Posts Tagged ‘Eating’

Serious Types of Eating Disorders

This is definitely not the first time that you have heard that eating disorders exist among a lot of people, but what you are probably not aware of is the fact that there are eating disorders that experts consider as serious or worse types. This article will enumerate these specific types so that you will be aware if you are currently experiencing this.

The first among all the types of eating disorder is called Binge eating; you will know that you have this disorder if you have a habit of eating continuously and impulsively. This type of disorder can be described as a really emotional state of a person because after one eats impulsively, the person immediately feels shame and regret.

The next type of eating disorder is probably the most famous among all the types – anorexia. A person suffering from this disorder always feels scared of gaining a lot of weight even though they are already very thin in reality. In addition to this symptom, a person can also be suffering from anorexia if he/she is addicted to exercising and using fat burners even at the expense of their own health. The thing with this disorder is that it allows people to think about the different things they can do to stay healthy, but because of overdoing it, it actually defeats the purpose and puts his/her health in jeopardy more.

Another type of eating disorder is called bulimia and a person is suffering from this when he/she tends to eat a lot during meal times, and then throws all of it up right after. The dangerous thing about this disorder is that the normal flow of the digestive system is disrupted because a person is forcing himself/herself to throw up even though the body does not feel like doing so.

Knowing beforehand that you have an eating disorder is very important because you will prevent yourself from experiencing dangerous things like malnutrition, dehydration, and having an irregular pressure of blood. Even though what you have can seem minor at first, you should not take it for granted because you might just wake up one day realizing that your health is already at risk because of what you thought is just a minor eating disorder.

 

Eating disorders and treatment

Eating disorders can express themselves in many, sometimes apparently opposite, ways. This is because eating disorders, like other addictions and compulsive behaviours, are caused by underlying emotional problems, rather than by the food itself.

That is why it is not surprising that some people develop disorders such as anorexia while others struggle with binge eating. Either disorder needs to be treated for the direct harm that misusing food can cause; but effective, lasting treatment requires recognition of the root causes of the behaviours and treatments designed to help overcome these problems.

Anorexia

Most addictive behaviours involve habitual overindulgence in a particular activity. Anorexia nervosa manifests itself in obsessive avoidance of food. Anorexics have an obsession with avoiding weight gain, owing to an unhealthy self-image.  Such extreme self-deprivation is itself dangerous, but anorexia is also symptomatic of a very unhealthy state of mind.

Families of people suffering from anorexia are often alarmed by the obvious damage done to the sufferer’s body. Proper treatment will address physical concerns as an urgent priority while paying no less attention to the mental anxieties that cause the damaging behaviour.

Binge eating

Some people suffer from an addiction to unhealthy eating behaviours, like compulsive overeating disorder. Binge eating often, although not always, leads to unhealthy weight gain.

Food addiction and other compulsive eating disorders are characteristic of an emotional need or some other underlying psychological difficulty. This can in turn be exacerbated by the feeling of shame felt after overeating.

Food addicts sometimes need education about healthy eating plans and balanced nutrition. But ultimately empowering addicts to control their eating behaviour will need treatment.

Treatment for eating disorders

Eating disorders, whether anorexia, overeating disorder or other common eating disorders like bulimia, need to be treated by professionals.The first challenge is often to persuade the sufferer that he or she has a problem. Anorexics, for example, may believe they are simply taking the necessary steps to combat perceived deficiencies in their body image. It is precisely this kind of obsessive thinking that needs to be treated in order to help anorexics in the long term.

People suffering from food disorders will benefit from one-on-one counselling and group therapy. A qualified therapist can help the patient to work through obsessions and compulsions and to directly address the psychological problems underlying these behaviours.

As with other addictions, a 12 Step recovery programme may be incorporated into the treatment regimen. This can be especially helpful with the self-esteem issues that are at the core of many eating disorders.

Healthy living

A diet plan may also be an important part of recovery and a useful way of maintaining balanced eating behaviours. A good diet is also a necessary part of physical recovery for the undernourishment or malnutrition that sometimes accompanies eating disorders.

Physical exercise and a balanced, healthy lifestyle can also contribute to recovery and help sufferers find the confidence and self-esteem to return to their normal lives as productive members of society.

Eating disorders indicate serious psychological problems and can have grave physical health consequences. They may require extended, intensive treatment, and for this reason a period of inpatient treatment is sometimes recommended.

