Although it has eating in the name, eating disorder is more than food. It is a mental or psychological condition. As it is not the usual physical health condition, most of us do not have a proper understanding and knowledge about this.
A number of teenagers, mostly women, suffer from this mental condition and do not even bother to get medical help. However, if not treated at the easiest, this can impact physical health and can leave chronic effects.
Just like substance abuse or drug addiction, there are also several treatment programs available in order to treat eating disorders. You can explore them to get the basic details.
What Are Eating Disorders?
They are a range of psychological conditions which cause the development of unhealthy eating habits. Everything can start with an obsession with body shape, body weight, or food. If the situation gets, severe eating disorders can result in serious health consequences.
If they are not treated properly at the right time, they can cause death. One can have various types of symptoms, but food binges, restrictions of food, purging behaviors like over-exercising or vomiting are some of the common.
There is no specific age range for eating disorders. An individual can develop eating disorders at some point in life. Mostly it can be seen among young and adolescent women. By the age of 20, around 13% of youth might suffer from at least one eating disorder.
In short, we can say that an eating disorder is a particular mental condition that is marked by an obsession with body shape or food.
Common Types Of Eating Disorders You Should Guard Against
Different types of eating disorders exist. Here we are going to talk about the 7 most common eating disorders.
1. Anorexia Nervosa
It is the most well-known eating disorder. Individuals who have anorexia generally consider themselves overweight, even though they might be dangerously underweight.
Those individuals monitor their body weight constantly and also avoid some particular types of food and restrict their calorie intake with a low-carb diet. More women are suffering from this condition.
2. Bulimia Nervosa
Although it is also another popular type of eating disorder and is mostly seen in early adulthood and adolescence, just like anorexia, it is just the opposite in behavior. People with this particular eating disorder tend to eat large amounts of food frequently in a particular time period.
Until the individual is painfully full, every binge eating episode usually continues. During a binge, an individual feels like they can not control how much they are eating or stop eating.
3. Binge Eating Disorder
It is one of the most common disorders in the world, especially in the United States of America. People with this particular disorder mostly show the same symptoms like bulimia or, specifically, the binge eating subtype of anorexia.
Those people with binge eating disorders not only have unusually large amounts of food, that too in a relatively short time period, but also feel like they do not have control during binges.
4. Pica
People who are suffering from this particular type of eating disorder crave non-food substances like cornstarch, laundry detergent, pebbles, wool, cloth, hair, paper, soap, chalk, soil, dirt, or ice.
These types of disorders are mostly seen between pregnant women, children, and individuals who already have any mental disabilities.
5. Rumination Disorder
This type of eating disorder explains a condition in which the individual regurgitates the food they have previously chewed and also swallowed, re-chews it, and after that, either they swallow it or spit it out.
Within the first 30 minutes after the meal, this termination usually occurs. Unlike many medical conditions, like reflux, it is actually voluntary. During the infancy, or childhood, or adulthood, this disorder can develop.
6. Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
However, this is an old type of eating disorder, but the given name is new. In this disorder, the individual experiences disturbed eating; it can either be the result of a lack of interest in eating or distaste for some particular colors, tastes, smells, temperatures, or textures.
Generally, ARFID develops during infancy or early childhood and can also persist to adulthood. It is pretty common among both men and women.
7. Unspecified Feeding or Eating Disorder (UFED)
UFED applies to some particular presentations in which the symptoms characteristics of an eating or feeding disorder, which causes clinically significant impairment or distress in occupational, social, and other important areas of functions, but practically do not fulfill the criteria of any particular disorder.
Other Eating Disorders
Apart from the above-mentioned, there are some other types of eating disorders as follows.
- OSFED
When an individual clearly has an eating disorder, the symptoms do not fit in any of the common types of eating disorders.
- Night Eating Syndrome
An individual with this specific eating disorder frequently eats excessively, often after waking from sleep.
- Purging Disorder
Individuals often use purging behavior with purging disorder for controlling their body shape and weight. Those behaviors include:
- Excessive exercising.
- Diuretics.
- Laxatives.
- Vomiting.
FAQs
The whole concept of eating disorders is not new; individuals have been suffering from this for a very long time. However, it is coming into the spotlight as many people are opting for proper treatment. Here are some of the most common questions, which will clear out your understanding of eating disorders.
Q1:What Are The 7 Examples Of Disordered Eating Patterns?
Here are the most common examples of disordered eating.
- Diet pills.
- Overeating or undereating.
- Cleanses.
- Fad diets.
- Supplement misuse.
- Skipping meals.
- Heightened focus on appearance.
- Extremely social media focused on food or appearance.
Q2: What’s The Most Serious Eating Disorder?
Among the ones we have mentioned above, the most dangerous two eating disorders are bulimia and anorexia.
Final Talks
These are all you need to know about eating disorders to identify if any close one of you is suffering from any. Suppose you find out that your close one is suffering from any type of eating disorder, contact a doctor as soon as possible and start the treatment. It is the only way to save their life and get them out of it.
