What are the types of Eating Disorders?

Millions of males and females are suffering from eating disorders, and the worst part is, those statistics only reflect the known cases. There are easily just as many suffering from eating disorders who are completely unknown and undetected by their friends and loved ones. You probably know someone right now who seems completely normal and healthy, but who is only maintaining that image by resorting to one of the three main types of eating disorders.

There are a number of reasons why someone would have an eating disorder, but the main reasons are usually about trauma and societal pressure. If you feel bad, you want to find a way to make yourself feel better. Young people don’t all have readily available access to alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes, but no one will stop a young person from walking into an ice cream shop and buying a large ice cream. Conversely, no one would stop a young person from skipping meals and eating next to nothing unless someone actually noticed.

When it comes to outside pressure, most people feel physically inadequate. If you ask anyone you know how they feel about their bodies, you will find in almost all cases that someone has something about their bodies that they wish was different. More often than not, women will say they wish they were thinner, and many men say they wish they were stronger. This is because society as a whole has been conditioned to think that women and men must be thin, and that men should have an unrealistic level of muscle mass.

Out of the three types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa is probably the most known. It comes from the Greek for “lack of appetite.” It literally means that someone has either self-induced a lack of appetite or consciously decided not to eat. People can become physically repelled by food after conditioning their bodies to reject it, making it both a psychological and physical disorder. Most people suffering from anorexia also suffer from both a warped sense of reality and an irrational fear of gaining weight or looking fat. They are so desperate to look thin that they will starve themselves. In addition to weight loss, people with anorexia also suffer from lack of energy, fatigue, brittle nails and hair and dry skin, etc.

Bulimia is also fairly well publicized, and it is sort of a cross between anorexia and binge eating. Bulimia is one of the types of eating disorders that is most difficult to detect, because people with bulimia often look normal and eat a normal amount, or maybe a little more than average. The only difference is that they will go purge their bodies afterwards, either through the abuse of laxatives, starvation, vomiting, or excessive exercise. If you develop bulimia, you will not only suffer the effects of starvation, but also the effects of your preferred method of purging, such as gastrointestinal problems, damaged teeth and esophagus, etc.

Finally, binge eating is the third of the three types of eating disorders. Binge eaters usually eat too much without purging, and often have an addictive relationship to food. It is very unhealthy and often beyond their control, making it dangerous and hard to counteract. All three types of eating disorders require professional help, so if you know someone who exhibits these symptoms, help them as soon as you can.