What does it take to be considered an epidemic?

epidemic |ˌepiˈdemik|
noun
a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time : a flu epidemic.
• a disease occurring in such a way.
• a sudden, widespread occurrence of a particular undesirable phenomenon : an epidemic of violent crime.

Now consider the following statistics concerning college age women:


• 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting. 22% dieted “often” or “always.”5
• 86% report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages of 16 and 20.6
• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.7
• 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8
• 25% of college-aged women engage in binging and purging as a weight-management technique.3
• The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old.4
• Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.17
• In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss, 44% were of normal weight.16

What is it going to take for society to view eating disorders as something far more than just a "phase"? When I came across these statistics  I was utterly shocked to find such a prevalence of ED's in young adults my age. Often I feel as if the term "dieting" is used as a socially acceptable means to mask the act of fasting or skipping meals. The amount of times I've uttered "I had a big lunch" or "Breakfast gives me a stomach ache" is countless. But unless I was lying in a hospital bed, I never considered myself "sick". I didn't need help because I suspected I could stop just as fast as I had started. I was so uninformed about the disease I had.

In school, health classes often consist of information about sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and STD prevention. Why won't these classes inform the youth of America about healthy eating habits and the prevalence of eating disorders among the youth/young adults in America? The fact that a majority of college age women begin eating disorders at the age of twenty shows that society has indeed ignored currently as well as during their younger years. 

 If 86% of the population of a certain demographic had a cold, it would undoubtedly make headlines. The "Swine Flu" was the topic of ABC news for no less than four months. Why are eating disorders any different?

Luckily there have been advances made in more recent years to bring this issue of lack of self esteem to America through campaigns such as Dove.