An eating disorder is something more than a disorder related to food. In the broader sense, it refers to a mental condition that is so complex that psychological and medical experts may be needed for its cure. Eating disorder is common all over the world. Not only adults but children also suffer from it. Eating disorders lead to the development of unhealthy eating habits among the affected individuals. The risk of an eating disorder is that it may cause serious health consequences leading to death in severe conditions.
Here the cheap copywriting services have discussed the six most common eating disorders along with their symptoms.
Anorexia Nervosa:
The most famous eating disorder is named anorexia nervosa. This type of eating disorder usually develops during young adulthood or adolescence. Women are more likely to develop this disorder as compared to men. Anorexia-affected people might see themselves as overweight despite being severely underweight in some cases. Due to this, they keep a watch on their weight to keep it under control. They also avoid eating certain types of foods to restrict their calories.
Anorexia is classified into two types, namely, binge eating and purging type and the restricting type.
- Binge eating and purging type: people suffering from binge eating and suffering type anorexia either eat a lot of food or opt for too little diet. In each condition, they purge afterward by excessive exercise, taking diuretics or laxatives, vomiting, etc.
- Restricting type: people suffering from this type of anorexia tend to lose weight through excessive exercise, fasting, or dieting.
Symptoms:
Following are the common symptoms usually observed in this condition.
- Being significantly underweight comparatively with other people of the same height and age
- Keeping the eating patterns strictly restricted.
- Fearing about gaining weight and therefore observing practices to refrain themselves from weight gain.
- Reluctant to maintain a healthy weight and excessive efforts to become thin
- Hurting their self-esteem due to non-acceptance of their body shape and body weight
- Having a fake belief of being overweight
People suffering from anorexia may also show some symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder by constantly thinking about food all the time. Some of them may hoard food items or collect different recipes.
They might be uncomfortable eating in public and try to avoid it as much as possible. In such a situation, they try to control their environment and try to be less spontaneous.
Anorexia is severely harmful to the human body. People suffering from it may suffer from extreme conditions such as brittle nails and hair, fine hair growth in a layer all over the body, infertility, and the thinning of bones. It can also cause death in severe cases or may result in multiple organ failures.
Bulimia Nervosa:
Another type of eating disorder is called bulimia nervosa. Like anorexia, this disorder is also more common among women than men and tends to happen in adolescence or early adulthood. People suffering from this disorder consume large amounts of food during a specific period. This excessive eating comes to an end when the person feels painfully full. It seems that he is unable to control his eating habits.
After this excessive eating, the affected person tries to purge the calories through excessive exercise, enemas, diuretics, laxatives, fasting, and vomiting. As a result, bulimia affected people tend to maintain comparatively normal weight than anorexic people’s underweight.
Symptoms:
- Fearing for being overweight despite maintaining a normal weight.
- Strong influence of body weight and shape on self-esteem.
- Unhealthy purging habits to cut off excessive calories.
- Losing control on eating and repetitive sessions of overeating.
The side effects of this condition include sore and inflamed throat, worn tooth enamel, swollen salivary glands, hormonal disturbances, dehydration, gut irritation, tooth decay, and acid reflux. In addition, it may cause a heart attack or stroke in severe cases. An imbalance in essential electrolytes such as calcium, potassium, and sodium is also seen in extreme cases.
Binge eating disorder:
One of the most common types of eating disorder is binge eating disorder. In this condition, a person tends to consume large amounts of food in a short span of time as he feels a lack of control over his eating habits. Like other types, it also develops during early adulthood and adolescence. The symptoms are nearly the same as binge eating type of anorexia and bulimia.
People suffering from this disorder keep gaining calories and do not go for purging activities to cut them off.
Symptoms:
- Consuming food in large amounts despite not feeling hungry. The eating continues until the person feels uncomfortably full.
- Losing control while binge eating.
- Feeling ashamed, disgusted, or guilty of themselves when thinking about their habit of binge eating.
- Not practising any purging activity such as vomiting, excessive exercise, calorie restriction, or diuretic and laxative use to compensate for their excessive eating.
Pica:
Pica is an eating disorder in which a strange behaviour of eating things not considered as food is observed. People suffering from this disorder crave things such as chalk, hair, paper, cloth, soil, ice, dirt, pebbles, soap, wool, cornstarch, or laundry detergent. Due to consuming non-food items, pica-affected individuals face a high risk of poisoning, nutritional deficiencies and gut injuries depending on the item eaten. Pica can develop in adolescents, adults, children, people with mental disabilities, and pregnant women.
Rumination disorder:
Rumination disorder is a comparatively newly discovered eating disorder. Under this condition, a person brings already swollen food back to the mouth, re-chews it, and either spit it out or re-swallows it. Although it resembles reflux, it is a voluntary action that usually occurs only within thirty minutes of eating. Rumination disorder can occur during any stage of life, such as infancy, childhood, and adulthood. This disorder needs medical therapy, or else it can prove to be fatal, especially among children.
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder:
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is an eating disorder usually developed among children during infancy or later. It is characterized by disturbed eating habits due to lack of interest or distaste for specific temperatures, smells, textures, colours, or tastes. The chances of getting affected are equal for men and women.
Symptoms:
- Avoiding taking a sufficient amount of food resulting in a lack of essential nutrients and calories in the body.
- Underweight or improper weight growth in relevance with age and height.
Dependence on supplements or nutrients deficiencies.
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