The Eating Disorders

 

anorexia nervosa (restricted eating)

 

bulimia nervosa (sudden attack of eating, and then trying to make "erase" it by forced throwing up)

 

adipositas (overweight)

 

 

 

The Statistics Man

 

Anorexic: 95% female, 15 � 23 years of age

 

Bulimia: 90% middle-class female, 20 � 30 years of age

 

Adipositas: 40 � 65 years of age

 

 

 

The Signs of an Eating Disorder

 

An exagerated concern with meals, constant thinking about eating (not-eating)... Not-eating (or pretending to eat, but spitting it into a napkin) is the first obvious sign of an eating disorder; then come: daily weighing, complaints about weight and body structure, conversation topics revolving only around body parts, etc.

 

People concerned sometimes hide their eating disorders by switching to a vegetarian way of life, which may seem very healthy, but they eat less and less each day.

 

Eating, or lack of eating, is a pyschological way of supressing strong emotions and avoiding conflicts or fights. Eating disorders are also an answer to situations or people who demand too much, stress, pyschological feeling of emptiness, the fear of closeness, yet desiring it... It may also be an answer to rage or sometimes even happiness.