Eating Disorders

Emotional Disturbance:
A condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance;
o An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors
o An inability to maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers
o Inappropriate types of behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances
o A general persuasive mood of unhappiness or depression
o A tendency to develop physical symptoms related to fears associated with personal or school problems.
Emotional Disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

Eating Disorder: falls under an internalizing type of emotional disorder. Internalizing is defined as withdrawal, lonely, depressed and/or anxious. People who have an internalizing emotional disorder often exhibit some if not all of the following:
o Painful shyness
o Teased/neglected by peers
o Depression
o Anorexic
o Bulimic
o Socially withdrawn
o Suicidal
o Unfounded fears and phobias
o Panics
o Excessive worries
o Low self-esteem

Eating disorders involve a serious disturbance in eating habits, including:
not eating enough
repeatedly eating too much in a short period of time
taking drastic measures to rid the body of calories consumed (purging through vomiting; overuse of diuretics or laxatives; excessive exercise; or fasting)
being constantly concerned over body size and shape All eating disorders usually have an underlying emotional cause that is expressed through an unhealthy relationship with food. An eating disorder is not a “diet”. While most people consider a diet as a means to get healthier, people with eating disorders see losing weight as a way to improve one’s life, relationships, and self-image. Controlling food and weight becomes a means of hiding pain, anger, fear and other troubling emotions.


Eating disorders affect each aspect of that person’s life. It takes many hours of therapy and many types of therapy to help a person overcome an eating disorder whether it is bulimia, anorexia or binge eating.
Physically these people usually gain or lose a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time. After a while their organs start to malfunction due to lack of proper nutrition to the body often resulting in hospitalization. In the long run, they are at high risk for osteoporosis and heart problems. People that exhibit binge eating are at risk for heart problems and arthritic joints whereas people with anorexia or bulimia have an extensive amounts of problems that can occur. Some of those problems are liver damage, kidney failure, seizures, permanent loss of bone mass, weakened immune system low blood sugar and cardiac arrest.
Socially it depends on the individual and they experiences they have went through. Some people with eating disorders have very social and have lots of friends. Others are quite and often withdraw, being mistaken as just a good behavioral quiet child. Sometimes these people have experienced underlying issues such as child abuse, sexual abuse or substance abuse. This usually determines whether the person will be outgoing or reserved.
Psychologically and emotionally is where the problem lies. People with an eating disorder often experience depression and anxiety. They have a distorted image of the body and want to live up to this image. A lot of times this image is caused from the media. No matter how thin a person is or becomes it is never thin enough for them. The depression can lead to suicidal thoughts. The feel of failure is often demonstrated when an eating disorder is involved. Low self esteem is a huge aspect of how people that have an eating disorder feel. They never feel like they are good enough for themselves or anyone. They often have obsessive thoughts which have to do with food.
There is not one known cause for this disorder. Scientific evidence has not proven a connection between eating disorders to biological or genetic causes. Death rates are among the highest for this disorder than any other mental illness. This disorder often doesn’t initially effect a child academically unless the disorder goes unattended for an extended period of time. Going untreated can ultimately lead to brain damage and depending on which parts of the brain are affected and to which extent would determine which accommodations or modifications would need to be implemented. Sadly, the person usually dies before this happens for organ malfunctioning problems.


There are a few strategies to best support a child with an eating disorder. It is extremely important to establish a positive relationship with this child. Make sure the relationship consists of trust, safety and predictability. This will help the child confide in you as their teacher and they will look at you for support. Reach out to people in your school that can instruct you professional on how to help this child. Refer these children to someone that has experience with eating disorders such as the school counselor or a school psychologist.
Using groups for work can also be a good strategy to encourage interaction between the students in the class. Since some of these children are socially withdrawn from social groups this can encourage interactions between them and other students. It could also open new opportunities for these students and maybe they will find a peer that they will confide in and look to for support.
It may also be a good idea to keep an informal assessment of what the students bring to school for lunch and how much of it they eat and how much they either throw away or pack back up in their lunch. Unfortunately, this disorder isn’t prevalent until a later age when the children are often independent with eating and such.
Create a classroom that has an accepting atmosphere, this can be good to prevent teasing or bullying of any disorder or disability. Read books that discuss these issues and talk about how everyone is different and everyone looks different and that is okay. It is also a good strategy to not tolerate bullying of any kind. If these children don’t have this mental picture of a perfect shape or body then they won’t have anything to compare themselves to or think they have to live up to.


There are many resources available to people that are suffering from this disorder. The resources come from a variety of places.
Ø If one doesn’t feel comfortable reaching out to someone else just yet and they want to see if they can first help themselves a good book is a nice way to start. Depending on which specific eating disorder one suffers from there is a number of books available. If one is suffering from Anorexia a good book to start with would be Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa: A self help guide using cognitive behavioral techniques By: Christopher Freeman and Pete Cooper. A book that is related to Bulimia that would be a good resource is, Getting better bite by bite: A survival kit for sufferers of Bulimia Nervosa and Binge eating disorder, By: Ulrike Schmidt and Janet Treasure.
Ø Another good way to attain information about this disorder is the internet. There are many techniques, guides and answers on the internet. There is also a lot of information about where to find help. A very helpful and supportive website to start with would be The National Eating Disorders Association. http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Ø It is very comforting for people to know that they are not going through issues alone or that they are not the only ones that are suffering from a disorder. There are various support groups that are available for any disorder. Support groups can be for the individuals themselves or they can be for families of the individuals. A local support group can be found at St. Barnabas Hospital. A.N.A.D. of Northern NJ The multi-family support groups meet on the 1st Saturday of every month 9:30 – 11:00 AM, Held at the Saint Barnabas Ambulatory Care Center, 200 South Orange Avenue, Livingston, For more information, contact Barbara Reese, LCSW, (973) 783-2292, or go to www.ANAD.org. Groups are free and open to the public;
Ø Another good resource for students who are in school would be their school counselors or therapist. This would be a convenient resource because these services are offered for free from the school district. It is also at their connivance because it is at their school so they do not have to travel. These sessions are confidential.
Ø Medically it would be good to reach out to people to get help also. Your general practitioner, a dietician or a psychotherapist would all be helpful places to start. A dietician that specializes in eating disorders with teens and adults can be reached at 1-845-331-6381. Her name is Iilyse Simon RD. A good place that will match you up with a psychotherapist is The Center for Eating Disorders and Psychotherapy. To reach them call: 1-614-293-9550.