Eating Disorders
- Read More »
Eating disorders are not due to a failure of will or behavior; rather, they are real, treatable medical illnesses in which certain maladaptive patterns of eating take on a life of their own. The main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A third type, binge-eating disorder, has been suggested but has not yet been approved as a formal psychiatric diagnosis. Eating disorders frequently develop during adolescence or early adulthood, but some reports indicate their onset can occur during childhood or later in adulthood.
Eating disorders frequently co-occur with other psychiatric disorders such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders. In addition, people who suffer from eating disorders can experience a wide range of physical health complications, including serious heart conditions and kidney failure that may lead to death. Recognition of eating disorders as real and treatable disorders, therefore, is critically important.
Eating is controlled by many factors, including appetite, food availability, family, peer, and cultural practices, and attempts at voluntary control. Dieting to a body weight leaner than needed for health is highly promoted by current fashion trends, sales campaigns for special foods, and in some activities and professions. Eating disorders involve serious disturbances in eating behavior, such as extreme and unhealthy reduction of food intake or severe overeating, as well as feelings of distress or extreme concern about body shape or weight.
Researchers are investigating how and why initially voluntary behaviors, such as eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, at some point move beyond control in some people and develop into an eating disorder. Studies on the basic biology of appetite control and its alteration by prolonged overeating or starvation have uncovered enormous complexity, but in the long run have the potential to lead to new pharmacologic treatments for eating disorders.
Learn More About These Eating Disorders:
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an extremely dangerous, life-threatening eating disorder in which a person intentionally deprives themselves of food and can literally starve to death in an attempt to be what they consider "thin."
Bigorexia
When Ken Clarke looks in the mirror, he sees a lot of areas that need improvement: His chest is too small, his arms are too thin, and no matter how hard he works, he can’t seem to make the progress he desires.
Binge Eating Disorder
The essential features of binge-eating disorder are recurrent, out-of-control episodes of consuming abnormally large amounts of food. People with this disorder eat whether they are hungry or not and continue eating well past being uncomfortably full.
Bulimia Nervosa
People who have bulimia nervosa routinely "binge," consuming large amounts of food in a very short period of time, and immediately "purge," ridding their bodies of the just-eaten food by self-inducing vomiting, taking enemas, or abusing laxatives or other medications.
Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive eaters feel incapable of controlling how much or how often they eat. They may feel unable to stop eating, eat very fast, eat when they're not hungry, eat when they're only alone, or eat nearly non-stop throughout the day.
Diabulimia
Diabulimia is a relatively new term that isn't officially recognized as a medical condition, but is impacting the lives of thousands of people, particularly young women. People with diabulimia (a blend of the terms diabetes and bulimia) have Type 1 diabetes and try to lose weight by depriving themselves of the insulin their bodies need.
Pica
A person afflicted with pica has a persistent craving for a substance not commonly considered to be food. The substances that are craved and ingested tend to vary with the person's age. Children with pica may eat glue, animal droppings, sand, insects, or gravel.