Sometimes loved ones, friends, or even neighbors struggle with something known as an eating disorder, but what does that term really mean. Read on to learn more about it, a few of the most common types, risk factors, and how to be a support to someone in need.
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What are Eating Disorders
They are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of every age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group. They most specifically center around a person’s perception of body image and weight.
The most common are:
- Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by weight loss (or lack of appropriate weight gain in children), difficulties maintaining an appropriate body weight (for height, age, and stature), and in many individuals, distorted body image
- Bulimia Nervosa, which is characterized by a cycle of binge eating and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating;
- Binge Eating Disorder, which is the most common eating disorder in the United States and is characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food, a feeling of a loss of control during the binge, experiencing shame, distress, or guilt after’s and not regularly using unhealthy compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.
While no one knows what causes eating disorders, there are growing concerns that compound within a person that could lead to one.
Biological
- Having a close relative with an eating disorder
- Having a close relative with a mental health condition
- History of unhealthy dieting
- Negative energy balance. Burning off more calories than you take in leads to a state of negative energy balance.
- Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes.
Psychological
- Perfectionism: involves setting unrealistically high expectations for yourself.
- Body image dissatisfaction: encompasses how you feel both about and in your body.
- Personal history of an anxiety disorder
- Behavioral inflexibility. Many people with anorexia report that, as children, they always followed the rules and felt there was one “right way” to do things.
Social
- Weight stigma. The message that thinner is better is everywhere. Stigma is discrimination or stereotyping based on a person’s weight and is damaging and pervasive in our society.
- Teasing or bullying (especially about weight)
- Appearance ideal internalization. Buying into the message of the socially-defined “ideal body” may increase the risk of an eating disorder by increasing the likelihood of dieting and food restriction.
- Limited social networks
- Historical trauma
Eating disorders are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses. National surveys estimate that 20 million women and 10 million men in America will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
NEDA notes that friends and family are often vital in encouraging loved ones with eating and/or body image issues to seek help. Whether they are unaware of a problem, afraid or ashamed to reach out, many suffering find it difficult to seek help.
More information on how to help those struggling with an eating disorder can be found here. Additionally, the NEDA busts a list of myths commonly associated with eating disorders.
