The Dangerous Effects of Eating Disorders You probably hear about eating disorders, and how they can be do dangerous, but what are eating disorders exactly? Eating disorders are a groups of serious conditions in which you are so preoccupied with the food that you eat and how much you weigh, you often focus on little else (http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/eating-disorders/basics/definition/con-20033575 ). There are three main types of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is the fear of gaining weight. If you have bulimia nervosa, you eat large amounts very quickly, and then you purge.
This essay will also assess the symptoms, causes, health affects and the most prevalent characteristics of people diagnosed with these two eating disorders. “Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by self-starvation to avoid obesity. People with this disorder believe they are overweight, even when their bodies become grotesquely distorted by malnourishment.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia) Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa include: heart muscle damage, heartbeat irregularities, low blood pressure, kidney damage, kidney failure, convulsions or seizures, loss of menstrual period in women, loss of bone density and fertility problems. (Schulherr) Anorexia Nervosa not only has physical symptoms but psychological symptoms as well. The psychological symptoms include strange behaviors, such as, only eating certain foods based primarily on caloric intake.
It affects 1 - 2 percent of the adolescents and young adults. About 80 percent of the people it affects are female. Many people struggling with Bulimia Nervous also struggle with depression and social phobias. The disorder is often shortened from Bulimia Nervosa to just Bulimia. Many people do not understand the severity of the Eating Disorder (ED) at hand.
In Conclusion, Binge Eating Disorder is a serious disorder characterized by overeating. If somebody is eating to fill their emotional needs in closure they should seek help. Binge Eating Disorder can happen to anybody and one of its many symptoms is linked to depression. There are many treatment options available for those looking to seek help. References Smith, M. Segal, R. Segal, J.
Breaking Down Disorders Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by a strong desire to lose, or not to gain weight through starvation. This can be caused by the victim’s distorted view of their own body image. The two generalized types are: strict diet and exercise, and binging and purging (Martini, Nath, Bartholomew, 2012). Bulimia nervosa is categorized by episodic binge eating that is followed by guilt, depression, and self-condemnation (Martini, Nath, Bartholomew, 2012). These emotions noted are usually followed by attempts to lose weight by way of self-induced vomiting, laxatives, dieting, and or fasting.
Families of sufferers also have an increased incidence of depression, obesity, substance abuse, and eating disorders. Two main eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Anorexia is an eating disorder in which a person is obsessed by thoughts of an unattainable image of “perfect” thinness. This occurs by starvation and/or excessive exercise and can result in death. Bulimia is an eating disorder involving the alternation between the extremes of eating large amounts of food in a short time, and then compensating for the added calories either by vomiting or other extreme actions to avoid gaining weight.
Fear of gaining weight or becoming overweight is ordinarily seen in those with anorexia and bulimia. A person with bulimia nervosa typically eats a substantial amount of food in a particularly short amount of time and then disposes of it. Standard ways for bulimics to eliminate food are vomiting and ingesting laxative pills. Binge eating is extremely similar to bulimia, except with binge eating, the food is not eradicated. Customarily, binge eaters have episodes where they stuff themselves full of food to the point of being uncomfortably full, as they cannot seem to control their intake of food.
Bulimia and anorexia are the two eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is the more sever disorder where teenage girls would starve themselves to stay skinny and keep their weight down. Anorexia nervosa is the eating disorder where girls would not eat at all in order to stay skinny. According to Steinberg, some anorexics would lose 25% to 50% of their body weight. Research has reported that more than half of teenage girls would prefer to be thinner than they are, and more... ... middle of paper ... ...pression than the normal control group.
Some detect the disorder by watching another consume large amounts of food but then self-induce vomiting to take out all of that food. The people who suffer from this disorder start losing control of their binge eating (“Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. It is sometimes a symptom of binge eating disorder or compulsive overeating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive quantity of food” as stated online). Bulimics can struggle with bulimia but at the same time can be also be dealing with self-injury, impulsivity, or substance misuse.
These individuals workout excessively and usually go for the method of starvation, with a few purging tendencies. There are many negative drawbacks of being anorexic because the average anorexic loses 30 percent of their average body weight. Many individuals that do not have eating disorders often cannot control their body weight so there is not specific weight that is associated with these eating disorders, but is generally assumed that being less than 85 percent or an average’s expected body weight is being “too skinny”. Bulimic patients on the other hand, have more of a binging then purging process. The individuals refuse to maintain a normal body weight.