EATING DISORDERS

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders

Eating is a fact of living. We need to eat to live, so that people can grow and develop the way you should. But for some people, food becomes the enemy. Because they're worried about being fat, they begin to limit what they eat or make themselves vomit right after eating. Eating disorders can make someone very sick. People have even died due to eating disorders and the harm it did to their bodies. An eating disorder is when a person eats, or refuses to eat, in order to satisfy a psychic need and not a physical need. The person doesn't listen to bodily signals or perhaps is not even aware of them. (Zerbe, K.J. 2007)

A normal person eats when hungry and stops eating when the body doesn't need more, when he feels the signal of satisfaction. Body image is how a person feels about his or her own physical appearance. Some people point to the perfect-looking bodies of models, movie stars, and sports stars. Many people admire the way these people look, but don't change their eating habits so severely. Anyone can have an eating disorder, though they most often affect girls and women.

Anorexia nervosa is when the person affected is so afraid of being fat, he or she almost stops eating. People who have anorexia nervosa are obsessed with food, sometimes measuring it and weighing it or counting calories. They eat only very small amounts and may exercise for hours every day to burn off the calories. A person who has anorexia might lose weight or maintain a weight that's too low for his or her height. No matter how thin people with anorexia get, they think they are fat. People with anorexia often have depression or anxiety. Anorexia is a difficult illness because it's not easily understood - no one really knows what causes it, it's difficult to treat, and it tends to be a long-term condition. To help someone with anorexia, evaluation and treatment are usually necessary. Some of the symptoms include: dropping lots of weight denying feeling hungry exercising excessively feeling fat withdrawing from social activities, instead of starving themselves, people who have bulimia nervosa will binge and purge. That means they eat a huge amount of food in 2 hours or so, then secretly trying to get rid of it by vomiting or taking laxatives.

Usually People who have bulimia often ...