Eating Disorders

While some eating habits help us stay healthy, others simply don’t. Some eating styles and habits often stem from the excessive fear of putting on too much weight. This can lead to unhealthy habits such as severe dieting, starvation or induced vomiting. These behaviour patterns are referred to as Eating Disorders.

What are eating disorders?

There are some eating habits that can help us stay healthy but there are also many eating styles and habits that can harm one’s health. The wrong eating habits are caused by fear of putting on too much weight. These eating habits can damage a person’s health and are known as Eating Disorders. There are two main types of eating disorders and these are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosawhile some others have Binge Eating Disorder. Though these are different types of Eating disorders they do share many of the same symptoms. Eating disorders generally affect women more than men. In fact, girls and women are ten times more likely to be affected by Eating disorders than boys and men.

What are the signs of Anorexia Nervosa?

The most common signs of Anorexia Nervosa are:

• Constantly worrying about your weight
• Eating too little and keeping close watch on your calories
• Exercising too much to burn up the calories
• Wanting to lose weight
• Becoming obsessive about checking your weight all the time
• Not taking part in any social action which involves eating food
• Wearing baggy clothing  to conceal your body
• Being extremely picky about food items and categorizing foods as good and bad
• Not eating at the proper time
• Following rigid routines for eating and exercising
• Trying to lose weight despite having an ideal body weight
• Taking laxatives  or other kinds of tablets to lose weight
• Smoking to control your weight
• Eating chewing gum to control your weight
• Becoming disinterested in having sex

When does Anorexia Nervosa start?

Anorexia Nervosa normally starts at any time but mostly it begins when a person is in her or his teen years. Out of every 150 15-years old children, the condition affects one girl and out of every 1000 15-year old children it affects one boy.

What happens when I develop Anorexia Nervosa?

When you develop Anorexia Nervosa you will:

• Consume as few calories as you possibly can
• Take to exercising and taking slimming pills and even smoke to maintain a lower body weight
• Prevent yourself from eating
• Experience hunger pangs and cannot stop thinking about food
• Fear that you will put on weight and will do everything in your power to lose weight
• Find that your family has become aware about how thin you have become
• Try to conceal the amount of food that you eat from other people
• Try to fall sick in order to stop eating

Women who have an Anorexia Nervosa condition will find that their periods may stop or become irregular. If the condition affects men and boys then they will stop having erections and wet dreams and their testicles will also start to shrink in size.

Normally, Anorexia Nervosa begins when a person is still in his or her teens. However, the condition can also arise at other times. This condition is very dangerous and if it is allowed to continue it can cause severe ill health and possibly even death.

Can I help myself if I am suffering from Anorexia Nervosa?

The good news is that you can help yourself if you are suffering from Anorexia Nervosa. The following steps will help you overcome your condition:

• Maintain a diary in which you should mention the foods you are eating, your thoughts as well as feelings.
• Be totally honest with not only yourself but also with others. Try and relax and not be too tense all the time.
• Identify your best weight and know the reasons why this weight is right for you
• Try to improve your eating patterns and learn how to improve these habits
• Think of your body in a more positive manner
• Join a self-help group, which can help you beat your eating disorder problem.

How can other people help me?

Other people can help you: talk to your family and friends and ask for support from people who can monitor your condition and suggest ways to improve your behavior.

How to treat Anorexia Nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa can cause physical problems and needs professional help. At the same time, some physical ailments mimic Anorexia, which is why it makes sense to undergo a health check. A general practitioner may refer your case to a specialist counselor or psychiatrist or even to a clinical psychologist. The following treatments are used on people suffering from Anorexia Nervosa:

• Psychotherapy/Counseling
• Nutritional Advice and counseling
• Psychiatric help
• Being admitted to a hospital for further treatment
• Compulsory treatment

Psychotherapy/Counseling

It is a good idea to speak with your therapist about what you are thinking and feeling. This will help you better comprehend the reasons for your eating disorder problem and learn how you can make changes to inculcate healthy eating practices. Though speaking about your eating disorder is not always easy, a good therapist can motivate you and help you learn how to cope with your condition. A good counselor or therapist will help you improve your self-esteem and rebuild your faith in yourself. Specially focused form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy can be sought which help your identify your patterns of distorted thinking and beliefs about your body image and weight and help you correct them into more rational and helpful ways of thinking about yourself.

Advice

You can speak with a dietician about how to eat healthy foods. Dieticians have enough experience and knowledge to help you follow a healthy eating pattern and they may also advise you to take vitamin supplements. Regular weight and dietary monitoring is absolutely essential.

Psychiatric help

Specialists are there to discuss your eating disorder problems and will ask you to describe how the problem began and how it developed. He or she will measure your weight and conduct a physical examination. Though people suffering from Anorexia Nervosa will find it difficult to speak with a specialist it is something that they must do. The specialist may also speak with your family to find out more about how the problem started. If you are also suffering from other conditions like Obsessive Compulsive Disorders or Depression, then the specialist will prescribe medications to deal with these other co-existing symptoms also.

Family Counseling

Family members are under a great deal of stress when dealing with an anorexic memberand may require support. They can get help to understand better the peculiar or even the bizarre eating and exercising habits of yours and learn to cope better with your problem.  Family counseling will also try to address the disturbed interactions with your family members as these could be contributing to the eating disorder.

Admission to a hospital

In case you have shed so much weight that your condition is unstable and you develop medical complications then you may have to be admitted to a hospital for further treatment.

The good news is that the above-mentioned treatments are quite effective and more than 50 percent of those who are treated will recover though recovery can take quite some time.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is another eating disorder in which the person indulges in repeated patterns of over eating and then trying vomiting or purging in an attempt to prevent weight gain. Its main signs and symptoms include:

• Becoming worried about your weight
• Eating too much or go into binges
• Trying to vomit after overeating
• Using laxatives frequently to get rid of the extra calories
• Having irregular periods
• Feeling very guilty about the way that you eat
• Feeling exhausted often

When does Bulimia Nervosa start?

Like Anorexia,Bulimia also typically begins in mid-teen years and affects about 4 out of every 100 women. It often runs for a few years before a person acknowledges as a serious problem that requires help, that too when it actually affects their relationships or work.

How to treat Bulimia Nervosa?

Bulimia Nervosa can be treated by:

• Psychotherapy
• Advice
• Medications

Psychotherapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT can help you overcome your Bulimia Nervosa problem. A therapist can help and even a self-help book can help you overcome your condition. CBT is effective because it helps you understand the relationship existing between your thoughts, feelings, actions with regards to your body weight and shape, as well as the rigid dietary rules. It focuses on correcting distorted beliefs and thinking regarding your body image and weight.

Some therapists also provide Interpersonal Therapy. In this form of treatment, the focus is on understanding your relationships with others and how to rebuild them so as to let them meet your unmet emotional needs instead of adopting unhealthy eating patterns.

Nutritional Advice

Getting advice from dietary experts  as to how to overcome your Bulimia Nervosa is effective as it can help you return to eating normally without needing to starve yourself or vomit to keep your weight down.

Medications

Most psychiatrists will prescribe antidepressants as these are effective in helping you curb your urge to binge eat. However, medications are not to be taken alone and should be accompanied with other forms of therapy