Eating Disorders Explained

Unhealthy eating patterns lead to an eating disorder. This is very common among teenage girls who are obsessed about becoming thin, and start harming their body by not eating. Poor nutrition harms their body organs. This is a very serious problem as it affects them mentally as well, and leads to depression and anxiety. An eating disorder can be overeating as well.

When a person finds refuge in food to cover their mental disturbance, then they are suffering from an eating disorder.

The three most common types of eating disorder are:

• Anorexia
• Bulimia
• Compulsive eating

Anorexia:

This is a psychological disorder, mostly seen in teenage girls, as a result of low self esteem or emotional or physical abuse. Obsession to become thin is the main reason for these people to start over dieting. The more they lose weight, the more they have the drive to push further. They stop worrying about their body, and they become only interested in losing weight. They starve so as to take control over the body. They start neglecting their health, which can sometimes even lead to death. This disorder is also a type of addiction.

They develop psychological fear of food and fatness, which leads them to the extent of vomiting out anything and everything that they eat. Some people also start using laxatives to reduce weight. No matter how thin they grow, they are never satisfied.

Bulimia:

This is also similar to anorexia, where the person becomes obsessed with growing thin. Here the person may binge on food, then throw up everything she/he just ate. They may first eat a large amount of food, and even indulge in rich food in a short period of time, then later force themselves to vomit. They may also start exercising excessively, use laxatives, or fast to make up for the food they had, as they start to feel guilty about having eaten food. Bulimia is most common in adolescent and young adult women.

Unlike anorexia where the person stops eating, bulimic people do eat food, but they either force themselves to vomit or use laxatives.

Health problems related to Anorexia/Bulimia

They are:

• Poor circulation of blood
• Irregular menstrual cycle
• Brittle bones
• Infertility
• Fainting and dizziness
• Dehydration leading to kidney damage
• Slowed heartbeat
• Low blood pressure
• Reduced body temperature
• Hair loss

Compulsive eating:

When a person starts binging, leading to a feeling of guilt and shame, she/he is said to be a compulsive eater. This is not like bulimia where the person involves purging. This leads to weight gain and depression. Here the person has an uncontrolled urge to eat all the time. 40 percent of people who are obese are binge eaters.

How would you know if you are a compulsive eater?

These are common signs of a compulsive eater:

• Eating uncontrollably
• Depression
• Dieting frequently
• Preoccupied about their weight
• Vigorous exercise or vomiting to lose weight
• Health problems like heartburn, dental problems, fatigue, weight gain, insomnia and high BP.

Treatments:

Recovery from these disorders is possible. The person must undergo certain lifestyle changes with the help of the people around him/her. There are different kinds of psychological therapy available to treat these problems. For a person suffering from anorexia, hospitalization may be necessary in extreme cases; when due to severe weight loss different parts of the body get affected. Intravenous feeding may be required, and the focus would be on gaining weight. Family support and assistance is very important. The person is given nutritional education for a healthy alternative to weight management. A lot of counseling is given, and therapy to boost up one's self esteem. Everyone has the right to love his own body.

So with the help of medical, psychological and nutritional assistance, people with eating disorders can be healed.

Eating Disorders Disturbances In Eating Behavior

Eating disorders are seldom distinguished as an outer expression of internal emotional pain and confusion. Eating disorders cause problems to millions of people, thousands of which will die from them yearly. There is good news though, eating disorders can be beaten. An eating disorder necessitates a distorted pattern of thinking about food and size/weight: there is a preoccupation and fascination with food, as well as an issue of control or lack of control around food and its consumption.

Eating is controlled by many factors, including appetite, food availability, family, peer, and cultural practices, and attempts at voluntary control. Dieting to a body weight leaner than needed for health is exceedingly promoted by current fashion trends, sales campaigns for special foods, and in some activities and professions. Eating disorders involve serious disturbances in eating behavior, such as extreme and unhealthy reduction of food intake or severe overeating, as well as feelings of distress or extreme concern about body shape or weight.

These are also the three most common eating disorders. Eating disorders can cause heart and kidney problems and even death. Eating disorders normally co-occur with other psychiatric disorders such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders. The most important types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A third type, binge-eating disorder. Eating disorders are not due to a failure of will or behavior; rather, they are real, treatable medical illnesses in which definite maladaptive patterns of eating take on a life of their own. Eating disorders frequently develop during adolescence or early adulthood, but some reports indicate their onset can occur during childhood or later in adulthood. In addition, people who suffer from eating disorders can experience a wide range of physical health complications, including serious heart conditions and kidney failure which may lead to death.

Eating Disorders are about being convinced that your whole self-esteem is hinged on. Eating Disorders are about seeking to control your life and emotions through food/lack of food. A person with anorexia nervosa typically starves himself or herself to be thin and experiences excessive weight loss, typically 15% below the weight that doctors consider ideal for his or her height and age. A child with anorexia or bulimia may experience dehydration as well as other medical complications. Anorexia may affect a child’s growth, bone mass, cause puberty delays, an irregular heartbeat and blood pressure problems, and gastrointestinal problems.

Treatment of anorexia calls for a specific program that involves three main phases:

Restoring weight lost to severe dieting and purging.
Treating psychological disturbances such as distortion of body image, low self-esteem, and interpersonal conflicts.
Achieving long-term remission and rehabilitation, or full recovery.

Eating Disorders Treatment hints

Treatment can embrace medical supervision, nutritional counseling, and therapy.
Supportive group therapy may follow, and self-help groups within communities may provide enduring support.
Behavioral therapy has verified effective in achieving this goal.
Psychotherapy has proven effective in helping to prevent the eating disorder from recurring and in addressing issues that led to the disorder.
Family members or other trusted individuals can be ready to lend a hand in ensuring.
Definite selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to be cooperative for weight maintenance.