His
urge to eat less or more food has spiraled out of control.
He is overly
concerned about his outward appearance? Eating disorder?
At least 30 million people of all ages and
genders suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S. Every 62 minutes at least
one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder.
Eating Disorders describe illnesses that
are characterized by irregular eating habits and severe distress or concern
about body weight or shape.
Eating disturbances may include
inadequate or excessive food intake which can ultimately damage an individual’s
well-being.Disordered eating issues can develop during any stage
in life but typically appear during the teen years or young adulthood.
Body image includes both how you feel about your
appearance and what you see when you look at yourself in the mirror. Often,
this mental image can be quite different than reality, especially for those
struggling with an eating disorder. When you feel poorly about your appearance,
you are often more vulnerable to other mental disorders, such as anxiety and
depression.
While eating disorders arise from a complex mix of
genetics, environment, and personal triggers, it is also true that the
media images we are faced with every day have the potential to heighten our
body image issues.
Eating disorders are broken down into the categories
of:
- ·
Anorexia Nervosa
- not getting enough calories in
- ·
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
- obsession with an imaginary defect in physical appearance or an extreme
concern with a slight physical blemish
- ·
Bulimia Nervosa
- recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by induced vomiting, excessive
exercise or use of laxatives
- ·
Binge Eating Disorder-
lack of control over eating during the episode
- ·
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake
Disorder - lack of control over eating during the episode
- ·
Other Specified Feeding or Eating
Disorder- meet some of the criteria for an eating disorder,
but not all
- ·
Pica
- eating of substances that have no nutritional value for a period of at least
one month
- ·
Rumination Disorder-
repeated regurgitation of food for at least one month
- ·
Unspecified Feeding or Eating
Disorder – disorders which do not meet the criteria of any of
the above disorders, but still cause great emotional upset or interferes with
daily life.
Because of the severity and complexities of these
conditions, a comprehensive and professional treatment is often
fundamental in establishing healing and recovery. With the mass amount of
misguided information about eating disorders, it is common for these serious
illnesses to be misunderstood, oversimplified, or greatly generalized.
Understanding the implications of eating disorders can
help increase awareness about ways to get help. People with eating disorders
may appear healthy, yet be extremely ill and need a comprehensive recovery plan
including a psychotherapist, physician and dietitian.
DISCLAIMER: All the information being provided her has been sourced
from the internet and books and some also via personal experiences. It has no
medical authentication per se so suggestions if followed must be done in
consultation with a trained mental health professional.
References :
You can
find all my posts here.
I have very little familiarity with eating disorders, so I don't have much to add. However, my daughter's high school best friend was bulimic. There was a year when she had bad health issues and got hospitalized a few times before it was learned what was happening. Apparently, she hid it really well for a long time. It was scary. She still receives therapy today (six years later.)
ReplyDeleteI am at Transformed Nonconformist. I usually write humor pieces, but I am getting serious this month. I'm writing about people who have deeply impacted my life.
Eating disorders are catching up in India also. Kids either do not want to eat regular meal or binge on high fat, high calory, high salt and low fiber junk food. Many Indian kids are becoming obese and diabetes is becoming very common.
ReplyDeleteSo true. These days even children are affected with eating disorders. Time to think and act.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bret for sharing your personal brush with an eating disorder.
ReplyDeleteAbhijit please read carefully what you are mentioning are lifestyle anomalies not eating disorders really
ReplyDeleteSome of these may seem normal to parents but are actually early signs that all is not well. People mistake it for fad diets but dont bother to engage with the person directly about how theya re feeling and whether there is more to it than weight loss.
ReplyDeleteYes Roshan parents and families fail to recognise whether it is just a lifestyle hazard or an actual mental health issue
DeleteEating disorders are indeed a serious issue. Even children are not spared these days. My post for the letter E also dwells on this. Would love to know your thoughts on it as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://natkhatz.com/child-development/eating-disorders-a-concern-in-children-a2zchallenge/
Yes younger people are getting affected alarmingly.
ReplyDeleteI am not very familiar with eating disorders, so not much to say on the subject. But, there is an unhealthy obsession I have seen in children these days of being very skinny. A friends kid stopped going out to play at 10 because she thought she was overweight.
ReplyDeleteYes Namratha partly it is because of social or peer pressure too
DeleteA physical disorder like eating disorder leads to mental ailments and that is just the beginning. First, a person feels bad about his or her body, this leads to inferiority complexes and slowly he or she begins developing other mental health issues. Eating disorders need to be nipped in the bud.
ReplyDeleteJai it is actually the other way round mental disturbances begin to affect the eating patterns
ReplyDeleteI know few people who give excuse of not having time to take food in time but on the other hand their are taking medicines and visiting doctors obviously for indiscipline habit of taking food, is not it much easy to manage time to take food in time ?
ReplyDeleteThey can manage time to take medicine but not the foods...i really wonder.
Good to go through your post.
I didn’t know at all about the fact that there can be eating disorders as well. Such vital information buddy
ReplyDeleteEating disorders manifest in many ways a a conclusive diagnosis can only be done by a medical professional.
ReplyDeleteThanks Roma, awareness is the aim .
ReplyDeleteOne of my best friends has been bulimic for over 30 years, so I have plenty of first-hand experience with eating disorders. It's not pretty, and it's so difficult to ever get over.
ReplyDeleteI have been surfing online more than three hours today, yet
ReplyDeleteI never found any interesting article like yours.
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ReplyDelete