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Lesser Known Eating Disorders
Pica
Pica is a very strange phenomenon in which the idividual suffering from it has a tendency towards the consumption of non food items. As I understand it, it has a tendency to occur due to mineral deficiency, such as iron or zinc. There are many reasons as to why this disorder can occur, such as psychological disturbances, low-income, or a limited environment in which the child is offered little to no love and support. Quite frequently however, pica tends to crop up in pregnant women, when strange cravings are apparent already. The danger here lies in consuming non food items which could potentially be dangerous to the health.
It is treatable, and the course of action taken depends on the behaviour which brought about the disorder to begin with. For those who go through this whilst pregnant, the symptoms and craves tend to disappear with the birth of the baby. For a time when I was pregnant with both my daughters, I had pica. I went through a big jar of Vick's Vaporub every week, by shoving huge gobs of it up my nose. The only drawback to this was, when the jar was empty and I didn't have the money to go get another one immediately, I went through withdrawal symptoms. I still had the craves for it up til a couple weeks after my girls were born, and then it simply went away!
Prader - Willi Syndrome
Prader-Willi Syndrome is a congenital condition present at birth, which is believed to be caused by an abnormality in the genes that occurs though statistically, it does not seem to run in families. Those born with Prader-Willi syndrome may have early feeding difficulties that lead to tube feeding, and often have a degree of behavioural and/or mental problems.
Those with Prader-Willi syndrome usually have a voracious appetite. This eventually leads to obesity, stealing, and even consuming pet foods and/or items that are spoiled. This continuous appetite is caused by a defect in the hypothalamus, which is a part of the brain that regulates hunger. If such a defect is present within the hypothalamus, the individual will never experience the feeling of being full. This disorder may also be accompanied by sleep disorders, bouts of rage, a high tolerance to pain, and other compulsive behaviours such as skin picking.
Night Eating Syndrome
Night Eating Syndrome consists of morning anorexia (or starvation), evening hyperphagia (abnormally increased appetite for consumption of food which is a result of the hypothalamus having a defect) and insomnia. Night Eating syndrome has been penned as "deviant eating patterns apparently based on stress and emotional disturbance"...
People with night eating syndrome are characterised as people that put off eating until late in the day, who binge on food in the evenings and who experience problems with falling asleep and/or staying asleep.
"People who exhibit NES don't eat a lot at one sitting, often skip breakfast, and don't start eating until noon," says psychiatrist Albert Stunkard, an obesity researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. "They will over eat the rest of the day, and eat frequently. They also have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep"..
Sleep Eating Disorder
Sleep Eating Disorder typically falls into the category of "Sleep Disorders", though it is a combined sleep-eating problem. Individuals suffering from this disorder tend to be overweight and have recurrent episodes of sleep walking, during which they binge on large quantities of food. Most often, the episodes are not remembered, which puts sufferers at a greater risk of unintentional self-injury.
Because of the compulsive nature of this illness, sufferers are at the same physical health risks as those of compulsive overeaters, but with the added risks of sleep walking.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder
As I understand it, those who suffer from BDD tend to be completely and utterly consumed with thoughts of a bodily imperfection, such as a large nose, freckles, acne, scars, etc. There are some individuals who stress over this to the point of distraction, causing within themselves a propensity towards depression. This is due to low self-esteem, and even though some sufferers realise their supposed "defect" is a distorted view of the true reality, nevertheless, the emphasis is on uncontrollable, constant thinking about the imagined defect.
There are two types of body dysmorphic disorder. The non-delusional type, and the delusional type, in which the individual has hallucinations of an imagined defect, or a gross exaggeration of a small defect. The delusional form is less common and more severe. Those who have BDD tend to spend long periods of time in front of the mirror, convincing themselves and others around them of how ugly they feel they are. A compulsion towards the desire for radical self improvement often ensues, for example, the individual may seek medical advice to treat or improve their appearance with plastic surgery, and other radical means of body modification.
Otherexia Nervosa
Otherexia is not a disorder that a doctor will diagnose. The reason for this is because there is no clinical guideline for this disorder. Rather, it is instead more of an obsession with maintaining a pure diet. The emphasis here is on the quality of the food consumed, rather than quantity or amount of food consumed.
"This transference of all of life's value into the act of eating makes orthorexia a true disorder. In this essential characteristic, orthorexia bears many similarities to the two well-known eating disorders anorexia and bulimia. Where the bulimic and anorexic focus on the quantity of food, the orthorexic fixates on its quality. All three give food an excessive place in the scheme of life".. (Steven Bratman, M.D., October 1997)
Bigorexia
Like otherexia, bigorexia is also not a disorder that a doctor will diagnose because there is no clinical guideline for this disorder. The opposite of anorexia, bigorexia is concerned with the individual perceiving themselves as being built too small. It tends to go beyond the norm of simple body building, or building up muscle mass. The preoccupation here is to go to any length to increase muscle mass no matter what the risk may be. This tends to be accompanied by an unhealthy high protein diet, with the addition of steroid usage as well. Also, there is a tendency to overdo workouts and dieting, because the focus is on being built too small. There is little to no concern about how their health may be affected as a result of the abuse, and the desire to bulk up remains ever at the forefront.
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