Eating disorders:
All eating disorders are primary diseases Compulsive overeaters binge to relieve depression and begin a destructive cycle. Binge eating episodes are followed by resolutions to stop bingeing and adhere to diets. These resolutions are eventually broken, filling the Compulsive Overeater with guilt and depression, leading them back to binge eating again. Eating disorders are complex diseases and not just a condition that can be treated with willpower. They meet the definition of a disease because like other diseases they have a particular destructive process for an individual, with a specific cause (that cause can be either known or unknown), and display characteristic symptoms. All eating disorders are primary diseases and not the secondary result of some other disorder. They are chronic conditions with an identifiable progression and predictable symptoms. Eating disorders arise out of the combination of genetic, sociological, and psychological factors
What is Anorexia:
Anorexia is a disorder where the main characteristic is the restriction of food and the refusal to maintain a minimal normal body weight. Any actual gain or even perceived gain of weight is met with intense fear by the Anorexic. Not only is there a true feeling of fear, but also once in the grasp of the disorder, Anorexics experience body image distortions. Those areas of the body usually representing maturity or sexuality including the buttocks, hips, thighs and breast are visualized by the Anorexic as being fat. For some Anorexics, weight loss is so severe there is a loss of menses. In the obsessive pursuit of thinness, Anorexics participate in restrictive dieting, compulsive exercise, and laxative and diuretic abuse. If Anorexia Nervosa is left untreated, it can be fatal.
What is Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimics are caught in the devastating and addictive binge-purge cycle. The Bulimic eats compulsively and then purges through self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills, ipecac, strict diets, fasts, chew-spitting, vigorous exercise, or other compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Binges usually consist of the consumption of large amounts of food in a short period of time. Binge eating usually occurs in secret. Bulimics, like Anorexics, are also obsessively involved with their body shape and weight.
What is Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive Overeaters are often caught in the vicious cycle of binge eating and depression. They often use food as a coping mechanism to deal with their feelings. Binge eating temporarily relieves the stress of these feelings, but is unfortunately followed by feelings of guilt, shame, disgust, and depression. Binge eating, like Bulimia, often occurs in secret. It is not uncommon for Compulsive Overeaters to eat normally or restrictively in front of others and then make up for eating less by bingeing in secret. For other Compulsive Overeaters, binges consist of grazing on foods all day long. Similar to Anorexics and Bulimics, Compulsive Overeaters are constantly struggling and unhappy with their weight. The number on the scale often determines how they feel about themselves. Medical complications can also be severe and even life threatening for Compulsive Overeaters.
Red signals : Eating disorder symptoms
Thoughts about feeling fat
Fear of gaining weight
Feelings of loss of control when eating
Weight determines self-esteem
Body image obsession
Guilt or shame after eating
Repeated attempts at dieting
Eating large amounts of food in a short period of time
Self-consciousness or embarrassment about eating
Sneaking food
Lying about eating habits
Restrictive eating
Self-induced vomiting
Laxative abuse
Diuretic abuse
Use of diet pills
Use of Ipecac
Compulsive exercise
Eating to relieve stress or depression
Perfectionism
Eating when not hungry
Eating sensibly in front of others and then making up for it when alone
Depression
Low body weight
Genetics
Research on the genetic component of eating disorders has focused on neurochemistry. Researchers have found that the neurotransmitters serotonin and neuroepinephrine are significantly decreased in acutely ill patients suffering from Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa. These neurotransmitters also function abnormally in individuals afflicted with depression. This leads some researchers to believe there may a link between these two disorders. Besides creating a sense of physical and emotional satisfaction, the neurotransmitter serotonin also produces the effect of feeling full and having had enough food.
What is Co-dependency
Family members of eating disordered individuals, similar to the family members of alcoholics, are viewed as co-dependents. "Co" from Webster's dictionary means together, with or joint. Dependent is defined as influenced, controlled, or determined by something else. For eating disordered individuals that something else is the eating disordered behavior. A co-dependant is someone whose life is intertwined with the eating disordered individual. Unknowingly their attitudes and actions enable the eating disordered individual to continue their behavior. By enabling the eating disorder individual, co-dependents not only contribute to the dysfunction in the eating disorder individual but also cause dysfunction in their own life. The co-dependents along with the eating disordered individual fall into a dysfunctional pattern of living and problem solving which is facilitated by a set of unspoken rules within the family.
Intergenerational Family perspective:
Co-dependents who as adults become involved with an eating disordered individual often come from an eating disorder, substance abuse or other dysfunctional family themselves. Usually, they grew up in a family where one parent was missing. This does not have to mean that the one parent is physically missing, but more likely that the one parent was absent in their role as a parent. The parent may be eating disordered, a substance abuser, suffer from an illness, grieving over the loss of a loved one or even a single parent. In all these circumstances the co-dependent feels abandoned, if not physically than emotionally.
Sociological Perspective :
Environmental conditions reinforce the practice of an eating disorder. We live in a society that reinforces the idea to be happy and successful we must be thin. Today, you cannot read a magazine or newspaper, turn on the television, listen to the radio, or shop at the mall without being assaulted with the message that fat is bad. During adolescence, a particularly vulnerable time to the development of an eating disorder, the influence of peers becomes important. Self monitoring and comparing ourselves to others becomes central to our psyche. Peer teasing and pressures to conform to the norm are common in the background of eating disorder individuals. As our bodies developed and changed, how others and we reacted to these changes influenced our eventual body acceptance. Other societal issues include dysfunctional families, sexual abuse, physical abuse, domineering coaches and controlling relationships.
Psychological Perspective:
The practice of an eating disorder can be viewed as a survival mechanism. Just as an alcoholic/addict uses alcohol/ chemical substances to cope, a person with an eating disorder can use eating, purging or restricting to deal with feelings and emotions that may otherwise seem overwhelming. Through the practice of the eating disorder, the individual may feel a sense of partial control over their seemingly uncontrollable life. Some of the underlying issues that are associated with an eating disorder include low self-esteem, depression, feelings of loss of control, feelings of worthless, identity concerns, family communication problems and an inability to cope with emotions. The practice of an eating disorder may be an expression of something that the eating disordered individual has found no other way of expressing.
Such as:
Harm avoidance
Constricted emotions
Rigid thinking
Highly impulsive to gain control
PerfeFamily coctionists
High family achievement and perctionism
Highly intelligent IQ 123-135
Need to be in control
Depression
Anxiety irritability:
Mood swings
Irrational thinking
Angry outbursts
Defensive and hostile expressions
Behavioral Features
Anorexia
Obsessive Compulsion
Slowly chews food
Excessive exercise
Drug addiction
Multiple addictions:
Bulimia
Laxatives
Diuretics
Caffeine abuse
Sexual promiscuity
Physical changes: Health consequences:
Fatigue Bone abnormalities
Sleep disturbances gastrointestinal disturbance
Dizziness Electrolyte disturbance
Headaches Hypertension
Poor motor control Poor hygiene
Hair loss Decreased concentration
Dry skin Apathy
Low cold tolerance Poor judgment
Sexual abuse
According to The National Center of Child Abuse and Neglect (1996) children under the age of eight accounts for 39% of the substantiated cases of sexual abuse reported to police and child protective services. Along with these staggering statistics is the fact that this specific childhood trauma has been and continues to be the most underreported form of child abuse, which makes any estimate of its prevalence greater than what is actually reported. According to the Rape and Incest National Network (www.RAINN.org) one in four girls and one in six boys will experience sexual abuse before reaching the age of seventeen and this abuse will be perpetrated most often by a family member or someone close to the family.