Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are real, complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that can have serious consequences for health, productivity and relationships. They affect 20 million women and 10 million men throughout the United States. These disorders can be life-threatening if not recognized and treated appropriately, but recovery is possible. The earlier a person receives treatment, the greater the likelihood of full recovery.

What do eating disorders feel like?

Eating disorders can have life-threatening consequences, and there are huge physical and emotional problems related to weight and food. There are extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors that coincide with these disorders. Each type of eating disorder comes with their own set of symptoms, and everyone’s experience is different, but here are some of the common threads amongst all different types:

Constantly thinking about weight and food issues
Feeling uncomfortable eating around others
Experiencing mood swings
Noticing fluctuations in weight
Impaired immune functioning
Difficulty concentrating
Sleeping problems

What are the different forms of eating disorders?

Eating disorders can be caused by societal pressures to be thin, using food as a way to cope with other emotions, or low self-esteem. For some people, it can be caused by a deficiency in neurotransmitters. The cause is going to be different for everyone, but here are some of the ways that eating disorders appear for people:

Anorexia

Anorexia is characterized by not eating enough food, and you experience extreme weight loss. You feel an intense fear of gaining weight, or an obsession with the number on a scale. It also means that you will likely deny the seriousness of the illness. You can also experience very serious health consequences like heart failure, muscle loss, or osteoporosis.

Bulimia

This type of eating disorder is a cycle of binge eating, and then counteracting the effects of that by self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretics, fasting, or obsessive exercise. This leads to a lot of different health consequences including heart failure, tooth decay or rupturing the esophagus and pancreatitis.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating is when you’re having frequent episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short period of time. It includes feeling out of control during the binge, and a lot of feelings of shame and guilt afterwards. This can lead to heart disease, diabetes, gastric rupture, and gallbladder disease.

Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder

This is the catch-all name for any eating disorder that causes some kind of distress or impairment in your life. These disorders can come in so many different forms, but it’s just as severe as any of the others listed above. It can include:

Atypical anorexia – your weight is not below normal
Bulimia or binge eating– with less frequent behaviors
Purging disorder – purging without binge eating
Night eating syndrome – excessive nighttime eating

How to live with an eating disorder

Recovery for an eating disorder is absolutely possible, and the earlier the diagnosis and intervention the better the outcome will be. As with most things, the treatment process is going to be unique to each individual.

Talk about it

The effects of an eating disorder lead to a lot of isolation, and it’s so much more than just a mental health condition. There are biological, interpersonal, and cultural forces that are at play, and it impacts how and when people get treatment. So one of the first steps you’ll need to take for recovery is to talk about it. While an eating disorder is a very personal thing to go through, remember that millions of people have gone through something similar. Sharing what you’re going through can be very healing, and you may learn from other's experiences, as well.

Therapy

Therapy can be an amazing resource to work through what caused your eating disorder, in the first place. It can also help you get some expert insight on overcoming the thoughts and feelings that are associated with an eating disorder.

Dietician and Physician

Because of the physical symptoms and medical consequences that can result from an eating disorder, there’s a need for a multidisciplinary team for the treatment process – including a dietician and a physician.

Inpatient care

Depending on how serious your eating disorder has become, hospitalization or residential care in a speciality facility may be necessary. Since eating disorders can be life threatening, this is one of the best ways to make sure you can really focus on recovery.

For more information, check out these links below.

Take a free mental health screen

A mental health screen is a simple series of questions to help you check in with your mental health. Mental Health America’s online screening tool is free, confidential, and available 24/7. Your results aren’t a diagnosis, but they’re a great place to start and a baseline to figure out next steps. We encourage you to share them with your doctor so they can help you get any support you may need.

Take a screen today