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When you think of eating disorders, can you only come up with anorexia nervosa and bulimia? Do you think it only affects underweight young women and they are just seeking attention? These are common misconceptions about eating disorders.
The truth is that eating disorders are serious mental health illnesses that affect people of all ages, genders, body weights, and racial or ethnic backgrounds. Eating disorders affect a person's relationship with food by influencing their behavior around food. This may include an obsession with weight loss, body weight or shape, and strict control over how much food is eaten.
Many people don't realize that eating disorders are an illness and not a choice to behave in a certain way. Living with an eating disorder takes a heavy toll on a person's personal, social, and professional life. In extreme cases, it can be fatal.
Scientists have not uncovered the exact cause of eating disorders. Studies indicate that acombination of genetic, biological, behavioral, psychological, and social factors can increase your risk of developing an eating disorder.
Below we discuss the 7 most common eating disorders to help our readers understand them more fully.
Anorexia (anorexia nervosa) is an eating disorder in which a person eats very little to restrict the number of calories they consume. This behavior results in low body weight and malnutrition. Patients are petrified of gaining weight and are convinced they are overweight despite evidence to the contrary.
To the great distress of their loved ones, they often don't realize that they are starving themselves and that it can lead to their death. In fact, anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
There’s no simple answer to this question and no single cause. Experts suspect that several factors in combination might be responsible. Genetics, brain changes, trauma, the local culture, peer pressure, and low self-esteem all play a role – each case is unique.
Yes, and no. Some people with anorexia are extremely thin and others have a normal weight, and not all people who are extremely thin have anorexia. Most have a very low body weight.
So, what are the signs that someone has the condition? You may recognize signs from their behavior, such as:
A sudden dislike of food that was always fine in the past.
Talking about being overweight when it's not true.
Disappearing to the bathroom after meals.
Excessive exercising.
Wearing oversized clothing or layers to hide weight loss.
Complaining of being cold all the time.
Withdrawing from loved ones and friends.
At a late stage, people with anorexia suffer‘lanugo’ – a condition where they grow more fine hair on their bodies. This helps the body stay warm despite malnutrition. But this hair may not always be noticeable in a single glance as clothes often cover it.
If you, or anyone you know, become obsessed with not gaining weight, we urge you to seek professional help as soon as possible.
People with bulimia nervosa engage in a cycle of binging and purging; that means they overeat and then do something to undo their overeating like taking laxatives or making themselves vomit.
The condition mostly affects adolescent females but it can affect people of all ages and genders. People with bulimia typically have a normal body weight.
The exact cause of bulimia nervosa has not been established, but research suggests that the condition may be a combination of genetics and learned behaviors.
It's not always easy to know if someone has bulimia because they do their hiding of food, eating, and purging in secret. But there are "breadcrumbs" showing signs of their struggle. Some of the signs are:
Preoccupation with weight, shape, and appearance
Large amounts of food disappearing (signs of binging)
Laxative packaging, or diuretics wrappers (signs of purging)
Disappearing to the bathroom after meals, and bad odors after bathroom visits
Teeth that look varnished (due to enamel erosion caused by stomach acid during vomiting
Bloodshot eyes
Cuts and calluses on the knuckles from self-induced vomiting
The cycles of binging and purging upset the entire digestive system, leading to electrolyte and chemical imbalances with adverse consequences for the functioning of all major organs.
Binge eating disorder is when a person frequently eats huge amounts of food in one session while feeling unable to stop eating. One gets diagnosed with the disorder if one binge eats at least once a week for 3 months.
Binge eating disorder is themost common eating disorder in the United States. People of all racial and ethnic groups are affected, more women than men.
There is a connectionbetween binge eating disorder and type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There is a high prevalence of eating disorders among people withtype 1 diabetes. The reason might be the stress of constantly having to watch what you eat and how it affects your insulin levels.
Binge eating can lead to type 2 diabetes because of an increased body mass index and increased insulin levels among other metabolic abnormalities. Binge eating disorders can complicate the efforts to control blood sugar levels.
People with binge eating disorder eat enormous amounts of food in a single sitting. It can be any food, but it is often junk food. Initially, the food reduces stress and relieves anxiety, but soon guilt and disgust set in.
Binge eating behavior often leads to psychological problems like anxiety, and mood disorders.
A person with this eating disorder compulsively eats things that aren’t food or have no nutritional value, such as dirt, wool, or paper. In some cases, this behavior can be harmless, such as a pregnant woman eating ice. In other cases, it can be dangerous, such as when a person eats their own hair. (Hair lasts a long time and can form balls and block the digestive system).
Experts don’t know what causes pica, but they suspect certain factors might put one at risk of developing it. For instance, some forms of pica behavior, like eating dirt, are acceptable in certain cultures during religious ceremonies.
