What Is An Eating Disorder?
Overview
Eating Disorders are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of any age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group.
Eating disorders are associated with severe disturbances in people’s eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions.
Preoccupation with food, body weight, and shape increase chances of an eating disorder occurring.
Each condition involves extreme food and weight issues, however each has its own unique symptoms that identify each disorder from one another.
Anorexia Nervosa
People with anorexia will deny themselves food to the point of self-starvation as they obsesses about weight loss. Anorexia can take a heavy physical toll. Very low food intake and inadequate nutrition causes a person to become very thin. The body is forced to slow down to conserve energy causing irregularities within the body.
People with anorexia will severely restrict the amount of food they eat, often exercise excessively, and may even force themselves to vomit or use other physical modes to purge.
Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder. While many people with this disorder die from complications associated with starvation, others die of suicide.
Emotional symptoms of anorexia include irritability, social withdrawal, lack of mood or emotion, not able to understand the seriousness of the situation, fear of eating in public and obsessions with food and exercise.
Physical symptoms include stomach cramps, difficulties in concentrating, dizziness, fainting, feeling cold all the time, problems sleeping, thinning and dry brittle hair, muscle weakness, and impaired immune functioning.
Bulimia Nervosa
People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over these episodes. This binge-eating is followed by behavior that compensates for the overeating such as forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviors. People with bulimia nervosa may be slightly underweight, normal weight, or over overweight.
Emotional symptoms include low self-esteem linked to body image, feelings of being out of control, feeling guilty after eating, and withdrawal of social interactions.
Physical symptoms include noticeable fluctuation in weight (both up and down), dental problems (enamel erosion, cavities, tooth sensitivity), cuts and calluses on edge of fingertips, muscle weakness, impaired immune functioning, gastrointestinal problems (constipation, acid reflux, cramping).
Treatment
Symptoms must meet the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in order to warrant a diagnosis. Each eating disorder has its own diagnostic criteria that a mental health professional will use to determine which disorder is involved.
Psychotherapy – Evidence points to the benefit of family based treatment for youth. Interpersonal psychotherapy, clinical management, cognitive behavior analysis are other methods recommended for adults.
Medicine - Antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. There is no medication available to treat eating disorders themselves, many patients find that these medicines help with underlying issues.
Statistics
30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the US annually.
Every 62 minutes a person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
1 in 5 anorexia deaths are by suicide.
Onset of anorexia nervosa is most commonly around the same time as puberty.
Alcohol and substance abuse are 4 times more prevalent amongst people that suffer eating disorders.
Exercise and Eating Disorders
Physical activity is an efficient method of treatment for many psychological disorders, but when it comes to eating disorders it needs to be carefully regulated in conjunction to other modes of disorder management.
When combined with methods such as medicine, monitoring medical status, and referral to a dietitian, a tailored exercise regime can prove to be effective in combating eating disorders.
References
Cook, B. J., Wonderlich, S. A., Mitchell, J. E., Thompson, R., Sherman, R., & McCallum, K. (2016). Exercise in eating disorders treatment: systematic review and proposal of guidelines. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 48(7), 1408–1414. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000000912
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National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. (n.d.). Eating disorder statistics.
Retrieved from https://anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-
statistics/
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National Eating Disorders Association. (n.d.). Warning signs and symptoms. Retrieved from
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/warning-signs-and-symptoms