How to Tell if You Have an Eating Disorder

The modern concept of an eating disorder is largely the product of the fashion industry in the 1990s. As models became thinner and thinner, the media glorified this new trend, and stick-thin women began appearing on magazine covers, in commercials, and anywhere else. Once a fashion trend has started, there will always be people that take it too far. Unfortunately, this type of trend was more than just spending money on the newest designer jeans. This one glorified starvation.

A woman with an eating disorder suffers from more than just a physical illness. There is also a warped sense of reality that comes out in the way she treats her own body. Like the phrase “the camera adds 10 pounds”, many women with an eating disorder tell themselves they’re fatter than they actually are. It can take a great deal of counseling and rehabilitation to convince these women that they can be beautiful without wasting away to nothing.

Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common types of eating disorders. In this eating disorder, a woman will purposely avoid eating enough so that she can lose weight or keep from gaining weight. While not eating can keep you thin, it also is keeping you from absorbing vital nutrients that support your brain, heart, liver, bones, muscles, and everything else in your body. The reason these women look so frail is that their bodies simply cannot live on next to nothing, and so their bodies have to eat up their own muscles and organs to stay alive. Anorexia is a very serious mental and physical disorder. On the mental side of it, these women often claim that they feel in control of at least one aspect of their lives by denying themselves something that their bodies need.

In addition to anorexia, bulimia nervosa is a prevalent type of eating disorder. Depending on how someone with bulimia conducts herself, the condition might be even more serious than anorexia. A bulimic person will purposely vomit or exercise excessively after eating so that they don’t absorb calories and put on weight. However, just like with anorexia, someone who is not absorbing necessary nutrients is going to get very sick. Unlike anorexia, bulimia has another serious side effect: frequent vomiting over time can cause your stomach acid to eat away at the esophagus, the lining of the throat, and the teeth, while too much exercise breaks down muscles, bones, and joints. Sometimes, bulimic patients will binge on food, eating an unhealthy amount all at once, and then feel guilty and purge their bodies. This is a dangerous condition that can cause a healthy person to quickly deteriorate.

Finally, there is simply overeating. Many people self-medicate with food when they are depressed, and this can cause morbid obesity if not kept in check. The symptoms of any eating disorder can be summed up as eating in an abnormal fashion and having an unhealthy mental association with food. While it can be hard to tell what exactly is normal anymore, a diet should consist of all three macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and good fat. It should nourish your body, and it should be enough to support your daily activity. If you or someone you know throws away food or is losing weight at an alarming rate, you should make sure to seek professional help.