Eating disorders have so many symptoms and warning signs. These disorders can lead to very serious health complications and possibly even death in more than a few instances. It is very important to know warning signs of an eating disorder in order to prevent eating disorder. These disorders are serious conditions that cause both physical and emotional damage. Anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders are the three main categories of the more widespread eating disorders. In America, Approximately 10 million people are afflicted with one of three eating disorders.
Eating Disorder:
Extreme disturbances in eating behaviors like- rigid diets, gorging on food in secret, throwing up after meals, and obsessively counting calories are involved in the eating disorders. However, eating disorders are more complicated than just unhealthy dietary habits. People having eating disorders use food to deal with uncomfortable or painful emotions. To feel in control, restricting food is used. Momentarily, overeating appeases sadness, anger, or loneliness. To battle feelings of helplessness and self-loathing, purging is used.
Types of eating disorders:
Bulimia:
An eating disorder, Bulimia involves a destructive cycle of bingeing and purging. People with bulimia take radical steps to rid themselves of the extra calories following an episode of out-of-control binge eating. Also, people vomit, exercise, fast, or take laxatives in order to avoid weight gain.
Anorexia:
Anorexic people have nothing to eat themselves out of an intense fear of becoming fat. They never believe they are thin enough in spite of being underweight or even emaciated. In addition to restricting calories, anorexic people may also control their weight with exercise, diet pills, or purging.
Binge Eating Disorder:
In this disorder, people compulsively overeat, rapidly consuming thousands of calories in a short period of time. They feel unable to control their behavior or stop eating even when uncomfortably full in spite of feelings of guilt and shame over these secret binges.
Warning signs of eating disorders:
Nowadays, teenagers and young adults face extra pressure to fit in and look attractive at a time when their bodies are changing. They worry about their weight, what they eat, and how they look. It is very difficult to identify eating disorders at early stage but as the progress takes place, the red flags become easier to spot. However, a person with an eating disorder will frequently attend great lengths to hide the problem, so it is significant to recognize the warning signs of eating disorder.
Common eating disorder warning signs:
- Constant dieting, even when thin
- Rapid, unexplained weight loss or weight gain
- Obsession with calories, food, or nutrition
- Taking laxatives or diet pills
- Going to the bathroom right after meals
- Eating alone, at night, or in secret
- Compulsive exercising
- Hoarding high-calorie food
- Making excuses to get out of eating
- Avoiding social situations that involve food
Drastic change in eating habits:
The most obvious warning signs of eating disorders involve drastic change in eating habits. A friend or family member with an eating disorder may often skip meals or always finding some excuse for not eating- they aren’t really hungry, they feel sick, or maybe they just ate- the list goes on. They also take diet pills, prescription stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin, in an effort to curb appetite. They also look for use or over-use of laxatives or other products that help in weight loss.
If someone suddenly has dislikes to food they once loved, it can be a warning sign. This is especially true of foods high in fat, calories, oils, etc. A person cannot help the fact that their eating behaviors will be abnormal when they develop an eating disorder. They may take tiny servings, eat only specific low-calorie foods, or obsessively count calories, read food labels, and weigh portions.
Emotional and Psychological:
Another common attribute in a person suffering from an eating disorder is contradicting their own feelings. They have difficulty in conversing the way the feel about something. Dismissing emotions for example anger with excuses like being tired or stressed expediently avoids dealing with the issue at hand. Strong emotions and possibly tantrums or withdrawal can be triggered with some low-key interactions, as they often feel inadequate, depressed, nervous, and lonesome. Irresistible emptiness and despair make it difficult to function at a normal level of interaction. Eating disorder treatment clinics are available in several locations around the world because of its serious psychological effects on human being.
Distorted body image and altered appearance:
Body image of a person can also offer clues to an underlying problem. Possible warning signs include significant weight loss, rapid weight gain, and constantly fluctuating weight. Distorted body image would bring on waves of self-doubt in their appearance, and so cause this person to constantly try and lose weight.
A person suffering from eating disorder may also wear baggy clothes or multiple layers in an effort to hide dramatic weight loss. They will frequently spend a lot of time in front of a mirror inspecting and criticizing her body or obsessing over everything that is wrong with their bodies. Poor self-image is often a clue in those with eating disorders.
Exercise behaviors:
Compulsive exercising is another indication to observe for, especially in people who does not have a past of using any exercise regimen. This schedule will be overly unkind frequently. People with eating disorder will need the help of an eating disorder residential center as they can not recover their self. They often tire easy, and the exercise only wears them down due to an unhealthy diet and it is only through will power that they can keep up. As the time goes on, their performance generally worsens in these routines, but they will decline to change the over-demanding exercise.
Social behaviors:
Pleasing type personality may develop in a person with an eating disorder. On the other hand, they will also become controlling in the area of food and dining choices when it comes to close friends and family. Treatment centers are often suggested as these behaviors can turn into unhealthy obsessions.
Such person tends to present an intense of being disadvantaged and dependent or very independent and refusing of help. They are more likely to construct regrettable choices about their sex lives, cash flow, stealing and lying, making commitments, career paths, and practically everything that will have a major impact on their future due to the imbalanced reasonableness in their thinking.
Self-injury:
Self injury does not mean that a person is suicidal or just looking for attention. It should be addressed professionally and quickly, especially because self injury can quickly and unintentionally lead to a medical crisis. In those who self-injure, trauma treatment is frequently a necessary step toward recovery.
Self injury comprises cutting or burning flesh, beating or slapping against other objects, and ingesting foreign objects. These activities bring a sense of flee while they last but later on the tension will rise again.
Warning signs for anorexia nervosa:
- Underweight but still on diet
- Fear of weight gain or being “fat”
- Avoiding mealtimes with various excuses
- Withdrawal from social activities and friends
- Refusal to take certain foods or whole categories of foods
- Dramatic and significant weight loss, usually 5% below the normal weight for height
- Lack of menstrual periods
- Preoccupation with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting
- Undergo excessive exercise, with the urge to “burn off” calories taken in
- Always feels “fat” or overweight
Warning signs for bulimia nervosa:
- Doing excessive exercise with the urge to burn fat
- Keep away from social activities and friends
- Having swollen cheeks and reddened finger resulted from inducing vomiting
- Preoccupation with body weight
- Suffering from depression and swing in mood
- Sign of uncontrollable eating even when the stomach is full
- Evidence of purging behaviors, e.g. strict dieting, fasting, vigorous exercise and vomiting
- Abuse of laxatives or diuretics (“water pills”) to lose weight
- Having dental problems and discoloration of the teeth caused by stomach acids
- Irregular menstrual periods
Warning signs of Binge Eating Disorder:
- Episodes of out of control eating when the person wants to stop but can’t
- Stealing food from grocery stores or emptying the household cupboards
- Usually on a dieting roller coaster or chronically dieting
- Eating even when not hungry
- Not knowing when to stop eating, nor being able to
- Eating in secret to avoid the shame of not being able to stop
- After eating, feeling overly stuffed instead of comfortably full
- Emotional eating when angry, upset, frustrated, overwhelmed or sad
- Eating rapidly without tasting or experiencing the food
Eating Disorders: Risks and Warning Signs (Part 1 of 2) from Youtube:
Eating Disorders: Risks and Warning Signs (Part 2 of 2) from Youtube:
