflicts teenage girls who come from families
of average means. In fact, we now know that it may strike young
women of any socioeconomic level. And sometimes even men. Physical beauty is not a prerequisite for becoming anorexic. On the contrary,
most anorexic girls consider themselves plain. Some certainly are
pretty, but they have no monopoly on beauty. And as for its being a
new disease, descriptions of it date from earliest medical history. It was
well known to physicians in the latter part of the nineteenth century
and throughout the twentieth century. To be sure, it is the third most
common chronic illness among teenage girls, but it occurs also in
young adult women, and in older ones as well.
Misinformation about the disease abounds and is kept alive by exaggerated media reports. Such reports neither serve the best interest of patients with anorexia nervosa nor do they accurately inform the public. A
PBS documentary Dying to Be Thin characterized it as the deadliest psychiatric disorder.2
True enough, it is possible to die of anorexia nervosa,
but very few do. Far more teenagers die by suicide due to depression and