Eating disorders are Mental health condition characterised by irregular eating habits and serve distress or concern about body weight or shape. Eating disorders are psychological conditions, when an individual has developed a complicated relationship between their body and food. The condition complete you to make abnormal choices involving your food intake, in ways which are damaging and harmful to your body, physically and mentally. Eating disorders can vary in severity levels and symptoms may present differently in people.
What causes Eating disorders
Eating disorders are very common in both men and women and if left untreated can cause serious damage mentally and physically, leading to significant consequences to an individuals lifestyle ad daily functioning. The development of varies from person to person and can be very complex depending on each person, research has proven that some causes maybe due to, negative life experiences during early developing stages, childhood and adolescence, situations or events which have been stressful, traumatic or learned behaviour from society or media representation on body image.
Signs and Symptoms
Eating disorders are There are various signs across the different severity levels with eating disorders with each person, below are a few examples;
- Obsession with body image.
- Having obsessive thoughts about food, weight or body image.
- Distorted body image (believing you are overweight or underweight when your body is normal).
- Having a controlling perspective about food and the body.
- Repetitive weighing due to fear of weight gain / weight loss.
- Hiding food.
- Eliminating entire food groups.
- Chronic dieting despite being hazardously underweight.
- Constant weight fluctuations.
- Obsession with carries and fat contents of food.
- Continued fixation with food, recipes, or cooking, the individual may cook intricate melas for others but refrain from partaking.
- Switching between periods of overeating and fasting.
Types of Eating disorders
The 3 common types of eating disorders are as follows;
Anorexia – Characterised when an individual keeps their body weight, this is due to an intensive fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. This can be achieved by restricting or limiting food intake or managing this through dieting.Â
Bulimia – A cycle of binge eating and purging, a vicious cycle between eating excessively large amounts of food, before purging in an attempt to not gain weight. This can be done by induced vomiting, laxative or over exercising, the binge episode will be followed by guilt and embarrassment.Â
Binge eating – This involves eating extreme large amounts of food quickly in a short space of time often in secrecy, the individual feels like they have no control over what they eat and when to stop, it is common to feel shame and regret after an episode.
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Helpful Websites / Contact details
Helpful telephone lines and email address if you are struggling with an eating disorder; The
Beating eating disorder –
Helpline – 0808 801 0677
Student line – 0808 801 0811Â
Youth line – 0808 801 0711
National Centre for Eating Disorders –
Helpline – 0845 838 2040
How Therapy can help
Helpful Therapy will help you find a safe space to speak to a professional about your struggles surrounding your eating disorder. Your therapist will help to build a new relationship with food and work towards making changes with your lifestyle and food intake. Your therapist will help you identify get to the root of your problem and underlying issues and help you make long lasting changes.
