Eating
Disorders
Eating
disorders are very serious. We have only included an overview
of information on this site. If you think that you or someone
you know might have an eating disorder, please visit our
resources and seek help. Remember that it is not always obvious
that someone has an eating disorder.
Eating disorders include serious and extreme attitudes, behaviors, and emotions
surrounding weight and eating issues. They have serious emotional and physical
consequences. An eating disorder can affect anyone regardless of sex, gender
identity, race, class, or sexual orientation. The most common element in all
eating disorders is low self-esteem. A person does not need to have all of the
signs or symptoms to have a particular eating disorder and to need help and a
person can have a combination of eating disorders at one time.
Disordered eating refers to mild and temporary changes in eating patterns that
occur in relation to a stressful event, an illness, or some other reason. Disordered
eating does not lead to significant mental, social, health, school or work problems
and rarely causes major medical complications. If disordered eating is not dealt
with it can become more serious, cause many problems and eventually lead to a
full eating disorder.
Types: The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa,
bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating, binge eating, and compulsive exercising.
Causes: There is no single cause for eating disorders. Some
factors that are considered contributors to eating disorders include low self-esteem,
media portrayal of bodies, societal and cultural emphasis on looks, comments
on a person's size and weight, confusion of food with emotions, loss of sense
of hunger, as well as physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Not everyone with
eating disorder experiences all, or necessarily any, of these causes, but all
of these factors have been correlated with eating disorders.
What to do: If you think that you have an eating disorder,
find someone that you feel comfortable with and talk to them about it. Talk
to a counselor
or a doctor and seek help. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. If
you think that someone you know has an eating disorder, help them find professional
assistance if they are willing. Be supportive and validate their feelings.
Do
NOT reinforce their poor image of themselves by saying negative things about
their looks or their behavior. Let them know that you care about them and
that you believe that they deserve help in dealing with this. Even if you
try hard
to help someone you care about, if they are not ready or do not want to seek
treatment, there may be very little you can do for them.
Anorexia Nervosa
Emotional
signs can include fear of becoming fat, fear of losing
control, and feeling undeserving of pleasure in life.
Behavioral signs can include obsessive exercising,
calorie or fat counting, starvation, use of pills,
laxatives, and diuretics to control weight, hiding
and throwing
away food, and persistent concern for body image.
Physical symptoms of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa can include
weight loss, loss of menstruation in women, hair loss, dizziness, headaches,
low
blood pressure, often feeling cold, mood swings, loss of sexual desire,
depression,
fatigue and insomnia.
Bulimia Nervosa
Emotional
signs can include being overwhelmed by emotions, hiding feelings of
anger, depression, stress or anxiety,
and feeling of
lacking control over eating behaviors.
Behavioral signs include repeated episodes of bingeing (consuming
large quantities of food) and purging (self-induced vomiting, abuse
of diuretics,
laxatives or
pills, excessive exercise or fasting). Behaviors can also include
frequent dieting and hiding food to eat later.
Compulsive Overeating
Emotional
signs can include feelings of shame, self-hatred,
guilt, hiding from emotions, and feeling a "void" inside.
Behavioral signs can include having an "addiction" to
food, uncontrolled or impulsive eating, using
food as a coping
mechanism, eating until uncomfortably full and
having obsessive cycles of eating.
Physical symptoms of compulsive overeating and binge eating can include
weight gain, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, high blood
pressure, leg and joint
pain, loss of sexual desire, mood swings, depression, fatigue and
insomnia.
Binge Eating
Emotional signs are similar to those of compulsive overeating.
Behavioral signs are also similar to those
of compulsive overeating, but occur in binge-episodes,
or eating
a large amount of food within a certain amount
of time. During the binge episode, food is usually eaten rapidly
and episodes generally
occur about two days a week or more.
Compulsive Exercising
Emotional
signs include needing to exercise at any cost, feeling
of tremendous guilt when unable to exercise, needing
a temporary
sense of power or control, and trying to relieve feelings
of guilt through purging.
Behavioral signs include excessive exercise, missing
obligations in order to exercise, feeling no satisfaction
from achievements or victories, always thinking
of next physical activity, and rarely exercising for fun but rather as a
form of self-punishment.
Physical symptoms of compulsive exercising include dehydration, stress fractures,
reproductive problems, heart problems, electrolyte imbalances, arthritis
and difficulty sleeping even though tired.
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