Eating disorders are significant changes in eating behavior, and they negatively impact how a person’s body functions. With dangerous life consequences, eating disorders can be signaled by eating too much (binging), not eating enough (starvation), or taking extreme actions in order to lose or maintain weight. Often, people with eating disorders have negative feelings about food and are extremely critical of themselves, their body shapes, and their appearances.
Young adults and teenagers comprise the group most prone to developing eating disorders, but eating disorders can begin as early as childhood or as late as adulthood. Although women are more likely than men to have eating disorders, there has been regular documentation of men diagnosed with the problem.
Types of Eating Disorders
1) Anorexia: People with anorexia have distorted images of themselves—thinking that she/he is “fat” despite actually being underweight. Also called starvation, anorexia can result in serious health complications due to lack of food and proper nutrition.
2) Bulimia: Bulimia is known as a reoccurring pattern of binge eating (quickly eating food in a short period of time) and purging (forced vomiting or using laxatives).
3) Binge Eating Disorder: Binge Eating Disorder is having the pattern of consuming large amounts of food, particularly when not having hunger.
Eating Disorder Causes
Eating disorders are rooted in a complex combination of sociocultural, psychological, and interpersonal factors. People with eating disorders use food and the control of food to deal with overwhelming emotions or situations. In some instances, there can be an imbalance in a person’s brain chemicals, thus influencing hunger, appetite, and digestion.
General issues that influence the development of eating disorders:
Sociocultural
---Cultures that celebrate being thin and having a perfect body
---Very specific definitions of beauty that recognize a narrow range of body weights and shapes
---Strongly valuing people on the basis of physical appearance, rather than inner qualities and strengths
Psychological
---Having a low self-esteem or negative self image
---Feeling inadequate or feeling not in control of one’s life
---Experiencing depression, anxiety, loneliness, or anger
---Overwhelming stress
Interpersonal
---Trouble sharing or expressing feelings to others
---Stressful family and/or personal relationships
---Being teased due to size or weight
Treatment of Eating Disorders
Family and friends are usually the first to notice that a person has an eating disorder, for it is not easy for someone to realize that she/he may have a problem. When involved with a person with an eating disorder, it is best to remain calm and nonjudgmental while simultaneously seeking information from a health professional and gathering resources to learn about the issues involved with eating disorders.
As with almost any issue, the faster and earlier that an eating disorder is recognized and addressed, the chance for recovery is greater. Early recognition makes it possible to access treatment before a person becomes too involved with health- and life-threatening behavior.
There are various approaches to the treatment of eating disorders, and it is important to find an option that best suits the situation of the person with the disorder. While no one option works for everyone, eating disorder support services often involve some combination of individual therapy (psychotherapy), a treatment facility or medical management, eating disorder support groups, and eating disorder services such as nutritional counseling and education.
In the event that an eating disorder has reached a life-threatening stage, inpatient, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient care, and/or residential care with an eating disorders specialty unit (or facility) is necessary. In some instances, psychiatric medication with medical supervision can be prescribed.
