EATING DISORDERS

Eating disorders are characterized by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes
someone to change their eating habits and behavior. A person with an eating disorder may focus
excessively on their weight and shape, leading them to make unhealthy choices about food with
damaging results to their health. Eating disorders are among the most frustrating and difficult-to
treat conditions anyone can face.

Types of eating disorders

Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances
to a persons eating behaviors. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa,
and binge-eating disorder.

Anorexia nervosa

People with anorexia nervosa may see themselves as overweight, even when they are dangerously
underweight. People with anorexia nervosa typically weigh themselves repeatedly, severely restrict
the amount of food they eat, and eat very small quantities of only certain foods. Anorexia nervosa
has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder. While many young women and men with this
disorder die from complications associated with starvation, others die of suicide. In women, suicide
is much more common in those with anorexia than with most other mental disorders.

Symptoms include:

Extremely restricted eating

Extreme thinness
An unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight
Intense fear of gaining weight
Distorted body image, a self-esteem that is heavily influenced by perceptions of body weight and
shape, or a denial of the seriousness of low body weight

Bulimia nervosa

People with bulimia nervosa have recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large
amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over these episodes. This binge-eating is followed by
 behavior that compensates for the overeating such as forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or
diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviors. Unlike anorexia nervosa,
people with bulimia nervosa usually maintain what is considered a healthy or relatively normal
weight.

An episode of bulimia Nervosa is characterized by the following:

Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is
definitely larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar period of time under similar
circumstances.
A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating
or control what or how much one is eating).
Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight gain, such as self-
induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives, diuretics, or other medications; fasting; or excessive
exercise.

Symptoms include:

Chronically inflamed and sore throat

Worn tooth enamel and increasingly sensitive and decaying teeth as a result of exposure to stomach
acid
Acid reflux disorder and other gastrointestinal problems
Intestinal distress and irritation from laxative abuse
Severe dehydration from purging of fluids
Electrolyte imbalance (too low or too high levels of sodium, calcium, potassium and other minerals)
which can lead to stroke or heart attack

Princess Diana: and it gives you a feeling of comfort. Diana said she would purge several times a
day, and lady gaga

Binge-eating disorder

People with binge-eating disorder lose control over his or her eating. Unlike bulimia nervosa,
periods of binge-eating are not followed by purging, excessive exercise, or fasting. As a result,
people with binge-eating disorder often are overweight or obese. Binge-eating disorder is the most
common eating disorder in the U.S.

Symptoms include:
 Eating unusually large amounts of food in a specific amount of time
Eating even when you're full or not hungry
Eating fast during binge episodes
Eating until you're uncomfortably full
Eating alone or in secret to avoid embarrassment
Feeling distressed, ashamed, or guilty about your eating

Pica

Pica is an eating disorder typically defined as the persistent eating of nonnutritive substances for a
period of least 1 month at an age for which this behavior is developmentally inappropriate.

Pica is the persistent eating of substances such as dirt or paint that have no nutritional value. Pica in
humans has many different subgroups, defined by the substance that is ingested. Some of the most
commonly described types of pica are eating earth, soil or clay (geophagia), ice (pagophagia) and
starch (amylophagia). However, pica involving dozens of other substances, including cigarette
butts and ashes, hair, paint chips, and paper have also been reported.

Zach Tahir, who suffers from Pica Disorder, has chewed his way through carpet and plaster.

Emma Veness spray a bit on my fingers and lick it off or I spray a bit on the duster and suck it.

Rumination disorder

The term rumination is derived from the Latin word ruminare, which means to chew the cud.
Rumination is characterized by the voluntary or involuntary regurgitation and rechewing of
partially digested food that is either reswallowed or expelled. This regurgitation appears effortless,
may be preceded by a belching sensation, and typically does not involve retching or nausea. In
rumination, the regurgitant does not taste sour or bitter.

Rumination onset in otherwise normally developing infants typically occurs during the first year of
life; onset usually manifests at age 3-6 months.

May appear to derive satisfaction and sensory pleasure from mouthing the vomit rather than
considering vomitus in the mouth disgusting.

Repeated regurgitation and re-chewing of food for a period of at least 1 month following a period of
normal functioning.
 The behavior is not due to an associated gastrointestinal or other general medical condition (e.g.,
esophageal reflux).

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

An eating or feeding disturbance (e.g., apparent lack of interest in eating or food; avoidance based
on the sensory characteristics of food; concern about aversive consequences of eating) as
manifested by persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional and/or energy needs associated with
one (or more) of the following:

Significant weight loss (or failure to achieve expected weight gain or faltering growth in children).
Significant nutritional deficiency.
Dependence on enteral feeding or oral nutritional supplements.
Marked interference with psychosocial functioning.

Examples

The person has trouble digesting specific types of food.

The person only likes to eat very small portions.

The person might be a very slow eater.

The person strictly avoids particular types of texture or colors of food.

The person has no appetite.

The person is afraid to eat; this may happen as a result of choking or vomiting on food that
scared them a lot.