While bulimia and anorexia typically begin the teens or early 20s, increasingly more middle-aged women are seeking treatment for eating disorders following a relapse years after recovery, or when the disease, in addition to the responsibilities of work and family life, finally becomes too much to take.
"Western women live in a culture of Body Wars that does not end or disappear when they turn 25 or 30," say psychologist Margo Maine and journalist Joe Kelly, authors of "The Body Myth: Adult Women and the Pressure to Be Perfect." "The picture of the young, vibrant teenager who succumbs to an eating disorder is tragic, but eating disorders are just as destructive in the lives of adult women."
Read more: Seeking help for eating disorders