Topic 6 Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are physiological illnesses that have a major impact on daily living activities and functioning. Persons with eating disorders have a distorted view of their bodies and as a result, have an unhealthy relationship with food. Food can be a source of comfort (comfort eating), denied as punishment, or avoided to meet their body image perceptions.
The impact is physically damaging to the body eg organ failure. In extreme cases, it can lead to death, especially as a result of Anorexia Nervosa.
The most common eating disorders are:
| Disorder | Symptoms |
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Anorexia Nervosa: binge purge Anorexia Nervosa: restrictive A condition where people avoid food, severely restrict food, or eat very small quantities of only certain foods Anorexia Nervosa has an extremely high mortality rate |
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Bulimia Nervosa A condition where people frequently eat large quantities of food, followed by forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, fasting or excessive exercise. It can be difficult to detect as people with Bulimia Nervosa may be slightly overweight, slightly underweight or a normal weight. |
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Binge Eating Disorder A condition where people have no control over their eating and regularly have period of consuming very large amounts of food. People with binge-eating disorder are usually overweight or obese as they do not do anything to counteract the binge eating |
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Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) AFRId is a condition where people limit the amount of types of food eaten Usually starts in mid-childhood and children do not grow and develop properly as they do not take in enough calories. An adult with ARFID cannot maintain basic body function as they do not take in enough calories |
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| Aspect | Impact |
|---|---|
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Behaviours |
A person’s behaviours, especially around food, eating and exercise become a disorder, often in extreme and destructive ways eg restricting food, overeating, purging and over-exercising |
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Thoughts/Cognition |
The person’s thoughts become distorted, irrational and extreme and very ‘all or nothing’ or ‘black and white’. These distorted thoughts and ideas, in turn encourage, trigger and influence the disordered behaviours |
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Physically |
How we feed ourselves affects our physical wellness, so when a person has an eating disorder, depending on the disordered behaviours, they will experience physical changes, symptoms often deteriorating physically eg very low weight. |
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Emotionally |
When a person’s behaviour and thinking becomes distorted, this causes emotional distress and chaos. In addition to this, eating disorders develop due to underlying emotional distress or turmoil of some kind, entangled with the other aspects is the emotional well-being, or emotional distress the person is experiencing. |
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Bodywhys.ie, 2023 |
A common misconception is that eating disorders only affect females. This is not the case as one in three sufferers, are male. Eating disorders are increasing at a faster rate (Lavendar, Browne and Murray 2017) in males than females. This can also take the form of extreme exercise to get a ‘ripped’ body, influenced by social media, film and music industry. This can also include steroid abuse and over indulgence of proteins such as chicken, that can cause kidney stones, in addition to causing mood swings, anger, lowered immune system; depression and anxiety and lowered resting heart rate.
Furthermore, over-exercising can cause a condition called Rhabdomyolsis (Rhabdo). This can be fatal as the damaged muscle tissue releases electrolytes and proteins to the blood, which damage the heart and kidneys and requires urgent attention.
The internet has a vast plethora of chat forums and websites providing tips on how to lose weight and ‘advice’ to maintain anorexia; feign weight gain; how to become Anorexic to combat obesity; citing Bulimia as an alternative to Anorexia and promoting a ‘Pro-Ana’ (pro-anorexia) lifestyle.
There is no specific medical cause of an eating disorder however it’s believed that the most common causes are constant criticism of weight or body shape; bullying or physical/sexual abuse; obsession and influence of social media influencers, ‘famous’ people; suffering from low self-esteem, anxiety and another mental health illness.
| Sign | Symptom |
|---|---|
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Dramatic weight loss or weight gain |
Feeling cold, tired or dizzy, mood changes; periods stop |
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Lying about what they ate; eating food very fast; not eating with others |
Strict food regimen and habits and avoiding social occasions that involve food |
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Excessive exercising; wearing clothes that disguise the body shape, particularly weight loss |
Constant worry about body shape and weight |
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Going to the bathroom immediately after eating (to purge) and returning flushed |
Making themselves sick or excessive taking of laxatives after eating |
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Eating very slowly and/or chopping up food into very small pieces |
Eating very little food |
A young person with an eating disorder is somewhat easier to notice at home as they depend on someone to prepare meals. Friends may notice that a person is not eating their lunch at school or not joining them on social occasions. Over-eating is more obvious as it’s not possible to disguise weight gain effectively. However, it’s important to note that certain medications can cause weight gain.
Eating disorders can be overcome, which usually includes a form of therapy such as Compassion Focused Therapy or counselling.