What are eating disorders and what are the most important causes of eating disorders

What are eating disorders

Eating disorders are psychological conditions associated with eating and obsession with body shape that lead to the development of unhealthy eating habits. Eating disorders can be serious and lead to serious consequences such as serious illnesses or even death. Eating disorders often begin or develop in adolescence and are more common in women.

Causes of eating disorders

Eating disorders are caused by multiple factors, including personal, cultural and biological factors, such as:

1. 1. Personality traits such as perfectionism and low self-esteem
   2. Culture and media promotion of thinness and its preference over other forms of bodies
   3. Troubled relationships or sudden life changes
   4. Anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder
   5. bullying
   6. Strict and harsh diet

Types of eating disorders

• anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is the most common type of eating disorder and often develops in adolescence. People with anorexia imagine that they are overweight and that their bodies are unacceptable even if they are below normal weight.

• Symptoms of anorexia

They often avoid eating certain foods or types of them. reduce calories consumed, monitor their weight frequently, Excessive exercise

• bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is one of the widespread eating disorders, in which the sufferer tends to eat unusually large amounts over a specific period of time, with bouts that come every once in a while, sometimes daily.

• Bulimia attacks

Each seizure continues until the person becomes so full that he is unable to breathe easily or move, and during the seizure the person feels a lack of self-control or stopping.

• What does gluttony happen?

Bingeing occurs on foods that a person often avoids, such as carbohydrates, sugars, or something else

• Post-bulimic cleansing technique

After a bout of bulimia, some people try to get rid of this food by trying to vomit, fasting, taking diuretics, laxatives, or excessive exercise.

People with bulimia are often of normal to underweight

• binge eating

Binge eating is similar to bulimia nervosa, but the difference is that people with bulimia do not restrict calories, purify themselves, or exercise excessively.

• binges

Binge attacks cause the patient to eat quickly and in large quantities without control, even when not feeling hungry

• Post gluttony

The person then feels distress, disgust, and guilt when thinking about what happened

People with bulimia are often overweight or obese

• Pica “Lust of Oddity”

People with pica suffer from eating things that are not considered food, such as snow, dirt, chalk, coal, wool, pebbles, or laundry detergent, and developing this disorder may lead to poisoning or nutritional deficiencies.

• to whom it happens

This disorder occurs in all age groups, but it is more common in children and pregnant women

• rumination

It is a disorder in which the patient spits out food after chewing it or vomits it up after swallowing it often. What a person suffers from during childhood or puberty, and it lasts from 3 to 12 months and disappears by itself, and sometimes it needs treatment. Infection with this disorder leads to weight loss.

• Purge disorder

The infected person vomits or uses purification methods after eating to maintain their weight and shape, but they do not have cravings or gluttony.

Risk of eating disorders

• Sore throat and swollen glands
• GERD, intestinal irritation and dehydration
• hormonal disorders
• Overweight – people who suffer from bulimia
• Heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – people who suffer from bulimia
• Poisoning- people with pica
• Inflammation and infection of the intestine- People with pica
• Lack of nutrients in the body – people who suffer from pica

Signs that the person in front of you has an eating disorder

• The person is underweight compared to those of his age and height
• Strict eating habits
• Fear of gaining weight
• The effect of his weight and body shape on his self-esteem
• Denying that he is underweight
• Difficulty eating in public
• Frequent bouts of bulimia for “bulimics”
• Performing purging behaviors (vomiting, taking laxatives, exercising…)

Learn about: symptoms of real hunger

Tips for avoiding eating disorders

1. There is no certain weight that will make you happy and comfortable. Happiness and comfort come from self-love and self-acceptance in whatever form it is
2. Read about eating disorders and self-awareness to prevent them from happening to you
3. Stop categorizing foods as good and bad, foods that cause obesity, foods that will keep you slim, or put restrictions on your eating times and quantity.
4. Stop giving people judgments and expectations based on their physical appearance and weight
5. Stop following people that promote skinny and a certain body shape or color
6. Always set goals for yourself and strive to achieve them
7. If you think someone has an eating disorder, try to help them
8. If you think you have an unhealthy relationship with eating or have a disorder, tell your parents or someone else who can help you