WHAT IS AN EATING DISORDER?
According to Healthline, “Eating disorders are about more than food. They’re complex mental health conditions that often require the intervention of medical and psychological experts to alter their course.” In severe cases, eating disorders can cause serious health consequences and may even result in death if left untreated.
Those with eating disorders can have a variety of symptoms. However, most include the severe restriction of food, food binges, or purging behaviours like vomiting or over-exercising. Eating disorders are marked with obsession over food and body shape, especially in young women.
CAUSES OF EATING DISORDERS
Specialists accept that dietary issues might be brought about by an assortment of elements.
One of these is hereditary qualities. Twin and adoption studies contemplate including twins who were isolated upon entering the world and embraced by various families give some proof that eating disorders might be genetic.
Character traits are another reason. Specifically, neuroticism, hair-splitting, and impulsivity are three character attributes frequently connected to a higher danger of building up an eating disorder
Hence, eating disorders might be brought
about by a few elements. These incorporate hereditary qualities, cerebrum
science, character characteristics, and social beliefs.
6 COMMON EATING DISORDERS
1. ANOREXIA
Anorexia is the most
commonly known eating disorders, where individuals obsess about getting
thinner, they portray an unusually low body weight, an exceptional dread of
putting on weight and a misshaped impression of weight. Individuals with
anorexia place a high worth on controlling their weight and shape, utilizing
outrageous endeavours that will in general essentially meddle with their lives.
To stall gaining weight people seriously confine the measure of food they eat. They may control calorie intake by heaving in the wake of eating or by abusing intestinal medicines, diet helps diuretics or purification.
They may likewise attempt to get in shape by practising unreasonably. Regardless of how much weight is lost, the individual keeps on dreading weight to acquire. At the point when you have anorexia, you frequently link skinniness with self-esteem.
2. BULIMIA
Bulimia is a serious,
potentially life-threatening eating disorder. People with bulimia may secretly binge
and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way.
People with bulimia are
always preoccupied with their weight and body shape. They may judge themselves
severely for their flaws. Because its related to self-image, bulimia can be
hard to recover from.
Bulimia signs and
symptoms may include:
- Living in fear of gaining weight
- Being preoccupied with your body shape and weight
- Repeated episodes of eating abnormally large amounts of food in one sitting
- Feeling a loss of control during binging — like you can’t stop eating or can’t control what you eat
- Forcing yourself to vomit or exercising too much to keep from gaining weight after binging
- Using laxatives, diuretics or enemas after eating when they’re not needed
- Fasting, restricting calories or avoiding certain foods between binges
- Using dietary supplements or herbal products excessively for weight loss.
3. BINGE EATING DISORDER
The binge-eating disorder typically begins during adolescence and early adulthood, although it can develop later on. Individuals with this disorder have symptoms similar to those of bulimia or the binge-eating subtype of anorexia.
They typically eat unusually large amounts of food in relatively short periods of time and feel a lack of control during binges. People with binge-eating disorder do not restrict calories or use purging behaviours, such as vomiting or excessive exercise, to compensate for their binges.
Common symptoms of binge-eating disorder include :
- Eating large amounts of foods rapidly, in secret and until uncomfortably full, despite not feeling hungry
- feeling a lack of control during episodes of binge-eating
- feelings of distress, such as shame, disgust, or guilt, when thinking about the binge-eating behaviour
- no use of purging behaviours, such as calorie restriction, vomiting, excessive exercise, or laxative or diuretic use, to compensate for the binging
People with binge
eating disorder often have overweight or obesity. This may increase their risk
of medical complications linked to excess weight, such as heart disease,
stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
4. PICA
Pica is an eating
disorder in which a person eats things not usually considered food. Young kids
often put non-food items (like grass or toys) in their mouths because they’re
curious about the world around them. But kids with pica go beyond that.
Sometimes they eat things that can lead to health problems.
People with pica crave and eat non-food items such as dirt, clay, rocks, paper, ice, crayons, hair, paint chips, chalk.
Health problems can
happen in kids with pica, depending on what they eat. These can include:
- Iron-deficiency anaemia
- lead poisoning, from eating dirt or paint chips with lead
- constipation or diarrhoea, from eating things the body can’t digest (like hair)
- intestinal infections, from eating soil or poop that has parasites or worms
- intestinal obstruction, from eating things that block the intestines
- mouth or teeth injuries
5. RUMINATION DISORDER
It describes a condition in which a person regurgitates food they have previously chewed and swallowed, re-chews it, and then either re-swallows it or spits it out. This rumination typically occurs within the first 30 minutes after a meal. Unlike medical conditions like reflux, it’s voluntary.
This disorder can develop during infancy, childhood, or adulthood. In infants, it tends to develop between 3–12 months of age and often disappears on its own.
Children and adults with the condition usually require therapy to resolve it. If not resolved in infants, rumination disorder can result in weight loss and severe malnutrition that can be fatal.
By Suhaani Hardikar
Also Read: How to identify and seek help for your Mental Health
