National Eating Disorders Awareness Week Kicks Off

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week begins February 23 to March 2 for both the United States and the United Kingdom, and awareness organizations from both nations are renewing efforts to educate people about these dangerous conditions.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), eating disorders are dangerous conditions that are the result of a distorted body image and severe distress. Numbers vary from nations to nation, but eating disorders are most common in first-world countries where media and social stigmas can severely influence a person's self image. The U.S. and the U.K. are two countries with the most reported cases of eating disorders, and efforts in both countries have focused on treatment, awareness, and understanding of these dangerous conditions.

In the U.S., the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) is launching a new campaign with the theme "I Had No Idea." Rather than just focusing on the person with the disorder, this year's theme focuses on an eating disorder's indirect victims, such as families and friends, whose lives are also shaken and changed by the discovery that a loved one has an eating disorder. The campaign will reportedly focus on educating families and communities, so that they are prepared to help a loved one fight their disorder, or better yet, learn the signs of a developing disorder to help prevent it from developing in the first place.

In the U.K., attention has been directed towards identifying and treating eating disorders in the college student demographic. Eating disorders are most commonly reported in teenagers, particularly high schoolers between the ages of 14 and 17, according to the NIMH. But the charity Student Minds has been promoting knowledge about recent research that indicates that 18 to 25 year olds are also very vulnerable to developing mental illnesses associated with eating disorders when first introduced to the social stresses of a University environment.

According to Beat, an organization dedicated to stopping eating disorders particularly at the college level, not enough is being done at Universities to promote understanding of eating disorders. To raise awareness and educate college students, Beat has organized the "SockIt" campaign for its second year in a row. The campaign fundraises money for disorder treatments, as well as funds research that observed the vulnerable college demographic.

These are just two of the larger campaigns both nations have launched in the wake of their simultaneous National eating Disorders Awareness Week, but as the week goes on, community based efforts are sure to spring up as well.