Table of Contents
These are psychosomatic disorders manifested by individuals experiencing chronic disturbances in their eating habits subject to their emotions, thoughts and state (Mountford 110-111). These patients tend to develop an obsession pertaining to food and their body weight and shape. Common eating disorders are bulimia nervosa, disorders of binge eating and anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia Nervosa
This eating disorder is manifested in people through perceiving themselves as overweight. This could happen even when they actually are seriously overweight. As a result they tend to measure their body weight quite often, go to great lengths to restrict amount of food they consume, and only eat very little amounts of the foods that they choose to eat. Of the numerous metal disorders, anorexia bulimia is responsible for the highest fatality rates. Many of the anorexia patients, both male and female die as a result of the complications of starvations. A significant number of the fatal cases have also been as a result of suicide. Their fear of eating is causes them to go to the extent of forced vomiting or the use of laxatives as measures of losing weight. The highest cases of suicide in anorexia bulimia patients have been observed to among women, relative to the suicide cases reported in other types of mental disorders. Overtime, symptoms of anorexia bulimia manifest as ceased menstrual cycles, osteopenia or osteoporosis as a result of calcium deficiency in the body, nails and hair turning brittle, drying of the skin and adapting a cast that is yellowish in color, severe constipation, reduced blood pressure, slowed breathing as well as pulses, fallen internal body temperature that results in constantly feeling cold, and depression coupled with lethargy.
Bulimia Nervosa
People suffering from this type of eating disorder exhibit frequent episodes of consuming food in unusually large quantities, whilst having the feeling of helplessness in having any control over these urges. These tendencies to binge on food is succeeded by contingency actions such as forcing themselves to vomit, over-use of diuretics and laxatives, forced labored fasting, too much indulgence in exercise, or an amalgamation of all these factors in efforts to compensate for their binging episodes. However, people who suffer from this type of eating disorder tend to maintain relatively normal body weights, or that considered as healthy. This is unlike anorexia bulimia patients who are quite thin.
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Bulimia nervosa patients also exhibit general symptoms such as having distress and irritation in their intestines as a result of abusing laxatives; swollen salivary glands on their jaws and necks; chronic dehydration as a result of fluid purge; painful throat as a result of chronic inflammation and soreness; teeth that are highly sensitive and decayed owing to high stomach acid exposure; disorders of acid reflux; and also imbalances in electrolytes as a result of having high sodium, potassium, and calcium levels among other minerals. The latter has the potential to result in stroke of cardiac arrest.
Binge-Eating Disorder
People suffering from this disorder exhibit lost control in their eating. This is different from that manifest of bulimia nervosa patients since for this cases, their binge eating does is not accompanied by purges, excessive indulgence in exercises or forced fasting (Davis and Jamieson 345-354). The lack of such control measures lead patients of binge-eating disorder to grow obese or overweight. In the US, binge- eating is the most prevalent eating disorder.
General symptoms include the consumption of unusually,large quantities of food; uncontrolled eating even when not hungry or even when full; shameful feelings over their eating habits; dieting frequently without any observable weight loss.
It is common for other psychiatric disorders to manifest on people who have eating disorders these include anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder and panic among others. Some eating disorders are also said to be hereditary, although it is not an exclusive determinant since their symptoms manifest in people who have no family history of eating disorders. People suffering from eating disorders should seek professional help to guide them through adequate nutritional practices, reduced excessive exercising, and to help them gain control over their purging tendencies (Sandoz). These should be tailed to their individual needs since they symptoms might be general but the underlying factors may be unique to every patient. Modeling treatments for individual patients will also be imperative in influencing higher success rates in the control and treatment of eating disorders (Sandoz)
- Davis, Ron, and John Jamieson. “Assessing The Functional Nature Of Binge Eating In The Eating Disorders.” Eating Behaviors 6.4 (2005): 345-354. Web.
- Mountford, Victoria. “Eating Disorders And The Brain.” Advances in Eating Disorders 1.1 (2013): 110-111. Web.
- Sandoz, Emily K. Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Eating Disorders. [Place of publication not identified]: New Harbinger Pub, 2016. Print.