Do Eating Disorder Characteristics Change With Age? - Dr. Berkus (VIDEO)

Dr. Berkus:

I would say yes because women in their 30s are different than young women. They are different from the person they were as a young woman and when you think of someone in their 30s, by now they have taken on new roles and one of the roles might be of mom, and now they see from a different perspective of what it’s like to mother another person; what it’s like to have that kind of responsibility and that day after day stress that goes with that, and to also notice that there have been changes in their body after they have had children, and a lot of times this is very difficult because things that were happening hormonally when they were 17 to 25 are now not happening or happening differently once they’ve reached 30.

So there’s the combination of normal aging, which brings its own stressors to women, there are hormonal changes that happen to women, and also professionally. In their 30s women are coming into their own and they now have the idea of what role do I want? I am a mom – what do I do professionally? I am also in the role of mother, maybe of daughter-in-law, maybe of friend, and so there’s a tremendous amount of stress and self sort of questioning as to what do they need in their lives. All this can add to an eating disorder.

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Tags

• Eating Disorders
• Mental Health