How To Spot Eating Disorders That Affect Your Mental Health

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What is an Eating Disorder?

An eating disorder is a mental health condition that is associated with an unhealthy relationship a person has with food.

It causes physical and mental problems to those affected and in some cases, it can lead to death.

This condition is not specific to a particular group of people, gender, or age. Although any gender and age group can experience this disorder, adolescent females experience it more than their male counterparts.

Eating disorder goes beyond having an issue with food or body shape and size. It is often linked to more distressing thoughts and emotions. It is estimated that about 20 million women and 10 million men will have one form of eating disorder or the other in their lifetime.

Types Of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa: It is one of the oldest and most common eating disorders. It is a life-threatening mental illness that causes severe weight loss. People who have anorexia see themselves as overweight or fat when they are underweight.

They obsess about losing weight and maintaining a certain body shape by depriving themselves of food through starvation, excessive exercise and extreme dieting which leads to a low body mass index (BMI). People living with anorexia are socially withdrawn, fear spontaneity, and dread eating in public.

Women are generally more affected by anorexia nervosa. Men with Anorexia use extreme exercise, steroids, and restrict food consumption to have a more toned and athletic body.

Anorexia nervosa has two subtypes.

• The restricting type: Loses weight solely from dieting, fasting, and excessive exercise.
• The binge eating purging type: Here, individuals eat a large amount of food then go ahead to purge out the food

Bulimia Nervosa: This type of eating disorder usually occurs during or after a person has gone through dieting.

People living with bulimia nervosa are usually involved in a lot of binge eating — at least once a week — then force themselves to vomit, abuse laxatives, and over-exercise to stop the weight gain.

People with bulimia binge eat secretly but later feel guilt, disgust, or shame.

Bulimia often develops during adolescence and is more common in women than in men. People with Bulimia can have normal body weight, or be slightly underweight, overweight or even obsessed.

Binge Eating Disorder: Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the world today.

A person with a binge eating disorder consumes large portions of food quickly in a short time and doesn't have control over it.

Unlike people living with bulimia nervosa and the subtype of anorexia, binge eaters do not involve themselves in any purging behaviour after eating.

This is why people with binge eating disorders have serious health complications like obesity, heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, and sleep disorder.

Symptoms And Causes

Symptoms

Each type of eating disorder has its unique symptoms, an awareness of some common general signs can help you detect if you or someone around you has an eating disorder.

Some common symptoms of eating disorders include:

• Constant preoccupation with body shape and weight.
• Eating too little or too much food in a short time without control.
• Loss of interest in family activities, social outings around food, and hobbies you enjoyed before.
• Making yourself sick after eating or frequently taking laxatives.
• You feel anxious, irritable, withdrawn, and moody.
• Physical signs such as abnormal weight for your age and height, tiredness, cold, and dizziness.

Causes

Eating disorders can damage a person’s health and self-esteem. Eating disorders are not caused by one factor alone, but rather by a mixture of factors including attempts to cope with painful emotions and overwhelming feelings by restricting one’s food intake. Some other factors include

• Environmental factor: Culture that idealizes a particular body type tends to place undue pressure on people to attain unrealistic weights and sizes. Media and pop culture frequently glorify the thinness of women and the muscularity of men, presenting them as standards for happiness, success, beauty, and perfection.
• Biological factor: People whose parents, siblings, or relatives have eating disorders are more prone to developing eating disorders.
• Social Factor: This type of eating disorder is common among young people who are bullied, teased, or ridiculed because of their weight, have difficulty with school work, or have been physically or sexually abused.

Diagnosis

Early diagnosis of an eating disorder is important to a quick recovery. For a diagnosis to be made, the symptoms must match those in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). A doctor will interview the person affected, carry out a physical examination, then order a lab test, to check for any related medical condition.

After this, a psychiatrist will carry out a psychological examination by asking the individual questions about behaviours like eating habits, purging, binging, dieting, and beliefs.

Psychiatrists will use specific diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder to determine what kind of disorder is present.

Getting Help

People don’t choose eating disorders as a lifestyle. Rather, it is an illness that goes beyond a preoccupation with food and weight loss. The disorder is a mental illness that involves deeper emotions that involve a need to control, to be accepted, and be loved.

Like every illness, eating disorders can be treated. A person’s eating disorder, its seriousness, and personal conditions dictate what type of treatment they need and the treatment method.

Among the treatment options are:

Talking Therapy: Talking therapy helps the affected individual identify the feelings and fears that lead to the eating disorder. It also helps the affected person develop a healthier behaviour towards food and their body shape and weight.

Medication: people with eating disorders may be offered antidepressant drugs alongside the therapy to help them manage the other conditions that come with the disorder like depression, OCD, and anxiety.

In extreme cases, they may be admitted to the hospital and will work closely with a dietician and mental health team to recover.

Summary

Eating disorder is a serious mental illness that can affect anybody no matter their age but is more common in young women.

It goes beyond food and is often associated with underlying distressing thoughts and emotions. It can lead to serious life-threatening health conditions.

Types of eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, etc.

The causes of eating disorders vary and so does the treatment. Early detection is important to recovery.

References

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