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About Eating Disorders

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About Eating Disorders

What are eating disorders?

Eating disorders can be life threatening illnesses. At the surface people with eating disorders experience serious disturbances in their eating behaviour. However individuals with an eating disorder do not solely experience problems around food, weight or shape. These expressions are unhelpful and unhealthy ways which the sufferer has found to cope with difficult emotions, anxieties and fears in his/her life. Individuals with eating disorders generally experience low self-esteem, shame, denial and secrecy and often present co-morbidity with depression, obsessive compulsive tendencies and occasionally psychotic symptoms and delusions.

There are four major classifications for eating disorders. Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). It is not uncommon for individuals to overlap on one or two creating subtypes.The descriptions given below are entirely for diagnostic reference and in no way do they infer causality for that disorder.

ANOREXIA NERVOSA

Is characterised by an extreme fear of gaining weight and a strong desire to be thin. This desire is often met through extreme dieting and in some cases vigorous exercise. Some individuals who have Anorexia Nervosa also use slimming pills, diuretics (water tablets), and laxatives or induce vomiting when they have eaten in order to control weight. Sometimes some individuals may purchase drugs online which they believe will aid weight loss. This can include raspberry ketones and thyroxine, as well as misuse of prescription drugs such as insulin.

BULIMIA NERVOSA

Is characterised by an extreme fear of becoming fat and a desire to be thinner. He/she is normally within or above the normal weight range. There will be episodes of dieting but the sufferer of Bulimia Nervosa eats large amounts of food in binges. Feelings of discomfort and guilt following the binge drive the individual to use laxatives, diuretics, exercise and/or cause him/her to vomit to control weight.

There are consequences, some of them very serious, of having an eating disorder. This information is intended to make you aware - not to cause you any unnecessary distress.

EATING DISORDERS NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED (EDNOS)

The DSM-5 classification and diagnostic manual recently replaced EDNOS with Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED)

EDNOS (OSFED) are a cluster of eating disorders which an individual may not have all of the diagnostic signs and may not meet the criteria for the later three. These individuals may be diagnosed with a subtype of eating disorder or a partial eating disorder. For example you may be someone who has bulimic episodes but these are not frequent (included in the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa). People with EDNOS (OSFED) commonly present with extremely disturbed eating habits, a distorted body image and an intense fear of gaining weight.

BINGE EATING DISORDER

Binge eating disorder is characterized by the compulsion to overeat.

Individuals with binge eating disorder can consume very large quantities of food in a very short period of time. These individuals sometimes “binge” when they do not feel hungry. The binge itself is often carefully thought about and planned;

  • The individual may buy particular foods to binge on.
  • The individual will plan a private place to binge.