Mental Care Facts & Health Tips

Eating disorders affect thousands of people each year. The majority of sufferers are young females, though men, boys, and older women also suffer from eating disorders. Any unhealthy eating pattern that one permanently participates in could be considered an eating disorder. Many people have an eating disorder for quite a while before they realize it. Here are some common eating disorders explained.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is probably the most widely discussed eating disorder. It is the eating disorder that results in the most obvious physical changes for the sufferer. Though sufferers of bulimia may maintain a normal body weight, anorexics are unable to maintain a normal body weight because of their refusal to eat.

Anorexia Nervosa is characterized as a complete refusal to keep body weight above 85% of what is considered normal. Anorexia Nervosa typically involves extreme calorie restriction in one’s daily diet. Many sufferers of this illness go through phases of bulimia.

Anorexics typically have extremely low self esteem. This disease is common in those who are considered “perfectionists” by outsiders. Though many anorexics have an intense fear of gaining weight, a lack of control over life seems to be the determining factor in what creates an anorexic. Anorexia often occurs in the lives of young adults who are struggling with stress and anxiety. They feel that they have no control over their lives and are spinning out of control. Living on an extremely low calorie diet and maintaining an abnormally thin figure becomes a way of controlling their environment.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia is characterized as the binging and purging of food. Many anorexics also go through phases of bulimia. Bulimics may purge through vomiting or overuse of laxatives.

It is important to note that simply purging food would be more a characteristic of anorexia, where the sufferer will sometimes make themselves vomit or overuse laxatives to completely empty the system after a day of barely eating. Bulimics purge after an episode of intense binge eating and this is a very important characteristic of their disorder.

Recent research indicates that there is likely a genetic factor involved in bulimia though it is likely triggered by an environmental catalyst. Bulimics are often people who are overwhelmed by the emotions of everyday life. They have an incredibly difficult time dealing with intense emotions and seek out a means of punishment for what they feel they have failed at. Bulimics may be suffering because of how they feel toward themselves or how they feel toward an event that has occurred.

Compulsive Overeaters

Though anorexia and bulimia are the two eating disorders that seem to get the most attention, eating disorders are not simply related to weight loss. Eating an abnormal amount of food on a regular basis is also considered an eating disorder.

People who use food as a means of hiding their emotions or seem to have a food addiction are considered compulsive overeaters. Compulsive overeaters are sometimes called emotional eaters.  Though many people eat when they are feeling down, compulsive overeaters take it to the extreme. The underlying cause of compulsive overeating, like all eating disorders, is a lack of self esteem. Compulsive overeating is very common in sufferers of sexual abuse.

Reference Something-Fishy