Tidbit Tuesday: Eating Disorders

When most people hear about an eating disorder they automatically think of someone with a problem with food, in fact an eating disorder is a symptom of an underlying problem in a person's life.

Recent studies have shown that people who have suffered abuse are more likely to have an eating disorder. Many have found that an eating disorder helps to protect them by repressing unwanted memories and numb feelings. Dealing with past abuse issues can be a struggle, so many people feel they need to force themselve to 'move on' and forget, in hope that the past will disappear.

As it is so hard to understand why another human being would treat another so badly, survivors tend to find a way to blame themselves. Many keep past abuse a secret, hiding a secret like this can set the pattern of secretive behaviour that is commonly found with someone with an eating disorder.

Types of Eating Disorder

Anorexia
Anorexia is characterised after a significant weightloss caused by excessive or obsessive dieting. Suffers will count calories and/or exercise extensively in order to lose weight. Many anorexics believe they are fat when in reality they are underweight and are constantly striving for perfection.

Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive Overeating is characterised by uncontrollable overeating which causes weight gain. Suffers use overeating to deal with stress. This habit is thought to start from childhood when a child doesn't have the right skills to deal with stress. In todays current world Compulsive Overeating is not taken seriously enough. Like anorexia it is a serious condition that leads to the worsening of health.

Bulimia
Bulimia is characterised by binge eating then what is known as 'purging'. Purging can mean anything from a bulimic making themselves sick, taking laxatives, abusing diet pills, excessive exercising or fasting.
A binge means a different thing from one bulimic to another, some would say its eating a certain amount of calories, eating 20 packets of crisps, eating a normal healthy meal or even just one biscuit.

Binge Eating Disorder
Binge Eating Disorder is characterised by the consumption of a large amount of food in a very short space of time until the suffer becomes uncomfortably full. Binge eating disorder is like bulimia but without the purging. A person's weight maybe be within the normal range but fluctuates. This differs to Compulsive Eating where a suffer overeats more frequently.
http://www.survivormatters.co.nr/