Similar to all others, eating disorders are serious and complex mental health disorders that impact a person’s relationship with food. They are often linked with other severe psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, BPD, and issues with control. They can be onset by a variety of factors that are complex and differ from one person to another, such as personal differences in personality, genetics, societal factors, childhood trauma, or other psychological issues, and are categorized into 4 distinct types.
1. Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia is the most popular type of eating disorder, and it’s the first to come to mind when the topic is brought up. It’s categorized by the intense fear of gaining weight despite already being under the healthy weight range and extremely low food intake. It has two subtypes: Restricting type, and Binging/Purging type.
2. Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia is similar to the Binge/Purge subtype of Anorexia, where a cycle of binge eating excessive amounts of food are followed by purging practices to compensate. These purging practices can be in the form of self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, or excessive exercise. You may wonder, well what differentiates Bulimia from the Anorexia subtype? and the key difference here is bodyweight. People that suffer from Bulimia are not necessarily thin or underweight and can even be medically obese, while a key characteristic of Anorexia patients is that they must be underweight.
3. Binge Eating Disorder
Binge Eating Disorder is characterized by binge eating attacks that occur at least once a week for 3 months, where the person feels a lack of control over their eating alongside many other symptoms. These symptoms may include eating to the point of uncomfortable fullness, eating huge amounts even when not hungry, and feeling guilty, depressed, or disgusted after the binge attacks.
4. Other Non-Specified Eating Disorders
Lastly, the last category of eating disorders are those that don’t fully fit the description of any of the previously mentioned disorders but still cause significant disruption to the individual.
Overcoming Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are extremely complex and tricky to navigate, and overcoming them takes time and willpower. A combination of medical care to manage physical health complications, therapy such as CBT and DBT, as well as nutritional counseling are used to help treat eating disorder patients. We want to also stress just how important it is to want to recover, it’s what drives you to seek support from others, and a positive mindset focused on self love and improvement is what helps make treatments more effective and prevent relapse long term.