What is an eating disorder? A simple definition of an eating disorder is abnormal patterns of behavior and thought. All eating disorders have shared characteristics. There is fear of becoming fat, drive to become thin, an obsession with food, weight, and calories. Families of sufferers also have an increased incidence of depression, obesity, substance abuse, and eating disorders.
Two main eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia is an eating disorder in which a person is obsessed by thoughts of an unattainable image of “perfect” thinness. This occurs by starvation and/or excessive exercise and can result in death. Bulimia is an eating disorder involving the alternation between the extremes of eating large amounts of food in a short time, and then compensating for the added calories either by vomiting or other extreme actions to avoid gaining weight.
There are other eating disorders other than Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Some include Food Avoidance Emotional Disorder (FAED), Food Refusal, Pervasive Refusal, Selective Eating, and Appetite Loss Secondary to Depression. Food Avoidance Emotional Disorder was first introduced by Higgs and colleagues in 1989. Sufferers of FAED have a history of food avoidance or difficulty. They also have a disorder of emotions. FAED patients have an absence of organic brain disease, psychosis, illicit drug abuse, or prescribed drug-related causes.
Food Refusal is common in young children. "I'm all done." "Mommy, I don't want anymore." "No! I won't eat." These are all common phrases that a child of this problem might utter. These children often need to be bribed with threats of no dessert, or bribing them with their favorite foods. It is hard to distinguish between fads and eating disorders. Food refusers will eat their favorite foods with complete ease and also in certain situations such as a friend's house. Surprisingly these types of children are not underweight and not calorie conscious. This eating behavior is generally viewed as a behavioral problem that usually resolves itself in time. It does not represent a serious threat to the child's health or well being.
Described by Lask, "Pervasive Refusal is a condition that is manifested by profound and pervasive refusal to eat, drink, walk, talk or engage in self-care. Children with this particular combination of symptoms do not fit any existing diagnostic category, and suggest that the condition may be understood as an extreme variation of the avoidance behavior seen in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves extreme weight loss, restricted food intake, and an intense fear of becoming fat. The American Psychiatric Association outlines four diagnostic criteria for anorexia. The first is refusal to maintain body weight. The second is intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight. The third is denial of the seriousness of low body weight. The fourth is in postmenarcheal females, amenorrhea, for example the absence of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles.
...d with anorexia has increased a lot during the last 30 years which is very heavily influenced with the body image that is presented by the media. Bulimia nervosa was first used in 1979 by Russell to describe one of his patients. Later in 1988 Cooper and Fairburn described bulimia as “a profound and distressing loss of control over eating,” and “irresistible cravings for food”. Today these eating disorders are classified by the DSM V, which I mentioned earlier.
Eating disorders are characterized by gross disturbances in eating behavior and include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorders not otherwise specified(NOS), and binge eating disorder. Also, several researchers have coined the term anorexia athletics.
The three most commonly known eating disorders of today are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Anorexia nervosa is a disease connected with abnormal eating; it is not brought on by excitement, delusions, overactivity or a bad habit, it is a mental illness. Development of anorexia usually starts in the early teenage years, however it can go undiagnosed for thirty to even forty plus years. Another eating disorder is bulimia, people who are bulimic have no time to think about daily life; all that is on there mind is their next meal. Someone who has bulimia often l...
No human is perfect and because of this it is no secret that there are things that humans one way or another want to change or fix about themselves. However, some take this to an extreme. When an obsession over being thin starts to rule your life, eating proportions or habits, and thoughts- you might be in the beginning stages of an eating disorder. Eating Disorders are circumstances where there are strange or peculiar eating routine where there is too much or too little food intake for the lack of benefit to the person’s mental and physical health. Linked from Anorexia are some of the most common types of eating disorders such as Bulimia, anorexia, and binging. All of these eating disorders fall back onto excessive obsessing over weight and food related situations. Once often becomes brain washed into only focusing on the main goal, which is usually to be slim and thin.
Eating Disorders are psychological disorders that result from a drive to be thin. They are broken down into three categories, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Anorexia nervosa is diagnosed according to the DSM-III-R in individuals with body weight that is significantly lower than the norm, extremely concerned with weight and shape, distorted self-image, and an absence of three consecutive menstrual periods, in women. Bulimia Nervosa is diagnosed according to the DSM-III-R in individuals who have recurrent binge eating episodes, have weight and shape concerns, have a lack of control over such behavior, and have compensatory behaviors (e.g., vomiting, fasting, misuse of laxatives, or excessive exercise). Binge eating disorder has much of the same criteria as Bulimia Nervosa with the exception of the compensatory behaviors.
