Do you spend your days thinking about your body size, or have things you would like to change about your body? Have you ever dieted, skipped meals, used laxatives for weight loss, exercised too much, or vomited after meals? Have you ever eaten past fullness, felt like you couldn’t stop eating, or felt shame or guilt afterward? Do you avoid certain foods due to texture, appearance, taste, or smell?
Do you have anxiety related to food, causing you to choke, vomit, experience nausea, experience food poisoning, constipation, or an allergic reaction? Do you often find yourself eating or chewing on things that aren’t food? Have you ever eaten something and then regurgitated it to chew and swallow it again? If any of these experiences resonate with you, you may be experiencing an eating disorder.
What are Eating Disorders?
Eating disorders are characterized by severe and persistent changes in eating behaviors accompanied by distressing thoughts and emotions. There are several different types of eating disorders, including Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge-eating Disorder, Atypical Anorexia Nervosa, Avodiant-Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, Pica, and Rumination Disorder.
Each of these is about more than just the food that you eat or your weight, but is deeply intertwined with psychological and emotional health. The underlying cause is complex, including genetics, the level of dopamine and serotonin someone has, societal pressures to be thin, as well as low self-esteem, perfectionism, a need for control, and difficulty managing emotions.
What is anorexia nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that includes behaviors such as reducing the amount of food you eat or not eating at all, which can lead to weight loss. This behavior is usually driven by an intense fear of gaining weight or in response to stressful events.
There are two subtypes:
- Restricting type is when people engage in dieting, fasting, or excessively exercising.
- Binge-eating/Purging type is when a person engages in binge eating (eating a large amount of food in a short period of time with a sense of loss of control over the amount they are eating) or purging (vomiting after meals, laxative use, or exercising more than an hour a day) behaviors in addition to reducing food intake.
Physical symptoms can include menstrual periods to cease, dizziness or fainting, brittle hair/nails, cold intolerance, muscle weakness and wasting, heartburn and reflux, severe constipation, bloating, stress fractures, thinning of bones, depression, irritability, anxiety, poor concentration, gallstones, dehydration, and fatigue. There can be life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities, kidney problems, seizures, and even death.
What is Bullimia Nervosa?
Bulimia Nervosa is a pattern of eating low-calorie or “healthy” foods followed by binge eating on “forbidden or junk food”. Binge eating is often done in secret, with feelings of shame or embarrassment if someone found out, as well as nausea or discomfort from eating past fullness. After someone binges, they will fast, vomit, use laxatives, or overexercise to prevent weight gain.
These behaviors are often driven by not wanting to gain weight, negative feelings about your body, and yourself. Bulimia Nervosa can lead to chronic sore throat, swelling of salivary glands, dental decay, heartburn or reflux, recurrent unexplained diarrhea, and dizziness or fainting. There can be fatal complications such as esophageal tears, gastric rupture, and heart rhythm abnormalities
What is Binge-eating disorder?
Binge-eating Disorder is when people binge eat a large portion of food in a brief period, experience a sense of loss of control over eating, and distress over that behavior. People don’t use things like fasting, vomiting, exercising, or laxative use to reduce the impacts of binge behavior. Binge eating can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.
What is Atypical anorexia nervosa?
Atypical Anorexia Nervosa is when someone participates in the same behaviors as anorexia nervosa, but they aren’t considered underweight.
Physical symptoms can include menstrual periods to cease, dizziness or fainting, brittle hair/nails, cold intolerance, muscle weakness and wasting, heartburn and reflux, severe constipation, bloating, stress fractures, thinning of bones, depression, irritability, anxiety, poor concentration, gallstones, dehydration, and fatigue.
There can be life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities, kidney problems, seizures, and even death
What is Avodiant-restrictive food intake disorder?
Avodiant-Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is when eating is reduced due to low appetite and lack of interest in eating; the sensory characteristics of food (texture, appearance, color, smell); and/or anxiety about eating, causing choking, nausea, vomiting, constipation, food poisoning, or allergic reaction.
These behaviors are not driven by body weight or shape, which is different than the previous eating disorders. ARFID can lead to dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, anemia, low blood pressure, bone thinning, cardiac arrest, delayed puberty, frequent and severe infections, brittle hair, weakness, faintness, fatigue, stomach and facial swelling, and cold intolerance.
What is Pica?
Pica is a condition where a person repeatedly eats non-food items, such as paper, paint chips, soap, cloth, hair, string, chalk, metal, pebbles, charcoal, or clay. People will not have any food aversions. Pica can lead to intestinal blockages or the consumption of toxic substances, which can lead to complications.
What is Rumination disorder?
Rumination Disorder involves the repeated regurgitation and re-chewing of food after eating. They will voluntarily bring food back up into the mouth and re-chew and re-swallow or spit out. Physical symptoms of rumination disorder are weight loss, malnutrition, dehydration, and tooth decay. Long-term, this behavior can cause electrolyte imbalances, increase the risk of aspiration pneumonia, bad breath, and lowered resistance to infection.
Misconceptions and Myths About Eating Disorders
Myth: Eating disorders are a choice.
Fact: No one chooses to have an eating disorder, but they may start as a way to “get healthy” or to gain a sense of control in one’s life can quickly escalate into a potentially life-threatening condition. Although no one chooses to have an eating disorder, recovery requires choosing to change that behavior and replace it with other coping mechanisms.
Myth: Only women can have an eating disorder.
Fact: Although women tend to be affected most, these conditions can affect anyone. Males and individuals from minority groups are less likely to be diagnosed due to misconceptions about what eating disorders are supposed to look like.
Myth: Eating disorders are a matter of vanity or a way to get attention.
Fact: Most people hide their behaviors and their bodies with baggy clothing for years before their loved ones find out. If attention or vanity were the goal, then they would show of their body and tell people about these behaviors. Most people experience a lot of shame and guilt around their body and eating disorder behaviors that they engage in.
Myth: Eating disorders will just go away on their own.
Fact: Effective treatment is more likely to result in recovery than ignoring the behavior and waiting for spontaneous resolution. Since these behaviors are more complex than just willpower, recovery is most successful with consistent effort.
Myth: People at a normal body weight cannot have an eating disorder.
Fact: A person with normal body weight can have pervasive thoughts about body weight impacting self-image and about ways to become thinner or to avoid gaining weight, which are at the core of many eating disorders.
Suspecting You Have an Eating Disorder: What comes next?
If you’re curious about any of the eating disorders, looking for support, we’re here for you! Our team can get to the root of this behavior, individualize your treatment, and help remove barriers so you can take back your life. Book a consultation with our compassionate team. We’re committed to making sure
