Three common types of eating disorders and their symptoms
Eating disorders are a range of conditions from disturbed to abnormal eating habits. These disorders generally origin from an obsession with food, body shape, or body weight. Eating disorders are often misunderstood has fads, phases, or lifestyle choices. However, these conditions are serious mental disorders. They affect a person psychologically, socially, and physically, often having life-threatening consequences and may even result in death. By the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), eating disorders are officially recognized as mental disorders.
Anorexia nervosa
One of the most popular types of eating disorders is anorexia nervosa. It generally tends to develop during the period of adolescence and young adulthood. It is observed to affect women more than men. People who have been diagnosed with anorexia generally think of themselves as fat and obese even though they are severely underweight. They tend to monitor their weight continuously, avoid consuming certain foods or any food, severely restrict calories, and have extreme work-out schedules. The common symptoms of anorexia nervosa are-
- Following extremely restricted eating patterns
- An endless and relentless pursuit of being thin and an unwillingness to maintain healthy body weight.
- Being significantly underweight as compared to people of a similar age and height.
- A serious fear of putting on weight. Despite being underweight, adapting behavioral patterns that avoid weight gain.
- Having a distorted body image. This includes denial of being severely underweight.
- A huge influence of body weight or on the perceived body image that leads to low self-esteem.
- Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are also observed in this condition. For example, many people who have been diagnosed with anorexia, have their minds preoccupied with thinking about food constantly, some may even hoard food, and obsessively collect recipes.
Bulimia nervosa
Another well-known eating disorder is bulimia nervosa. Similar to anorexia, bulimia nervosa develops around adolescence and the early adulthood period. It appears to be less common among men as compared to women. People with bulimia generally consume a large quantity of food in a comparatively short period of time. Until the person has become painfully full, they continue to binge eat. While they are binge eating, they don’t know where or how to stop, they have no control over their eating habits. One can binge eat any type of food in bulimia. However, they usually tend to consume unhealthy, fried, junk food that worsens their condition. Some of the common symptoms of bulimia nervosa are-
- Self-esteem that is primarily based on body shape and weight
- Having a constant fear of putting on weight
- Recurring episodes of purging behaviors to prevent weight gain. Some of the common purging behaviors are fasting, forced vomiting, diuretics, laxatives, excessive exercise, and enemas.
- Feeling a lack of control and binge eating continuously.
Binge eating disorder
Binge eating has been recognized officially as an eating disorder only in recent years. However, it is one of the most common eating disorders currently. People diagnosed with binge eating disorder tend to consume a large amount of food in a short period of time and feel they cannot control the urge. People with binge eating disorders are usually overweight or obese. This increases the risk of serious medical complications that are linked to obesity like stroke, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Some of the evident symptoms of binge eating disorder are-
- Feeling of distress and guilt while thinking about binge eating habits.
- A lack of purging to control the calories consumed while binge eating like vomiting, excessive exercise, calorie restriction, etc.
- Consuming large amounts of foods quickly by way of eating in secret and eating a lot even when not hungry.