Pica is also common among children who grow up in poverty.
People with pica often have a deficiency iniron, calcium and zinc. Cravings to eat unusual things may be a sign that the body is trying to find a way to obtain the nutrients it's lacking.
Pica also occurs among people with intellectual disabilities. Non food items that pica sufferers may eat include:
Buttons
Chalk
Feces
Clay
Paint
Glue
Pica is not dangerous in itself, but certain nonfood items can be dangerous to eat.
Rumination disorder is a condition in which a person regurgitates undigested or partially digested food from the stomach and then eats it again. In other words, food that has been in the stomach comes back into the mouth and the person chews it again and swallows it or spits it out. Because the food comes back so soon, it has not been digested yet, so it doesn't taste sour like vomit.
The rumination happens every time the person eats.
Rumination disorder differs from bulimia in that the food comes up from the stomach involuntarily. In contrast, the person suffering from bulimia voluntarily tries to get the food to come up from the stomach. It's important to understand that people with rumination syndrome don't regurgitate food because the food makes them feel sick and they want to vomit.
These include spontaneous regurgitation – no retching is involved. The regurgitation usually goes with stomach ache, nausea, and a feeling of fullness. The person loses weight without trying to.
Yes, rumination can have unwanted andserious consequences including:
Embarrassment
Social isolation
Malnutrition
Bad breath
Tooth decay
Poor nutrition
Weight loss
Electrolyte imbalance
Dehydration
Aspiration (inhalation of food into the airway [trachea/lungs])
Choking
Pneumonia
Death
AFRID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) is an eating disorder that is often described as"extreme picky eating". AFRID doesn’t revolve around not liking this or that. Rather the reaction to food is more extreme such as difficulty chewing or swallowing, often gagging or choking on food that they don't want to eat.
The person doesn't avoid certain foods because they want to lose weight. To explain it more, there arethree kinds of ARFID.
Fear of something bad happening like choking or vomiting if the food is eaten.
Complete disinterest in food.
Sensory avoidance: dislikes or fears how the food tastes, feels in their mouth, how it smells, or how hot or cold it is.
The condition is most often diagnosed in children and adolescents.
A clear cause of ARFID isunknown. Research suggests anxiety, trauma, fear, genetic changes, and social or cultural influences may contribute to the condition.
Signs that someone is struggling with ARFID include:
Very picky when choosing food
Becomes anxious when certain foods are on their plate
Preference for nutritional supplements rather than eating
Avoids certain foods because of their color, texture, taste, smell, food groups, and other reasons
Vomits or gags when eating certain foods
Eating in isolation
Yes, AFRID can lead to severe nutritional deficiencies and psychosocial impairments. Specifically, it canlead to:
Significant nutrition and energy deficiencies
Children fail to gain weight
Delayed puberty
Gastrointestinal complications
Co-occurring anxiety disorders
Failure to gain weight (children)
In addition, the condition takes a heavy emotional and psychological toll in the form of strained family relationships and social isolation, mood disorders, and personality changes.
It may also be helpful for these individuals to take ahigh-protein supplement to reduce the risk of chronic disease and malnutrition.
Purging disorder is exactly what the term indicates: it's when a person purges their food after eating, either through self-induced vomiting or with the help of laxatives. The disorder is similar to but not the same as bulimia. A person with purging disorder does not engage in binge eating like a person with bulimia.
As with anorexia, these individuals are often not realistic about their weight, body image, and overall health. These distorted conceptions can lead to negative emotions surrounding food and eating. They may set unrealistic expectations about their appearance, so they purge their food to lose weight or alter their body shape. Purging disorder differs from anorexia in that the person is not underweight.
Purging disorder is not a separate entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text Revision (DSM-5-TR).
Doctors don't know what causes purging disorder, as little research has been done on the subject.
Signs that a person may be struggling with purging disorder include:
Comes across as weak, sick, and listless
Disappearing after meals
Vomiting frequently
Repeated diarrhea episodes
Chronic heartburn
Buying laxatives
Excessive exercise
Teeth erosion
Purging is a serious condition. Self-induced vomiting is extremely damaging to teeth and the esophagus due to stomach acid in the vomit. In addition, over time, it can damage the kidneys, digestive system, and the heart.
Research is needed to understand the condition better and to find a way to treat it.
Eating disorders can have serious consequences. If you notice signs of an abnormal relationship with food in yourself or someone else, don't ignore it. Seek medical help. Also, speak to a friend or family member for support.
Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that need treatment. Speak to your doctor who will refer you to a mental health professional. Eating disorders are complex and treatment requires the cooperation of a team of health professionals.