Eating disorders are mental illnesses that cause unhealthy eating behaviors. They are usually related to weight and appearance, and are a large problem in many people’s lives. They affect many people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities, and damage the body and mind severely. People are learning new ways to help them, such as finding different types of therapy for different people. All eating disorders are different, so all recovery is different.
The first information about eating disorders was written as far back as the 12th century, but may have existed before that. Eating disorders grew in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and continue today. There are many types of eating disorders, and not all of them are limited to starving or throwing up. Some examples are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, ARFID, OSFED, and EDNOS. Anorexia is an eating disorder that causes people to eat very little. It usually causes severe weight loss, but not all people with eating disorders are underweight. Bulimia focuses on people making themselves vomit, (also known as purging) usually to lose weight. They can binge (eat extremely large amounts of food) and then make themselves vomit, exercise excessively, starve themselves, or use laxatives. Binge-eating disorder is the most common in America. It is when a person binges on food and feels like they cannot stop. They typically feel ashamed of themselves for eating so much, or depressed because of their weight, but do not try to “make up” for it with starving, throwing up, etc.
Lesser-known eating disorders besides anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder exist, and are just as valid. ARFID stands for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. They may have difficulty eating certain colors or textures, eat only small portions, have no appetite, or are afraid to eat after a choking/vomiting episode. They don’t starve or purge, but can be underweight because they are unable to eat enough. OSFED (Other-Specified Feeding/Eating Disorder) is when you meet some criteria of an eating disorder, but not all, such as throwing up like someone with bulimia would, but never binging on food in the first place. Some other eating disorders are PICA (eating non-food substances such as clay or cotton) and rumination disorder (spitting out food). Hundreds of eating disorders exist besides these.
Signs of anorexia or bulimia include but are not limited to someone addictively counting calories, exercising excessively, thinking they’re fat, and eating very little, sometimes not eating for days at a time. A person may also become very thin or underweight, weigh themselves repeatedly, not go to social events that have food, and cut friends and family out of their life because their eating disorder is taking over them. Eating disorders can affect every organ of the body negatively, ruining the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal system, neurological, and endocrine. More effects of malnutrition are hair loss, fingernail breakage, dizziness, fainting, brittle bones, stomach damage and pain from starving and throwing up, anemia, drop in heart rate, stomach/kidney damage, tooth decay from vomiting, and cheeks bloating from saliva gland expanding from throwing up. Some people can get lanugo, because they’ve lost so much body fat that they can’t stay warm, so their body makes excess hair. Eating disorders affect 30 million people in the US and cause a death about every 62 minutes.
Starving may work at the time, but your body can go into starvation mode. Starvation mode is your body trying to hold onto all the calories from the small amount of nutrients it gets. This will slow weight loss as it tries to store fat. Once you go back to normal habits, you will become the same weight as before or even have gained more.
People wonder the causes of eating disorders. Binge-eating disorder is normally related to genetics, and EDNOS is usually related to comorbid mood disorders. Anorexia and bulimia can be caused by society’s ideal as being thin or muscular. Scientists and researchers believe they affect mainly females because of social pressure to be thin. Celebrities, advertisements, and models also play a large role in causing people to starve themselves. The average woman in America is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds, while the average model is 5’8” and weighs 114 pounds. This puts false views in people's’ minds that they aren’t what society wants them to be or that they aren’t thin enough, when really, models are being photoshopped and are usually underweight. It is thought that puberty causing weight gain combined with the media is also a large cause. Athletes that are in sports that encourage thinness, such as ballet or gymnastics, are also more prone to eating disorders.
Many have misconceptions about eating disorders, especially anorexia and bulimia. They can sometimes not be seen as mental illnesses and just fads, because they are related to weight loss. People also believe that they only happen to thin white teenage girls, and while eating disorders mainly affect girls, 10% of eating disorders still affect men. Anyone can be affected by eating disorders, they affect all genders, ages, and weights can have eating disorders and they do not impact only a certain group of people. Anorexia and bulimia are not the only eating disorders, and any other eating disorder is still valid.
“You don’t seem thin enough to have an eating disorder” is what some people say to those with anorexia. This is of the worst things to say to someone with an eating disorder because it shows that you believe only underweight people can have them. It makes them think they haven’t restricted themselves enough and they need to starve more so they can be “thin enough”. Eating disorders do not only apply to underweight people; because of society’s perception of eating disorders, many people think they can tell if someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them, and seeing if they’re thin enough to have one. This makes people with eating disorders who aren’t underweight feel like their eating disorder isn’t valid or it’s fake, or that they need to starve themselves more restrictively. Eating disorders are mental illnesses, not a body type. Someone who is 400lbs can still have anorexia as long as they meet the criteria, ex. starving. Peoples’ view of eating disorders has become limited to being underweight only, that some clinics will not diagnose you with an eating disorder if your BMI isn’t low enough. Even if you meet all the criteria or if you haven’t eaten for a week, you won’t be helped. Although BMI shows who needs physical help for their eating disorders, it doesn’t show who needs mental help for their eating disorders.
Eating disorders are not a choice. This is why it’s so frustrating for someone to say “just eat more”. Nobody would choose to starve themselves, make themselves throw up, damage their body, take years off their lives, push away their friends and family, or get hospitalized by choice. There is a difference between thinking you’re fat or going to the gym and actually having an eating disorder. They control your mind, and they aren’t a diet fad; they’re an illness.
Some people like to glamorize eating disorders, which is saying that a mental illness is beautiful. There are even communities; pro-ana (pro-anorexia) is a group of people with eating disorders. They encourage each other to starve themselves, give each other tips on how to throw up or exercise, or how to eat as little as possible, which is promoting anorexia and other eating disorders to young people on social media. They also glamorize and romanticize the disorder by post photos of people with their bones showing. They think of eating disorders as a sad thin person hunched over a toilet and being beautifully broken, and give their disorder a name, “ana” for anorexia and “mia” for bulimia, which is gross and glorifying eating disorders. Eating disorders are not beautiful; they are a mental illness that damages your body and mind.
60% of people with eating disorders end up recovering. Recovery is usually done with therapists or counselors. The three main types of recovery are psychological, behavioral, and physical. Examples are support groups, meal plans, outpatient treatment, family groups, or hospitalization. People are trying to help stop eating disorders by teaching about what they are, its dangers, and how it damages a person. More eating disorder clinics are being opened, ex. NEDA. NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association) is an association that helps with eating disorder recovery and therapy. They offer eating disorder therapy and show therapists in your area.
If you know someone with an eating disorder, encourage them to recover. Be by their side during recovery. If people don’t try to help those with eating disorders in the future, many more lives will be ruined and more deaths will occur. During recovery, be sure not to make talk about dieting too much or make eating disorder jokes, because this can make them remember and want to go back to their old habits, aka getting triggered. Mentioning someone’s weight will hurt them, because their disorder twists your words and makes them believe they’re fat. You can help people recovering by reading up on the subject and try to understand them.
Eating disorders are illnesses that cause unhealthy behaviors related to eating. There are many types of eating disorders, and they affect people of all ages, genders, and weights. People have numerous misconceptions about them. They need to be taught so people have information on what they are and will be able to help anyone they know who has an eating disorder.