> Anorexia Nervosa
> Bulimia Nervosa
> Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
> Compulsive Eating
> Prader Willi Syndome
> Orthorexia Nervosa

What is an eating disorder?

Boys, girls, men and women from all types of background and ethnic groups can suffer from eating disorders. Eating disorders are a way of coping with feelings of being unhappy or depressed. Eating Disorders do not include food allergies, selective eating issues or disorders of the digestive system. However, a G.P should be the first point of call for these issues as well as for eating disorders

Many people assume that eating disorders only affect teenage girls. This is not true. Research shows about a quarter of people affected by an eating disorder at school age are boys. Amongst adults at least 10% of people diagnosed as having an eating disorder are male. However there are probably many more undiagnosed cases because there is less chance of the condition being recognized in male sufferers.

There are many reasons why people develop eating disorders. Often there is not one single cause, but a series of events, feelings or pressures which make you feel unable to cope. These can include: low self esteem, family relationships, problems with friends, the death of someone special, problems at school (for example being bullied, pressure of exams etc.), lack of confidence, or sexual or emotional abuse. Lots of people with eating disorders say that the eating disorder is the only way they feel they can be in control of their life, but as time goes on it isn’t really you who is in control – it is the eating disorder.

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What is Anorexia Nervosa?
Anorexia is a disorder (or illness) which stems from low self esteem and an inability to cope safely with worries and problems. It involves lowering your food intake by skipping meals and cutting down the types and amounts of food you eat; some people over-exercise as well. You may believe that if you lose weight your life would be happier, people will like you more, you will be more successful or even perhaps that you may be noticed less.

You may try to find ways of punishing yourself if you don’t lose enough weight or eat something you would not usually eat. Losing weight is not the answer. It is important that you try and focus on who you are, and what may have caused you to feel the way you do. Try to change the way you feel about yourself and aim to find safer ways of coping.

“I had a ‘voice’ in my head that shouted at me. It told me I was fat and worthless and that I was not allowed to eat because I did not deserve food. I thought I was in control of my eating it got harder and harder to ignore the voice.”

Some of the ways that anorexia can affect you are:-

• Your body: pains, constipation; feeling cold; growth of downy (soft and fine) Your body: Severe weight loss; difficulty sleeping and tiredness; dizziness; stomach hair all over your body; low sex drive; your head hair falls out.

• How you behave: Excessive exercising; having ritual or obsessive behaviors; being secretive; lying about eating; trying to please everyone; cooking or preparing food for everyone else; wearing baggy clothes.

• How you think and feel: Feeling fat when you are really underweight; getting irritable and moody; setting high standards and being a perfectionist; shutting yourself off from the world; thinking things are either right or wrong, there is no in-between; difficulty concentrating.

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What is Bulimia Nervosa?
Bulimia is also a disorder linked with self esteem, emotional problems and stress. You may constantly think about calories, dieting and ways of getting rid of the food you have eaten. Bulimia is actually more common than anorexia, but is more of a hidden illness, because people with bulimia usually remain an average or just over average body weight. Bulimia can go unnoticed for a long time, although you may feel ill and very unhappy.

“I used to go to the food cupboard, fridge or freezer and eat as much as I could, as quickly as possible, to try to make myself feel happier and fill the hole I felt I had inside. Afterwards I felt physically and emotionally upset and guilty about all the food I had eaten, so I would make myself sick.”

If you have bulimia you become involved in a cycle of eating a very large amount of food, making yourself sick, cutting down or starving for a few days or trying to find other ways to make up for the food you have eaten. Starving causes you to become so hungry that you eat large amounts of food because your body is craving nourishment. Some people will not vomit but will take laxatives: both behaviors may be described as ‘purging’ by medical professionals but taking laxatives is particularly dangerous.

Just because bulimia does not because the extreme weight loss that anorexia does, it does not mean that it is less serious. You need to get help and support. The side effects and consequences of bulimia can be very serious.

Symptoms of bulimia may include some of the following:

• Your body: Sore throat, bad breath and mouth infections; stomach pains; dry or poor skin; difficulty sleeping; constipation; puffy cheeks; dehydration; fainting; kidney and bowel problems.

• How you behave: Eating large quantities of food; being sick after meals or binges; taking laxatives or diet pills; being secretive and lying.

