| An eating disorder is an illness that permeates all facets of each sufferer's life, is brought on by various emotional factors and influences. In this article we will talk about Anorexia and Bulimia. Those who are suffering from these eating disorders have a low self-esteem and often a tremendous need to control their emotions and surroundings.
The eating disorder, Anorexia, is a unique response to various outer and inner conflicts, such as tension, anxiety, unhappiness and feeling as if life is uncontrolled. Anorexia is a negative way to manage these emotions. A person suffering from Anorexia may be extremely sensitive about being fat, or have a massive fear of becoming fat - although not all people with Anorexia experience this fear. They may fear to lose control over the amount of food they eat, coupled with the desire to control their emotions and responses to their emotions. This forces them to turn to obsessive weight control and starvation as a way to control not only their body weight, but their feelings and actions. Some also feel that they do not deserve the simple pleasures of life, and will stay away from situations offering pleasure (including eating).
Typical behavioral signs may include: obsessive exercise, calorie gram counting, starvation and restriction of food, self-induced vomiting, the use of weight loss medications, laxatives or diuretics to attempt controlling body weight, and a constant concern over the way they look.
Men and women with Bulimia seek binge and purge episodes - they will binge on food in a relatively short period of time and then use behaviors such as winning laxatives or diuretics or self-induced vomiting - as they feel overwhelmed in coping with their emotions, or to punish themselves. Bulimia sufferers may seek episodes of binging and purging to avoid and let out feelings of anger, depression, stress or anxiety.
Repeated episodes of quick food consumption followed by tremendous guilt and purging (laxatives or self-induced vomiting), a feeling of losing control over food consumption, regularly engaging in strict dieting and exercise, the misuse of laxatives or diuretics, and/or weight loss medications and a constant concern over the way they look can all be warning signs of Bulimia.
The two eating disorders have a lot of similarities, the most common being the cause. They are complicated emotional issues. Although they may seem to be nothing more than a health-threatening obsessive body weight concern on the surface, for most people having an eating disorder there are deeper emotional conflicts to be handled. |
