Maybe you or a friend of yours have a strange 'relationship' with food. You either eat too much or you starve yourself. This is called and eating disorder and it is something that can happen to anyone. It is an illness and the person will need help.
There is a commonly held view that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person's eating behaviors. ... Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.
You can read more about different eating disorders on https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders/index.shtml
We will be looking at a few general facts on this topic:
There are a lot of facts and fiction on eating disorders, so lets have a look if we can set the facts straight.
Lets separate the facts from fiction
The general notion is that only people that are very skinny will have an eating disorder, but the fact is that any person with any body shape can have it. Many people that are affected by this is not necessarily underweight, but they can be on their goal weight or even overweight. An eating disorder is not what you look like, it is how you handle food.
Most people think that it is only teenage girls that will suffer from an eating disorder, but the truth is that this is an illness that can affect boys as well. And also not only teenagers, even adults can suffer from this. It can hit at any age and anybody can suffer from this illness.
Some adults or parents think that if their child has an eating disorder, it is only 'a cry for help'. If they are strict with them, or force them to eat or even ignore the problem, it will go away. Sadly this is not true. If it was true, the person who suffers from the disorder would not go to great lengths to hide the problem, since they feel ashamed of it. It is like bullying yourself and you do not know how to stop. You are over critical of yourself and too scared or ashamed to ask for help. In many cases a person does not even know they suffer from an eating disorder. This can turn out to be life threatening.
You think your friend has an eating disorder because they are just vane and want to look better than others, or are just not satisfied with themselves. This is not true. An eating disorder is a very serious mental illness and these people have a distortion of what they really look like - they keep on seeing themselves as fat for instance even if they are just skin and bones. This can lead to a lot of emotional stress.
Having an eating disorder is not something you decide to do. It is not a 'lifestyle choice' and you cannot just 'snap out of it'.
An eating disorder affects people physically, emotionally and socially and if you have an eating disorder it will not help to belittle yourself every day and tell yourself to 'just stop it', you will need a professional's help and support from people close to you in order to change and follow a healthy life style.
Lets have a look at Bulimia Nervosa
If a person suffers from this, they will sometimes go long periods of time where they will starve themselves and refuse to eat. After that they will 'binge eat' which mean they will overeat themselves and then 'purge', where they will throw up or get rid of the calories of all the food they just ate.
They will usually do this overeating in secret where others cannot see them and because they feel ashamed. After they have eaten all they can they will feel guilty and they will usually get rid of the food by throwing up. Other ways of 'purging' is also to use an overdose of laxatives or over exercising or both. Very quickly this becomes a vicious circle where they are trapped in.
Bulimia is not only about eating the food, it is also about getting rid of anxiety or pain. It happens many times that the Bulimia will start when a person goes through a trauma or emotional stress.
These people suffering from Bulimia is very obsessed with how they look and they worry a lot about the shape and weight of their bodies.
Just like Anorexia, this can also be a deadly illness and has a serious effect on their well being.
It is very important that you are able to spot the warning sign in yourself or in a friend and get help as soon as possible, before it is too late. Learn more about the signs here.
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