What is an eating disorder?
An eating disorder is a serious condition that affects both physical and mental health. The most common disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and immature eating.
Eating disorders affect the heart, digestive system, bones, teeth, and oral cavity. Eating disorders are quite expected to become the cause of the development of a number of diseases, for example, depression, anxiety and other pathologies are often diagnosed.
Notable symptoms are:
- Rejection of food;
- A person arbitrarily, without a specialist, establishes a strict diet that causes serious harm to the body (actually starvation);
- Excessive focus on food and healthy eating - a person does not attend events where he may have to eat;
- He does not eat the food that was prepared for his family, he buys his own;
- Does not engage in social activities;
- While talking with him, you will notice that the main topic of conversation is diet, weight or losing kilograms;
- Constant pain on the figure;
- He never considers himself to be of normal/healthy build - he considers himself either fat or too thin;
- Constantly looking in the mirror to find a flaw, a defect, evaluating the visuals with a critical eye;
- Inadequate physical activity, unrecommended, excessive exercise;
- Eating silently, hidden from others;
- Hysterical, panic fear of getting fat;
- Desire to have a body or weight that is unrealistic for one's build and health;
- Artificially causes vomiting after eating;
- The patient takes an excessively large dose of food, an excessive amount. gets the feeling that he cannot control the eating process, the desire to eat, he cannot stop;
- Feeling of shame, guilt after eating.
The exact cause of eating disorders is unknown. Contributing factors are genetics and biological characteristics.
Risk factors are:
- Family history of eating disorder;
- Suffered trauma;
- Anxiety
- Depression;
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder;
- Chronic diet and starvation;
- Bullying when they make fun of or comment on their weight;
- Stress.
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/eating-disorders/symptoms-causes/syc-20353603