The DSM-IV-TR states that there are two main types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia and bulimia are extremely serious eating disorders. The word anorexia means loss of appetite, while boulima refers to bulimia and means “Hunger of an ox”. “Ninety percent of cases of eating disorders occur in adolescent females, this fluctuates from the ages of 14 through 18”. Eating disorders are associated with an altered body image, displeasure with body weight, and unhealthy patterns of food consumption (Valentina, Markovic, Srdanovic & Mitrovic, 2010, 3).
Despite the fact that many people think of an eating disorder as being an unhealthy quest for a perfect body, eating disorders are not about vanity and not really about weight. The causes of eating disorders are not known with precision but are thought to be a combination of genetic, neuro-chemical, psycho-developmental, and socio-cultural factors. Eating disorders are complex, psychological illnesses where people try to control conflict and stress in their lives by controlling food. The food, weight, and body image issues are identifiable symptoms of deep-rooted, often difficult-to-identify problems.
Eating disorders are a group of conditions characterized by severe disturbances in eating behavior with either an extreme reduction or an extreme increase of food intake, which negatively affects the individual's mental and physical health. There are two main types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is a third category of eating disorders called “eating disorders not otherwise specified”. Binge eating disorder is categorized under this. Eating disorders mainly appear during adolescence and early adulthood and affect women and girls much more than males. Eating disorders are not self-inflicted diseases, but real illnesses with biological and psychological causes. They often co-exist with other disorders such as depression and substance abuse and can lead to a number of other health complications such as kidney failure, heart problems and even death.
An eating disorder is characterized when eating, exercise and body image become an obsession that preoccupies someone’s life. There are a variety of eating disorders that can affect a person and are associated with different characteristics and causes. Most cases can be linked to low self esteem and an attempt to, “deal with underlying psychological issues through an unhealthy relationship with food” (“Eating Disorders and Adolescence,” 2013). Eating disorders typically develop during adolescence or early adulthood, with females being most vulner...
An eating disorder is a disturbance in a person’s eating habits, it can be from eating extremely to having a strict diet where one consumes tiny amounts of food. People with eating disorders are not satisfied with their body shape or size. They use food to try to control the way they look by overeating or not eating at all. Studies have shown that females are affected by eating disorders more often than males, but there still is a 10-15% of men that are affected by these disorders. (Eating Disorder Statistics, 2014)
An eating disorder is described as “any range of psychological disorders characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits”. Most people think eating disorders are only found in women when in fact 10-15% of eating disorders are found in men. “Up to 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder in the U.S.” As a survivor of an eating disorder I have seen the harmful effects it causes towards the body and the people around you. The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) says that research has found that the public health significance and severity of all types of eating disorders are extremely high and need to be dealt with.
There are many different kinds of eating disorders that people are affected with. For example, there is Anorexia Nervosa, which deals with not eating regularly or eats little amounts of food or not eating at all. There is also Bulimia Nervosa, which is when a person eats a large amount of food and then binges or purges after to get rid of the food they just put into the body. Lastly there is the Binge eating disorder. This disorder is when a person keeps a secret from everyone of their excessive eating.
Eating Disorders (EDs) are a series of often life-threatening mental health disorders which are commonly used as coping mechanisms or as ways to mask one’s problems. The causes of these illnesses are still being researched, and the effects they have on a person’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing can often be as long as the sufferer’s life.
Eating disorders are a serious health problem. Personal Counseling & Resources says that eating disorders "are characterized by a focus on body shape, weight, fat, food, and perfectionism and by feelings of powerlessness and low self-esteem." Three of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating or compulsive eating disorder. According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, a person with anorexia "refuses to maintain normal body weight for age and height" and "weighs 85 percent or less than what is what is expected for age and height." A person diagnosed with bulimia has several ways of getting rid of the calories such as binge eating, vomiting, laxative misuse, exercising, or fasting. The person might have a normal weight for their age and height unless anorexia is present. The signs of a compulsive eater include eating meals frequently, rapidly, and secretly. This person might also snack and nibble all day long. The compulsive eater tends to have a history of diet failures and may be depressed or obese (Anred.com).