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When healthy habits go haywire
by Aviva Patz
You’re trying to drop pounds, so you’re running more, laying off pizza, and even wearing a fitness tracker to chart your progress. But then the mission starts taking over your life. “Engaging in these behaviors can be a slippery slope,” says clinical psychologist Stacey Rosenfeld, PhD, author of Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? ($17; amazon.com). “It’s easy, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies or a genetic predisposition, to slide across the spectrum from ‘normal eating’ to ‘disordered eating’ to ‘eating disordered.'”
And if you thought eating disorders were limited to teenage girls, you’re wrong, says Adrienne Ressler, licensed master social worker and vice president of the Renfrew Center Foundation, one of the country’s top treatment centers for eating disorders. “We’ve seen a great increase in mid-life womennow about a quarter of our patients are in their 30s and above,” she says.
Check the following signs that your healthy habits may be swerving into unhealthy territory.