An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 Canadians die every year from medical complications and suicides due to eating disorders.

Yet despite the staggering mortality rate cited in a report by a parliamentary committee, this mental illness is often misunderstood.

“There’s still this notion that an eating disorder is a lifestyle choice or it’s frivolous, you know: ‘You’re just trying to lose weight to look thin and fashionable,’ ” Stacey Huget told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

Huget is the executive director of the Looking Glass Foundation for Eating Disorders, a Vancouver-based charity dedicated to the prevention of the diseases. The group supports people suffering from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and other disordered-eating conditions.

Because of misconceptions about the sickness, Huget said, many people aren’t comfortable coming out to seek help.

A report released in 2014 by the standing committee on the status of women in the House of Commons noted that anorexia, a condition associated with obsessive weight loss, has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.

Ten to 15 percent of individuals suffering from anorexia eventually die as a result of the illness, according to the document, titled Eating Disorders Among Girls and Women in Canada. With bulimia, which is characterized by binge eating followed by actions like self-induced vomiting and excessive physical exercise, the mortality rate is five percent.

An eating disorder not only robs life from a sufferer, causing anguish among the person’s loved ones, “It actually takes lives,” Huget said.

The Looking Glass Foundation has launched a campaign called Something’s Gotta Give to identify measures to better understand and overcome the ailment, which affects mostly girls and women.

“The disease is actually escalating,” Huget said. “It’s starting earlier. There’s more and more people that are falling victim to it from all ages, men and women.”

According to information compiled by the foundation, the Canadian Mental Health Association has reported that since 1987, hospitalizations for eating disorders have increased by 34 percent among children under the age of 15. For youth between 15 and 24, the rate has risen by 29 percent.

“Eating disorders are all about managing your emotions, having a good sense of self-esteem, having control over your life, having strong relationships, the very, very same issues that come up with so many other mental-health issues,” Huget said. “And yet…everybody thinks they’re about food—so, ‘Eat more, eat less, eat differently,’ but that’s not the solution.”

Huget also pointed out that the disease often coexists with other conditions like depression and addiction. However, there is a misperception that it is not a real sickness. “People will come forward with an addiction probably more easily than they will with an eating disorder, and that’s one of the things we need to change,” she said.

On March 4, the Looking Glass Foundation will hold a gala to raise funds for its various programs. Together with the Provincial Health Services Authority, it operates a residential treatment facility for 17- to 24-year-olds.

As part of Eating Disorder Awareness Week this year, the charity is organizing a public event on Saturday (February 6) to promote a conversation about eating disorders. The event takes place in the Alice MacKay Room of the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library (300 West Georgia Street) from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.