Do You Have An Eating Disorder: Here Are 5 Important Things You Should Know

There is a serious misconception that eating disorder is a lifestyle choice. Like the name implies, it is a disorder that has to do with eating and should be seen as an illness.

This Is What Every Colour Of Your Vaginal Discharge Is Trying To Tell You About Your Health

Many women fight eating disorders in silence. Because not many know about it, they can relate with the very real danger it poses to their health and life. This is akin to throwing punches in the dark.

This eating disorders range from not wanting to eat all to an uncontrollable urge to eat to the point of throwing up.

Just the same way for all illnesses, information is key; they can make all the difference to whether you survive or not.

Here are 5 points you should know about eating disorders

1. Types of eating disorder

These disorders have been separated into 3 categories, these are

a. Binge Eating

This means eating much more than intended within a short time. Often it goes unnoticed as it can disguise itself as overeating. If your eating gets out of control especially when you do it in private then you feel self-disgust and shame, then you could be a binge eater without knowing. If this happens to you at least once every week for three months, then you might have to see your doctor.

This may lead to excessive weight gain eventually and in turn cause depression its sufferer.

b. Anorexia nervosa

This was previously a title given to people who refuse to eat food imply that it is a choice, but new research shows that this kind of eating disorder occurs when you have an inordinate fear of adding weight. People living with Anorexia nervosa have a distorted body image and want to avoid gaining weight at all cost even to the point of starving themselves.

c. Bulimia nervosa

When binge eating is followed by efforts to avoid weight gain, such as through self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives, it becomes bulimia nervosa.

2. You should understand that they are not lifestyle choices

From the outside, some eating disorders can look like vanity gone amuck. But more than a desire to emulate supermodels is at work. A combination of genetic, psychological, biological, behavioral and social factors are now known to play a role.

Recent studies reveal, for example, that a gene variation may lead to binge eating in teens; that brain activity is different in those with anorexia; and that having an apple body shape increases susceptibility to binge eating, as does a tendency toward impulsivity.

Added to all this is a potent emotional fuel: a comparison culture that can send body dissatisfaction soaring.

3. Eating disorders often go hand-in-hand with other health issues

If you have an eating disorder, your chance of co-occurring conditions skyrockets. You are more likely to have a mood disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder, for example, and you are at elevated risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder, research shows. Not only that, alcohol and drug use disorders occur at four times the rate in those with eating disorders than in the general population.

These statistics are troubling because each issue complicates the other. That’s why treatment that focuses on the whole person, not just on the eating disorder in isolation, is crucial for healing.

4. They can kill

Eating disorders can kill just like any other illness if left unattended to. Research has shown that Anorexia Nervosa kills more than any mental illness. Because of the constant starvation, it sufferers often go without the necessary nutrition they require for a healthy life.

Bulimia may lead to electrolyte imbalance as its sufferer can’t seem to keep any food down. So, you feel that you might have any of these disorders, don’t keep quiet.

5. Recovery is possible

Just like that every other mood-affecting illness, eating disorders can leave you hopeless and depressed but remember that there is help. Apart from psychotherapy which will help you adjust your distorted views about your body and food over time, there are medications now available that will help regulate moods and any other co-occurring health concern.