Eating disorders are rather popular nowadays. As you can guess, an eating disorder is an abnormal eating behaviour which can either lead to an excessive body weight or to severe malnutrition.
While people free from such kind of disorders regard some individuals with eating disorders especially the ones related to overeating as a result of a lack of self-discipline, unfortunately, these problems are a way more complex. Some of the popular culprits for such conditions are a genetic predisposition, psychological traumas, pressure coming from the society which sets standards for beauty as well as peer pressure in some working environments such as the modelling industry and professional sport.
Read more to find out about the most widespread type of eating disorders and make sure you do not have any of these symptoms.
Anorexia Nervosa
One of the most common eating disorders is anorexia nervosa which is a condition in which a person is completely obsessed with skinniness.
Many people believe this type of anorexia is being rather skinny itself, however, the condition is an entire complex of behavioural patterns which is leading to a dramatic weight loss. At the same time, excessive skinniness can be a symptom of many other health conditions which are not related to anorexia. For instance, people coming through some infections, inflammation of intestines, alcoholism, ulcers and a clinic depression can have a serious weight loss as well.
In the case of anorexia nervosa, the root of the problem is the lack of satisfaction of a person with one’s weight. Such an individual might feel all a slim body only can make one’s life happy and meaningful while even an serious weight deficiency is still not enough for them. No matter how much one is depriving oneself from eating and torturing with exercises, it still is not sufficient for such a person. The thoughts of being overweight and ugly are thus strong that they can lead to suicidal attempts.
As you can imagine, the entire thoughts of people ill with anorexia nervosa are preoccupied by loosing weight and these thoughts can even appear in their dreams. Of course, the greatest fear for them is putting on weight which is making them cut on a large number of products and check the body mass every day. The need to eat can cause fear itself.
It is also typical for people ill with anorexia nervosa to develop some strange rituals such as eating each piece of food for a rather long time or dividing a dish into ingredients.
Advanced states of anorexia nervosa can cause serious health problems related to malnutrition.
Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa is going beyond a psychological disorder as it is causing a serious metabolic problem which also leads to malnutrition and deficiency of nutrients. The results of such a condition can be unpredictable including hair loss, teeth erosion, bone weakening and even stomach eruption. Note that bulimia nervosa can develop into a chronic condition if it is not treated.
Bulimia nervosa is certainly similar to anorexia nervosa with the fear of putting on weight. However, people with bulimia are prone to fighting with anything they have just eaten with rather drastic methods. The common ways of doing it are inflicting vomits or taking medications. Unfortunately, such a behaviour is not allowing a person to digest food properly and at the same time is affecting body in different other ways. For example, a constant presence of stomach acid in the mouth cavity is causing serious damages of teeth.
At the same time, a great issue of bulimia is drastic overeating. The drastic changes of the metabolic process are making individuals to consume extremely large portions at a time which they immediately try to purge from their bodies. Right after having food such people feel guilt and they are ashamed of themselves, thus they avoid eating while being surrounded by other people. Even when people with bulimia feel they are not hungry any more they just cannot stop eating. This is causing a vicious cycle destroying the health and psychological well-being of a person.
Binge eating disorder
In the case of compulsive overeating, people are also trying to lose weight. Yet, in their case they are less effective with the fight with food they are consuming than the individuals with bulimia. People with compulsive overeating tend to try various diets all of which are ending with severe overeating.
People with the binge eating disorder tend to eat during the entire day without dividing consumption into a breakfast, dinner and supper. For them it is more like attacks of compulsive overeating when they completely cannot control their appetite. Usually, compulsive overeating is an escape mechanism from other problems, however, the health problems caused by this mechanism are making people even more unhappy and prone to overeating.