 

Battling an Eating Disorder: When Bulimia Becomes a True American Idol Sized Problem

In a People Magazine article, American Idol contestant, Katherine McPhee disclosed that she has secretly suffered from bulimia for the past five years. It was her success in television’s American Idol competition that inspired her to come forward and get help to recover from her life-threatening eating disorder. Katherine, a vocalist who at her worst point was self-inducing vomiting up to seven times a day, claimed that she realized her bulimic behaviors were “equivalent to taking a sledgehammer to her throat” and brought herself to treatment.

Glamorizing Eating Disorder Illnesses? Or Becoming an Invaluable Role Model?

Some may think when celebrities like Katherine come forward with such problems it only “glamorizes” the illness and encourages dysfunction in impressionable young people. In reality, some impressionable youngsters may respond by engaging in self-destructive experimentation, but for the most part, the responses of people like Katherine McPhee provide invaluable role modeling for fans.

Though statistics show that 1 percent of young females in this country suffer with bulimia, the numbers most likely do not reflect the enormity of the problem, as bulimia is among the most frequently missed diagnoses, and only a minority of people with eating disorders, especially with bulimia nervosa, are treated in mental healthcare. A problem cannot be solved until it is defined. In coming forward as she has, McPhee has displayed the courage and intention to achieve her dreams, to become proactive in making her life as healthy, gratified and fulfilled as it can be. Despite the widely held misconception that “once eating disordered, always eating disordered,” eating disorders are fully curable in 80 percent of cases where recognized early and treated effectively. In her forthright and courageous stand, this American Idol contestant has become a true American idol.

Uncovering the Secrets of Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa: The Most Lethal Mental Health Disorders

The most lethal of all the metal health disorders, bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are extremely hard to recognize. Highly secretive diseases, they rarely show up in doctors’ offices during physical or functional assessments; even laboratory tests do not show evidence of eating disorders until they are in their most advanced stages. By their nature counterintuitive, eating disorders typically give victims a pseudo-sense of power and control, creating the illusion of feeling and becoming “better than ever.” In actual fact, certain stages of recovery feel more precarious and painful than does the disease itself. Making matters even more confusing, many of the symptoms of these lethal disorders lay somewhere along the continuum of normal human behaviors. Who doesn’t overeat, under-eat or engage in emotional or social eating at times?

Eating disorders, which essentially represent an abuse of food in an effort to resolve emotional problems, transcend a dysfunctional relationship with food to represent the tip of a physical, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and social iceberg, with early signs of clinical eating disorders typically evident in diverse life spheres.

8 signs that parents and families may see at home, around the dinner table, in the family bathroom, or the child’s bedroom:

• Erratic eating, eating too much or too little, too frequently or too seldom.

• Dieting and other restrictive eating behaviors (in some instances vegetarianism or skipping meals) that can result in extreme hunger and gorging, irregular menstrual periods.

• Fear of putting on weight, with an all-encompassing preoccupation with food and eating that can account for as much as 80 percent of an individual’s thoughts

• Hiding food, and feeling shame and guilt after eating it. The refusal to eat in the company of others.

• Depressive moods

• Various forms of purging, including self-induced vomiting, excessive exercising, laxative, diuretic, or Ipecac abuse

• Disappearances into the bathroom during or following meals

• Impulsive, immoderate and out of control behaviors beyond the realm of eating, that might include shop lifting, promiscuity, cutting, engaging in chaotic relationships, abuse of substances such as drugs, alcohol, nicotine, diet pills, etc.

There is nothing passive about eating disorders. Always on the move, they are either getting better or you can be certain they are getting worse. Eating disorder recovery can be a long-term process, requiring input from a diverse team of professionals including physicians, psychotherapists, family therapists, nutritionists, psycho pharmacologists and school counselors. The course of recovery will be as variable, must be as comprehensive, and in many ways will feel as convoluted as the course of disease, typically combining outpatient and inpatient treatment milieus and diverse treatment modes. Victims of eating disorders, as young as age 5 or as old as 60, male or female, individuals alone or living within the context of a supportive or not so supportive family system need help to recognize, accept and conquer these diseases…to become capable of reclaiming their lives, proactively, with steadfast commitment… to fight the good fight for life and life quality.