Are You Suffering From an Eating Disorder?

When you’re in a normal, healthy mindset, you’ll usually know when you’re doing something harmful to yourself. In the case of people with an eating disorder, they will often have such psychological trauma that they no longer know what’s right, or they no longer care. In many of these cases, they are so far gone that they only know what makes them feel better, which just reinforces the negative behavior and symptoms of an eating disorder. Are you suffering from an eating disorder?

There are three overarching types of eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and addictive eating disorder. All three are very dangerous and can kill you if you don’t treat them as serious diseases. The reason they are so prevalent is because they fulfill an unhealthy need in people that isn’t being met elsewhere, such as having a desperate urge to fit in, wanting to be more attractive, possessing control over some aspect of your life, seeking a way out of pain, giving in to hunger or lack of hunger, etc.

In modern times, the idea of an eating disorder is a direct descendent of the fashion industry in the 1990s. Models got thinner and thinner and the media glorified this new trend. Once people became convinced that stick-thin women were attractive, they began to appear everywhere, such as on magazine covers, in commercials, etc. One big consequence of any fashion trend is that some people will always go too far. The problem with this “trend” was that it was more than getting fancy new clothes. With this, some people were forced to starve themselves to achieve the desired look.

Now, all of that back-story about eating disorders may or may not directly relate to you, but knowing where the need to be thin came from is important if you want to understand how things are and what you can do. While many people might say that you have to be thin to be attractive, the truth is that some people are not genetically predisposed to be thin. Some people are born to be bigger, and as long as you take care of yourself without going to extreme lengths, you can be beautiful and still not be a size 0.

So, now you understand where the need to be thin came from. In order to tell if you are suffering from an eating disorder, you need to know about the different eating disorders.

With anorexia, people tend to be extremely self-conscious about their weight, and will go to extreme measures to ensure that they are thin. They might have an irrational fear of getting fat or were abused somehow. If you aren’t eating at least three meals per day, or if you take in fewer than 1000 calories, these are signs of anorexia.

Bulimics are often similar, but they lose weight by vomiting after meals, purging after binges, excessive exercise, or abuse of laxatives and diuretics. If you do any of these, know that it is not normal and seek help. Finally, people who are suffering from an addictive eating disorder cannot control themselves and will overeat even when their body is telling them they’ve had enough. Now that you know, if you or someone you know exhibits any of these symptoms, seek professional help.