An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect
a person’s physical or mental health. Some of the eating disorders are: Anorexia Nervosa,
Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Other Specified Eating Disorder. Most of these eating
disorders involve focusing too much on weight, body shape and food and those lead to dangerous
eating behaviors. The behaviors can impact the body’s ability to receive appropriate nutrition.
Eating disorders can harm the heart, digestive system, bones, teeth, mouth and cause other
diseases.
Eating disorders often develop in the teen and young adult years, sometimes can even develop in
other ages. Treatment can help the body return to healthier eating habits and reverse serious
complications caused by the eating disorder.
Symptoms:
They can vary, depending on the type of eating disorder. Like it was mentioned previously, the
most common eating disorders are: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge- Eating
disorder. There are also other eating disorders not that common like rumination disorder and
avoidant/ restrictive food intake disorder.
Eating Disorders:
Anorexia Nervosa: Is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by an
abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of weight
or shape. People who have this disorder use extreme efforts to control their weight and shape and
significantly interferes with life and health activities.
To add more, when people suffer from anorexia, they limit calories or use other methods to lose
weight. Excessive exercise, using laxatives or diet aids, or vomiting after eating are some of the
signs that someone is suffering from anorexia.
Bulimia Nervosa: Is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder. When someone has
bulimia, there are episodes of bingeing and purging that involve feeling a lack of control over
eating. When people have Bulimia they restrict their eating during the day and that causes more
binge eating and purging. In these episodes, it is typical that people eat large amounts of food in
a short time and then try to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way. There is forced
vomiting involved caused by guilt, shame and an intense fear of weight gain due to overeating.
Binge-Eating Disorder: Regularly people eat too much food (binge) and then they feel a lack of
control over the eating. Also, another symptom is eating too much food or eating quickly even
when there is no hunger. People tend to feel guilty, disgusted, or ashamed. A new round of
binging occurs at least once a week.
Rumination Disorder: This is a repeatedly and persistently regurgitating food after eating, but
it’s not due to a medical condition or any other eating disorder. Moreover, food is brought back
up into the mouth without nausea or gaging. This disorder can result from malnutrition.
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: This is characterized by failing to meet daily
nutrition requirements because there is no interesting in eating. There is a tendency to avoid food
with some certain characteristics, such as color, texture, smell or taste. This disorder can result in
significant weight loss or the failure to gain weight during childhood.
Thus, these were some of disorders there is an important question in the air, When is the right
time to see a doctor? It is not very clear when to start seeing the doctor but when the symptoms
start to show up its necessary to get medical attention.
Lastly, eating disorders are more often during these times because there is a lot of pressure from
society to look good and have fit healthy body shape.
To learn more about the disorders visit these two websites: www.mayoclinic.org and www.psychiatry.org
*Our World In Data, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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