ABSTRACT

Eating conditions, traditionally associated with white, middle to upper class Western young women of the twentieth century, are increasingly prevalent among both genders and many socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups. No longer seen as exclusively conditions of adolescence and early adulthood, eating conditions are recognized as long-term conditions which manifest at points across the life course. Unlike other psychiatric diagnoses, eating conditions “play out” specifically in the body, interacting with social, cultural, and psychological factors. Social workers, with our biopsychosocial perspective, are particularly well situated to understand both the complex etiology and the multimodal approaches required in the work with people with these eating conditions. Deviated eating behaviors, including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and obesity-related conditions, are both psychiatric and social problems, and increasingly, public health problems (Heller, 2008).