An eating disorder is a condition where you cannot eat certain foods. However, the problem is not with the food but the psychological condition of the person. The psychological condition of the person worsens to the extent that they need medical assistance.
How does it start?
Eating disorders start from a certain obsession and affect the mentality of the person. This wasn’t a serious thing in the past. However, we now have ideal beauty standards. The availability of the internet has made our lives easier by getting rid of communication barriers. However, without these barriers, certain things have become complex.
People share their perfect lives on their social media accounts. Thus, everyone starts to obsess over them.
For example, an actor or actress shares their perfect pictures and many people try to copy them. However, most of them fail to achieve that perfection and get disappointed. Thus, obsession over having the perfect body, pictures, life and everything leads them to a psychological condition.
Such a person thinks negatively about his life. This leads to dissatisfaction with one’s life and inferiority complex. If the conditions do not change, it will lead to a worse mental stage and will cause an eating disorder.
Solution
If you are having any such problem or someone you know, it requires treatment. You should consult an expert before the situation becomes worse. Or you can visit https://clementineprograms.com/st-louis-eating-disorder-treatment/.
They have recovery programs for eating disorders and you can get treatment from experts.
Furthermore, they offer their services in different states. So you can consult them online and ask for further guidance. Whether you wish to get more information about their treatment plans or location, you can get them all by visiting their website.
But wait,
There is more to it than you know. Eating disorders are not just one condition. There are different types of it and every condition requires a different treatment.
1 – Anorexia Nervosa
The most common type of eating disorder that prevails in society is anorexia nervosa. It is more common in women and appears during adolescence.
Women tend to pay more attention to their body weight, shape, and size. Therefore, they are always trying to look perfect. The same thing happens in anorexia nervosa. The person believes that he/she is overweight. However, the situation is completely opposite to what they believe.
To maintain the ideal weight in their mind and to improve their body appearance, they are always looking for ways to lose weight.
As a result of this, they become underweight but their psychological condition does not change. Thus, they limit their calorie count and eat only a few calories.
Symptoms
• Eating a very small quantity
• Avoiding certain foods’
• Intense fear of gaining weight
• Always checking their weight
• Unwillingness to retain a healthy weight
• Denial of being underweight
2 – Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa also appears in young adulthood or during adolescence. Furthermore, it is also common among women.
So what makes it different from anorexia nervosa?
It is surely different.
In bulimia nervosa, the person does not restrict their food quantity. Instead, they eat more.
Thus, they do binge eating sessions until they are painfully full. Thus, they cannot eat properly. The person cannot stop him/herself while eating.
Another problem with these people is that they eat the foods that they need to avoid. For example, if high-sugar foods are not good for them, they will eat them in large quantities.
So they won’t be able to stop themselves from eating cakes until they are full and cannot eat any longer.
So what’s the problem?
It’s what they do after eating.
They will eat to their maximum but do not want to gain weight. Therefore, they will try their best to compensate for what they did. And how do they do that? Through extreme measures like vomiting, fasting, or even laxatives. They have already eaten to their full and now they want the food to get out of their body.
Symptoms
• Episodes of binge eating
• Lack of control while eating food’
• Using inappropriate ways to prevent weight gain
• Low self-esteem because of body shape and weight
• Fear of gaining weight
3 – Binge eating disorder
This disorder is common among adolescents but it can also appear in later stages of life.
Their symptoms are quite similar to the previous one. Thus, they won’t be able to stop themselves from eating food in excessive amounts.
However, what makes them different is calorie compensation. They do not use extreme measures to get rid of the food from their body. So if a person binge eats and vomits or takes laxatives afterward, it’s bulimia nervosa. However, if someone only eats in huge quantities and does not do anything afterward, it’s a binge eating disorder.
• Being unable to stop themselves even if not hungry
• Lack of control over binge eating episodes
• Feeling distressed, shame and guilty when thinking and discussing binge eating
• Not using extreme measures to compensate for calorie intake. So no vomiting, calorie deficit, fasting, and laxatives.
4 – Pica
This is an eating disorder where a person eats things that do not contain nutritional value.
Or the things that we do not consider food.
For example, ice, dirt, chalk, paper and other similar things. We often see babies doing such things. However, babies are unaware of the harm that they can cause. But what about adults?
The problem becomes serious when adults are doing this.
Pica is a disorder that we can observe in children, adults and also adolescents.
However, you won’t observe it in a normal healthy human being. Pica appears in people who have other mental issues. For example, adults who suffer from autism spectrum or schizophrenics. So if a person is already suffering from a mental problem, the chances of him or her having PIca also increases.
Treatment plan
The treatments for different eating disorders vary in their seriousness. Therefore, it would be better for you to visit an expert and discuss things with him.
