You could call it the new epidemic. Eating disorders have become increasingly pervasive in our society and today affect three times as many people as are affected by AIDS. Although AIDS will claim, at the moment, 100 percent of its victims, eating disorders claim five to 20 percent of their victims.

Anorexia Nervosa alone has the highest fatality rate among psychological illnesses in women. In the United States today between five and 10 million women and more than one million men are living with diagnosed eating disorders, but most eating disorder victims are never diagnosed.

Eating disorders are commonly misunderstood as behavioral patterns or lifestyle choices. They’re seen as a fad or a phase in an adolescent. Often eating disorders are associated only with rich, white girls. They are glamorized in movies such as Never Been Kissed, in which the three popular girls stand observing a skeleton in their biology class and declare, “That’s it. It’s just Ex-Lax and water until prom.” This misconception of the gravity of these illnesses only adds to the difficulties faced in diagnosing and treating them.

So let’s be perfectly clear. Eating disorders are psychological illnesses. They are an addiction and they are, if untreated, fatal. Eating disorders are tantamount to a slow suicide.

The three disorders classified as eating disorders are Binge eating disorder, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Binge eating disorder involves frequently eating large quantities of food in short periods of time, often secretly, without regard to hunger or “fullness.” Binge eating can result in heart disease and diabetes and is often associated with depression.

Anorexia Nervosa is perhaps the most well known eating disorder. Anorexics have an intense fear of gaining weight and will restrict food intake to starvation levels in order to perpetuate weight loss. They often lose their menstrual periods and hair, refuse to acknowledge (or cease to recognize) hunger, obsess about fat grams and calories, exercise excessively and withdraw from family and friends. Anorexia results in loss of heart muscle, osteoporosis, muscle loss, dehydration that can result in kidney failure, fatigue, and heart attacks.

Bulimia Nervosa is often associated with Anorexia and both disorders commonly appear in the same person. Bulimics will consume large quantities of food in a short period of time before purging through laxatives or making themselves vomit. They share with Anorexics an obsession with size and weight and suffer many of the same medical consequences. In addition, Bulimics often have swollen cheeks or jaws, scars on their hands from forced vomit, and stained teeth from bile.

Though these disorders may sound extreme, many more people suffer from eating disordered behavior, which is associated with an abnormal focus on food and weight and can often lead to full-blown eating disorders.

So what should you do if you think someone you know has an eating disorder? Discourage them from thinking that a particular body size or shape is the most preferable. Try to eat meals with them as often as possible-they’ll be uncomfortable and they’ll try to get out of it, but having another person there can prevent restricting and purging. Stay with them after meals for at least half an hour to make sure they don’t try to purge.

Stop commenting on any bodies, including their’s. Don’t reinforce the idea that body shape and size should be a significant factor in how we perceive people. Don’t tell them they look sick or “too thin.” It will only tell them that they’re succeeding.

Instead, compliment them on other things, perhaps on their non-physical qualities. Ask them to get help. At some point you may need to confront your friend or loved one with the fact that you have noticed their behavior. Be gentle, and make it clear that though you are there for them every step of the way, they need to take the responsibility to get help.

Tell them you’ll go with to the therapist, but they need to make the phone call. No one can do the work for them and the more they feel responsible for their own well being, the more pride they will take in that well being. Remember, eating disorders are about control. Put them in charge of their own recovery and let them feel powerful.

Eating disorders are preventable if we work together: there is no reason for these illnesses to exist. It’s Eating Disorder Awareness and Prevention Week. Be the Cure.