Eating disorders are a range of psychological conditions that cause unhealthy eating habits to develop. They might start with an obsession with food, body weight, or body shape. Eating disorders are serious conditions related to persistent eating behaviors that negatively impact your health, your emotions and your ability to function in important areas of life. Eating disorders often develop in the teen and young adult years, although they can develop at other ages. With treatment, you can return to healthier eating habits and sometimes reverse serious complications caused by the eating disorder. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that are associated with severe disturbances in people’s eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions.
There are different types of eating disorders involved
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Binge Eating
- Bulimia
Anorexia Nervosa:
Anorexia Nervosa is the most common eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder and a serious mental illness. A person with anorexia nervosa restricts their energy intake, has a distorted body image and an intense fear of gaining weight. People with anorexia nervosa may see themselves as being heavy or large when they are actually severely underweight. They also have a distorted body image and an intense fear of gaining weight. Apart from the normal weight range, they have all the other characteristics, and similar complications of anorexia nervosa. People with this type of anorexia nervosa place severe restrictions on the quantity and type of food they consume. This could include counting calories, skipping meals, restricting certain foods. When you have anorexia, you excessively limit calories or use other methods to lose weight, such as excessive exercise, using laxatives or diet aids, or vomiting after eating. Efforts to reduce your weight, even when underweight, can cause severe health problems, sometimes to the point of deadly self-starvation. There are some symptoms:
- Body dimorphic disorder (inaccurate body image)
- Low weight
- Excessive exercise
- Irrational fear of becoming fat
- Fixation with food preparation
- Eating unusual foods or unusual eating rituals
- Malnutrition
- Dehydration
- Constipation
- Abdominal pain or bloating
- Fatigue
- Cold intolerance
- An increase in lanugo (fine, downy body hair)
- Unhealthy skin, hair and nails
- Wearing baggy clothes
- Depression or moodiness
- Lack of participation in family meals
- Irritability
- Loss of interest in sex or social activities
Binge Eating:
Binge eating is when you eat a large amount of food in a short amount of time and feel you can’t control what or how much you are eating. If you binge eat regularly at least once a week for 3 months you may have binge eating disorder. If you have binge eating disorder, you may be very upset by your binge eating. You also may feel ashamed and try to hide your problem. Even your close friends and family members may not know you binge eat. As a result, people with binge-eating disorder often are overweight or obese.
- Eat more quickly than usual during binge episodes
- Eat until you feel uncomfortably full
- Eat large amounts of food even when you are not hungry
- Eat alone because you are embarrassed about the amount of food you eat
- Feel disgusted, depressed, or guilty after overeating
- Food hoarding
- A history of weight gain and loss
- Guilt and self-hatred
- Depression
- Anxiety
Bulimia:
Bulimia (boo-LEE-me-uh) nervosa, commonly called bulimia, is a serious, potentially life threatening eating disorder. People with bulimia may secretly binge eating large amounts of food with a loss of control over the eating and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way. If you have bulimia, you’re probably preoccupied with your weight and body shape. You may judge yourself severely and harshly for your self-perceived flaws. Because it’s related to self-image and not just about food bulimia can be hard to overcome. But effective treatment can help you feel better about yourself, adopt healthier eating patterns and reverse serious complications.
- Binge eating, followed by guilt and depression
- Self-induced vomiting / frequent or prolonged trips to the bathroom after eating
- Extreme exercise
- Extreme fasting
- Unusual eating rituals
- Laxative or diuretic abuse
- Irregular or skipped periods
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Poor body image
- Chronic sore throat
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