What is a Eating Disorder?
Eating disorders are often more than just about food; they can physically and mentally damage our health to the point of being hospitalised. A complex mental health condition such as an eating disorder will require professional psychological experts who will be able to understand what you are going through to help put you on the right path to get you back to your healthiest.
An eating disorder can be caused by a whole range of psychological conditions that can develop into someone having extremely unhealthy eating habits. This may start with someone wishing to become thinner, obsession with food or become bigger. In the most severe cases, eating disorders can become highly dangerous which may end up leading to hospitalisation if left untreated.
People who suffer from an eating disorder can display a whole bunch of symptoms depending on the type of eating disorder that they have. These types of symptoms include binging on food, severe restriction of food, vomiting and more. Eating disorders can affect anyone from any walk of life regardless of age and gender.
What can cause an Eating Disorder?
There has found to be a wide range of reasons why an individual may suffer from an eating disorder. Genetics can play a role in why someone may have an eating disorder as people with a parent or sibling are at a more increased risk of developing an eating disorder.
A common reason why people start to develop eating habits that can lead to an eating disorder is through a feeling of heavy pressure to become thin to follow media that they may be frequently exposed to or if they are surrounded by a culture that has a preference for thinness then people may take drastic steps in order to ‘achieve’ it.
Personality traits can also be another major deciding factor for those suffering from an eating disorder. There are three common personality traits that are frequently linked to an eating disorder which are perfectionism, impulsiveness and neuroticism.
The different types of Eating Disorders
There are many different types of eating disorders that individuals suffer from on a daily basis, they are a group related to conditions which usually include food, weight and self-esteem issues. These most common types of eating disorders will have their own unique symptoms and diagnosis criteria.
The most well-known eating disorder that people will have heard of is Anorexia Nervosa.
It is most commonly developed during adolescence or young adulthood. It is more commonly found to affect girls/women than males. Individuals that suffer from Anorexia Nervosa will view themselves as being overweight even when they are the opposite and severely underweight which means they can take drastic measures such as always monitoring their weight, reducing their calorie intake and more.
People with Anorexia Nervosa will have an intense fear of gaining weight which results in restricted eating patterns. There may be many reasons why someone will develop Anorexia, the most common reason is body image. OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is normally associated with Anorexia people with Anoxreia have obsessive constant thoughts about food.
Much like Anorexia Nervosa, this is also most commonly developed during an individual’s adolescence or young adulthood. People that suffer from Bulimia Nervosa will consume massive amounts of food in just a specific period of time. An eating binge will usually carry on until the person starts to feel pain. In a food binge, the person can lose all inhibitions and can’t control the amount of food they are consuming.
Food binges can be with any type of food but it is more commonly with food that shouldn’t be eaten in large amounts such as fast food to compensate for a large amount of food eaten, people with Bulimia Nervosa will attempt to purge it from their bodies to give themselves gut comfort.
Purging will involve forcing themselves to throw up, laxatives, fasting and over-exercise. It can be hard sometimes to detect if a person is suffering from Bulimia Nervosa as they can often maintain a healthy weight unlike people with Anoxeria.
It can lead to nasty side effects with can affect your overall health such as inflamed sore throat, tooth decay, acid reflux, severe dehydration and many more. In the most severe types of Bulimia Nervosa, it can lead to a heart attack or stroke due to an imbalance in levels of electrolytes.
Pica is an eating disorder that many people may not hear of. People suffering from Pica will consume things that are not considered food that hold no nutritional value whatsoever. Pica can occur in children to adults.
Those suffering from Pica will crave non-food substances, some of the most common ones include dirt, ice, soil, chalk, soap, paper and more. This type of eating disorder is usually seen in people that have conditions that affect daily functioning. Some of these are development conditions such as ASD.
Due to the unnatural substances they consume, people with Pica are more likely to suffer from poising, infections and gut injuries.
Eating Disorder treatment options
If you are someone who believes they are suffering from an eating disorder or know a loved one who is then identifying the condition at an early stage through diagnosis will be able to help you get the treatment required for you to make the earliest and best chance of recovery.
Our psychiatrists will be able to listen to your current situation and discuss your eating disorder problem dating back to when it started and how it has developed to this point. Through this, we will be able to help you get the ideal plan set up tailored to your personality and problem. As there can be multiple treatment paths for you to take meaning we can help find the right one for you as we understand that every person is unique and there is not one set plan that can help everyone.