Basic Information about Eating Disorders
There are 3 main types of E.D. and its individual symptoms:
1) Anorexia •Extreme weight loss •Rejection/Restriction of food •Self-starvation (e.g. the body rejects the necessary nutrients that is needed to function normally, so it is forced to slow down all of its processes to converse energy.) •Continual opinion about feeling “fat” or overweight despite weight loss •Persistent justification to avoid mealtimes or situations involving food 2) Bulimia •Strong urge/uncontrollable feeling to eat large amounts of food in one sitting •Purging(throw up) after eating •Excessive, rigid exercise regimen--despite weather, fatigue, illness, or injury, the need to “burn off” calories taken in. •Obsession with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting •Consuming laxatives/diuretics 3) Binge Eating •Consists episodes of uncontrollable eating (i.e, strong urge to eat pizzas, cakes, rice, junk food etc.) •Similar to bulimia, but they do not purge (afterwards) General Symptoms •Withdrawal from usual friends and activities •Change in behavior and attitude due to weight loss, dieting and control of food |
There are common possible causes/leads of E.D. :
•Insufficient food intake leading to being severely underweight •Bullying •Genetics •Abuse •High stress •Professions(e.g. athletes, models, dancers) •Emotional illnesses(e.g. Anxiety Depression, ADHD) •Physical illnesses (e.g. diabetes) •Neglect or Hard upbringing •Death of a loved one/pet •Or simply unfortunate; it may just happened at the blink of an eye(i.e. due to biological reasons) to anybody!! *Note: There are misunderstandings that E.D. victims are always because of their food intake and their weight, or just vanity(e.g. wanted to be slim and ends up being too extreme). However, it is not always true though there are a few. as majority with E.D. are affected by other factors. |
E.D is very controlling and not easy to overcome: long term illness
•voices deep-rooted in their heads (i.e. drives victims to do anything that was "instructed" = vulnerable) •no support and empathy from others (e.g. passers-by or friends may notice a physical/emotional change and start avoiding them) (because of strong self-esteem: scared of people who judged them) •great sense of guilt (i.e. blaming oneself for the illness which can be in terms of slapping, kicking oneself or committing suicidal) •trapped inside the silent deadly "beast" (i.e. long term illness: it takes more than months, years, decades or EVEN a life's time to control it) •it takes MUCH MORE than one's willpower to control the illness (people who conquered it are very strong fighters!) • very controlling and almost unpredictable (i.e. cycle(s) of these eating disorder may easily become worse or gets better the next day) (e.g. controls temper/physical heath of oneself: anger, hot-tempered) •distorted image of oneself (e.g. bones of ribs could be seen, scaly, unhealthy body) *Note: Eating Disorders are not glamorous or what people wished to get. Misunderstandings which include people who are diagnosed with E.D. are those who wanted a skinny figure but got overboard. However, it is not always true. |
There are possible consequences of E.D.:
•*heart problems (e.g. heart diseases/attacks, cardiac arrest due to weak heart) •*adversely take a toll on one's immune system (i.e. easily fall sick/ill, get bruised) •*induce more and perhaps complex mental and physical illnesses (e.g. serve depression, emotion instability) •*malnutrition (not able to bring oneself to eat; anorexia) •*severe dehydration (esp.. when purging excessively; bulimia) •sore throat (esp. in bulimia) •infertility (i.e. due to weak immune system and organs) •physical changes (e.g. damage hair, teeth and skin, muscle loss, fragile look) •reduction of bone density (osteoporosis), which lead to in dry, brittle bones. •fainting, fatigue, and overall weakness. *Note: Some that are marked with a * are very gravely and serious which can lead to suicide/death. As the length of the condition increases, the probabilities of death increases within that range. It has one of the highest death rates of any mental health condition and typically appears in early to mid-adolescence. |