• How you think and feel: Feeling emotional and depressed; feeling out of control; mood swings; obsessed with dieting

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What is Binge Eating Disorder (BED)?
Like bulimia, binge eating disorder has only recently been recognized as a distinct condition, it was first acknowledged as a disorder in its own right in 1992. BED shares some of the characteristics of bulimia but the essential difference is that you binge uncontrollably but do not purge. It is believed that many more people suffer from binge eating disorder than either anorexia or bulimia nervosa. Because of the amount of food eaten, many people with BED become obese; this can lead to problems with blood pressure, heart disease and a general lack of fitness.

“Sometimes I just seem to go mad, nothing is enough, I eat until my stomach aches, and I’m not even remotely hungry”

If you binge eat, you may feel your eating is out of control, eat what you think of as an unusually large amount of food, eat much more quickly in these binges, eat until you are uncomfortably full, eat large amounts of food when you are not hungry or eat alone. You do this for very similar reasons to someone with bulimia.

Symptoms of binge eating may include some of the following:

• Your body: Weight gain; stomach pains; poor or spotty skin; difficulty sleeping; constipation.

• How you behave: Eating large quantities of food; being secretive and lying.

• How you think and feel: Feeling emotional and depressed; feeling out of control; mood swings; obsessed with weight.

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What is Compulsive Eating?
Compulsive eating is a variation on binge eating when you will eat at times when you are not hungry. This may happen all the time or it may come and go in cycles. Most people who are compulsive eaters are overweight, and may use their weight or appearance as a shield they can hide behind to avoid social interaction, others hide behind a happy or jolly façade to avoid confronting their problems. Sufferers often have great shame at being unable to control the compulsion to eat. Compulsive overeating is a serious condition and needs professional support to ensure long term recovery.

“There are times when I have been caught by my partner rummaging in the fridge at 3am, eating things I don’t even particularly like, with my finger, straight from the jar”

Symptoms of Compulsive Eating may include some of the following:

• Your body: Weight gain, poor or spotty skin, bowel irregularities

• How you behave: ‘picking’ at food all day. Eating rapidly. Being secretive

• How you think and feel: depressed and inadequate because you cannot control your eating, which leads you to think about more food. There may be different reasons why you do this, but as with all eating disorders, food and eating is used as a way of dealing with difficult feelings.

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Other disorders associated with eating
Conditions as complex as eating disorders inevitably mean that there are variations in the typical signs described in this article, and not all symptoms will apply to all people. In fact many people find they have a diagnosis of an A-typical Eating Disorder or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). These are disorders where you have some but not all of the diagnostic signs for anorexia or bulimia. You may also be diagnosed with a ‘partial syndrome’ eating disorder if for example you are a woman with anorexia who has irregular or normal periods, or perhaps your bulimic episodes are very infrequent.

Some eating problems are much more distinct, such as ‘chew and spit’ behavior, when a person chews food and spits it out, rather than swallowing - normal or even large amounts of food. Another example is regurgitation when food is swallowed, and is then brought back up into the mouth for re-chewing. Some people eat non-foods, such as paper tissues, to fill themselves up without the calorific intake. All of these behaviors are more common than many people believe and sometimes exist alongside other eating disorder symptoms. They can often be overcome with professional help.

Prader Willi Syndrome is not an eating disorder as such, in the sense that it does not have its roots in emotional problems, but is a genetic disorder that results in excessive eating from early childhood. People with Prader Willi syndrome may not achieve full height growth; they may have bad temper tantrums and often have learning difficulties, all of which require specialist healthcare treatment. Orthorexia nervosa is a term coined by Dr S Bratman in his book ‘Health Food Junkies - Orthorexia Nervosa’ to describe the outcome of compulsive dietary behavior based on eating only certain ‘health’ foods. It is not a recognized medical term.

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Do I have to see a doctor or health professional?
Eating disorders are an illness and when you are poorly it is usual to seek expert help. It is very difficult to get better on your own if you have an eating disorder. As well as having support from those who care for you, you need to have professional help. Willpower alone is not enough. Your GP can assess your physical condition and refer you to the help available. There are various health care professionals you cab access privately, and some self help groups. Do remember Eating disorders can be very serious and in the most serious cases can result in death.

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Will I recover?
Most people make a full recovery from an eating disorder, but it can take a long time and may be very difficult, but it is possible. Part of you may want to get better while the other part might be very scared about giving up the eating disorder. You are likely to have good days and bad days. At times of stress, eating difficulties may return. To change your ways of thinking and feeling is never easy and it takes time, but it really is worth it.

Recovery isn’t easy, but it is so worthwhile.

At Premier at The Romney Centre we offer a choice of therapies for dealing with Eating Disorders.
You can choose clinical hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, counselling or NLP to deal with your problems surrounding food.

To book your free no obligation consultation telephone 023 8022 6050.

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