30 symptoms of an eating disorder

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

According to the National Eating Disorders Association in the United States, up to 30 million people suffer from eating disorders.

What is an eating disorder

An eating disorder (EID) is an unhealthy attitude towards food. Patients eat too much or too little, are fixated on the figure and cannot adequately perceive their body: at any weight, it seems to them fat.

Eating Disorders estimates that 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from eating disorders in the United States alone.

The exact reasons for Eating Disorders are difficult to name, but most often it is psychological trauma or genetic predisposition. The frustration can also arise from community pressure. An example is the work of models and athletes. They need to constantly monitor their shape, otherwise they will not meet professional standards. Over time, this can turn into an obsession.

Disorders are divided into three main types:

• Anorexia nervosa. During illness, a person is obsessed with thinness. Therefore, he eats little, exercises a lot and tries to lose weight by any means.
• Bulimia. The patient loses control and eats huge portions, and then induces vomiting, takes laxatives, or exercises until exhaustion. The latter form of the disease is called sports bulimia.
• Compulsive overeating. A person also does not control himself while eating - he overeats to a pain in the stomach, and after that he feels guilty. But unlike bulimia, it doesn't try to empty the stomach or burn calories immediately.

If you suspect you have an eating disorder but your symptoms differ from those described, you may still have a problem. Do not ignore signs that seem strange or abnormal to you, see your doctor.

Who is at risk

Anyone can get an eating disorder. But most often RPP appears in women, especially girls 13-18 years old, athletes (gymnastics, figure skating, running), ballerinas.

How to recognize signs of ERP

Anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder have different symptoms, but some overlap. If you notice at least a couple of signs of RPD, it is worth visiting a psychologist to stop the development of the disease.

10 signs of anorexia

Many people think that anorexia is excessive thinness. But this is not entirely true. Anorexia is a mental illness and does not depend on a person's weight. It is impossible to determine the disease only by its appearance; it is necessary to take into account the emotional state and behavior.

Other illnesses can also cause weight loss - clinical depression, digestive infection, intestinal inflammation, alcoholism, and stomach ulcers.

If you notice the following signs of Anorexia, you need the help of a psychologist.

1. You constantly feel fat, worthless and ugly, but you are sure that a thin body will change this. However, no matter how much weight you lose, this feeling does not leave you. Over time, this leads to suicidal thoughts.
2. During the day, you often think about food, calories, and exercise. Perhaps these thoughts do not leave you even in a dream.
3. You are very afraid of gaining weight.
4. You weigh yourself every day, and your mood depends on the number on the scale.
5. You limit yourself to food, follow a diet, exclude high-calorie foods from the diet.
6. Having to eat in public scares and depresses you.
7. You are trying to burn calories in every way: exercise hard and walk a lot.
8. If you are a woman, you may have started having Anorexia Nervosa problems with your period.
9. You have strange food rituals. For example, before you eat a salad, you divide it into ingredients. Or you chew every bite of food very carefully and for a long time.
10. You cannot objectively assess your figure. Think of yourself as fat, even if everyone around you says you are exhausted.

10 signs of bulimia

The work of every cell in our body depends on nutrition. Bulimia disrupts metabolism and leads to a deficiency of nutrients in the body. Therefore, the consequences can be very different.

If left untreated, bulimia can become chronic and lead to seizures, arrhythmias, weak and brittle bones, ruptured esophagus, and kidney failure.

These Bulimia nervosa signs will help you diagnose the problem:

1. After eating, you induce vomiting, laxatives, or diuretics.
2. You "work out" the eaten, exercising until exhaustion.
3. Weight fluctuates constantly due to the large amount of food you eat.
4. The blood vessels in the eyes often burst. This is due to a lack of nutrients in the body. And in the case of sports bulimia - due to excessive physical exertion.
5. You can't stop while eating, even when you no longer feel physically hungry.
6. You prefer to eat alone so that no one interferes with your vomiting.
7. Your relationships with friends and family have deteriorated. Instead of spending time with them, you overeat and purge.
8. After eating, you feel guilty and frustrated.
9. You have stomach pains.
10. Teeth crumble and rot because tooth enamel has become thinner due to stomach acid that comes out with vomiting.

Bulimia can only be diagnosed after a physical examination. To rule out other diseases, you need to pass blood and urine tests.

10 signs of binge eating disorder

People with this disorder are usually overweight. They try to lose weight, but they break down and gain the lost pounds back, which makes them feel lazy and weak-willed. Often, patients do not even suspect that their problem is much more serious than a lack of purposefulness.

Binge eating disorder symptoms to watch out for:

1. In a short time, you absorb a huge amount of food because you cannot control your appetite.
2. You eat food very quickly, sometimes you don't have time to chew it properly.
3. You feel guilty, but you still continue to overeat.
4. You are embarrassed about eating a lot, so you do it in secret.
5. You have developed a mania to save food and hide it from others.
6. Eating in this mode, you try to compensate for low self-esteem, anxiety, stress. But it always turns out the opposite: the more you eat, the worse you feel.
7. Meal limits are blurred - you can eat all day long.
8. There were stomach problems - pain, cramps, constipation.
9. You are trying to limit your food intake. Go on a diet, give up some foods, but every attempt to lose weight ends in failure.
10. You've made meals a cult. Specially set aside time for an attack of overeating, do some kind of rituals. For example, you serve dishes with particular care, divide food by color.

If you notice the symptoms of ERP not in yourself, but in a loved one, carefully offer your help. Perhaps he wants to see a psychologist, but he is afraid or doubts. Tell him about the need for a medical examination. If necessary, offer to go together. But in no case put pressure on the patient. Any careless word can harm him and force him to withdraw into himself.