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Well Known Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
Out of all the well-known eating disorders, anorexia nervosa is perhaps the main disorder that receives the most attention from the public and media. One main reason for this is when dealing with an extreme case, the individual tends to resemble a concentration camp survivor than anything else. While this is a rather crude description of an individual who is clearly battling with inner turmoil, it is nevertheless a stark reality. Anorexia seems to get more coverage as well as more sympathy, because the physical reality of it is more readily apparent, unlike a binge disorder, for example, in which the sufferer is stigmatised as simply being fat and too lazy to do anything about themselves.
The most common element surrounding ALL eating disorders is the inherent presence of a low self-esteem, and in anorexia, like all eating disorders, low self-esteem is one of the major contributing factors of this disorder. Very often the eating disorder is a unique reaction to a plethora of external and internal conflicts, such as stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. Anorexia is a negative way to cope with these emotions.
Many who suffer with anorexia nervosa will explain that they and the disorder are not one and the same - but more like their body is taken over by a force beyond their control. You do not have anorexia - it has you. You are very effectively pushed to one side while it takes over every aspect of your being. Many think that anorexia is the relentless pursuit to wanting to be thin. It's more of a preoccupation with doing anything and everything in order to not become fat, but no matter what you do, the person in the mirror will always be seen as being too fat.
As I understand it, not all who suffer with anorexia are abnormally sensitive about becoming fat. Many are afraid of being perceived by others as being too fat, or are afraid of losing control over the amount of food they consume, as well as attempting to control thoughts and emotions which accompany food consumption. This tends to be the cause of perpetual obsessive dieting and starvation as a means of controlling not just the weight, but the feelings/emotions attached to it. Many feel that the pleasures of life are not meant for them, which includes the pleasure one gains from eating and enjoying a good meal. Therefore, some will deprive themselves of situations in which pleasure is apparent, including eating and enjoying eating.
Some of the behavioural signs can be:
* Obsessive exercise
* Calorie and fat gram counting
* Starvation and restriction of food
* Self-induced vomiting, the use of diet pills, laxatives or diuretics to attempt controlling weight, and a persistent concern with body image.
Control is another main issue that tends to be a main contributing factor within all eating disorders of this nature. You may very well be able to control many aspects of the sufferer's life, but one aspect that is under their control alone, is whether or not they eat, and then how much and how often, and whether or not that is followed by sessions of purging. Attempting to gain control over a person with disordered eating, often causes their situation to become worse.
Bulimia Nervosa
Unlike anorexia, bulimia nervosa is the disorder in which the suffering individual will consume large amounts of food within a relatively short period of time, often just a few hours, and then purge their system of all they consumed. Usually the most common way of purging is by self-induced vomiting (via the abuse of syrup of ipecac, or a good old-fashioned spoon down the back of the gullet), but it can also take place by excessive excercising, laxative abuse, diuretics and diet pills. Sometimes this is in direct relation to how they feel about themselves, or how they feel over a particular event or series of events in their lives. Those with bulimia go through episodes of bingeing and purging to avoid and/or let out feelings of anger, depression, stress or anxiety.
What makes an individual bulimic is not merely the episodes of purging, but the propensity to binge and purge regularly. While purging tends to be the main way of ridding the body of excesses for the bulimic individual, this is not the only modus operandii - there are other inappropriate compensatory measures such as binge eating one day, and total starvation the next day and day after, and this is proven via the radical weight fluctuations.
There are similarities in both anorexia and bulimia, and it is not uncommon for an individual with one to also suffer occasionally, or even much of the time with both disorders. Another main similarity between these two disorders tends to be sexual and/or physical and emotional abuse, though not all with eating disorders are survivors/victims of abuse. There also seems to be a direct connection in some towards clinical depression. The eating disorder sometimes causes the depression, or the depression can lead to the eating disorder.
Compulsive Overeating/Binge Eating
Those who suffer from compulsive overeating/binge disorder have what is known as an addiction to food. This means that food becomes the dominant force in life, taking over thoughts and feelings, and filling the void temporarily. Food tends to consume thoughts, and replaces bad or negative feelings with a temporary feeling of calm, or even elation. Watching programs on cooking, or reading websites or books on it causes very satisfactory waves of good feelings to emanate.
The main issue here is that the "good feeling" is temporary, and once bingeing has occurred, it's followed up almost immediately by feelings of guilt. You feel guilt because you have let yourself down again. You have lost control of Self again. You have eaten to the point of feeling physically sick, and emotionally sick, and depressed. You feel like a failure, go through self-hatred, and this is amplified by society in general, who display disgust in people who are "horizontally challenged".
This is proven by public transport, especially. Take particular notice of the size 10 seats on the bus, or in airplanes. Try squeezing a size 28 backside into a size 10 chair, or doing up a buckle that was created for someone with a virtually non existent midsection. Many airlines will even charge you for 2 seats. In fact, even many in the public eye feel that those with larger bodies should be made to pay for 2 seats to accomodate their bulk. This does nothing more than line their pockets and cause further embarrassment and feelings of guilt and remorse to the individual with the disorder.
It is not uncommon for someone with this kind of disorder to want to make themselves as unattractive as possible, to keep people out - I like to refer to this as the "brick wall" syndrome, because as a sufferer of a binge disorder, I have a veritable virtual brick wall around myself that NO ONE is allowed access to unless *I* happen to want to give it to them, and so far, NONE have been granted access. This, of course, leads to trust issues - either we tend to trust too quickly, or not at all. There doesn't tend to be a happy medium where trust is concerned, and more often than not, this further escalates the problem by opening up to those who would use the information for a negative purpose, which causes further bouts of depression and bingeing, in a vain attempt to cope with the hurt feelings.
Stigma concerning and surrounding those with this kind of an eating disorder is fairly diverse, and not very pleasant. It is generally thought that if you simply go on a diet, or excercise vigorously, that this "problem" will cease to be. What people seem to have a difficult time in understanding, is that you cannot heal a psychological problem of this magnitude with diet and excercise. In fact, I am living proof that all the diets and gym memberships don't get rid of the problem - in fact, they make it worse. It's rather like trying to heal a diabetic with ice cream. It's in the same vein as telling someone who is anorexic to just please eat. The problem isn't merely physical - there is usually a whole host of psychological trauma, and unsolved issues buried deep within the mind, and the pain comes shining through the disordered eating. Society assumes that people with compulsive overeating or binge disorders are simply fat, lazy people who do nothing more than sit around day after day, gorging themselves, and are simply too lazy to excercise or make the attempt to change their body image. Oh, if it were only that simple.
Further into it, many assume that those who compulsively overeat or binge eat, tend to consume all the "bad for you" foods, such as cheeseburgers and fries, or rich desserts, pizzas, etc, or that the overeating takes place on a constant or regular basis - not true. The problem isn't usually what you eat, but when and why, and how much. This is not to say that the foods mentioned are off limits, or that they are not consumed or desired - of course they are!
I eat mainly vegetarian foods because I have a hard time digesting meat, due to poor metabolism, and I happen to like vegetarian foods. But just because they happen to be vegetarian doesn't mean they don't contain large amounts of fats and calories, or that you can't gain weight from them. You absolutely can. They may be a little easier for your body to be able to process, but it doesn't mean because they are vegetarian that this automatically means they are better for you.
Another interesting thing to note that perhaps many people are unaware of, is the fact that many who have a compulsive overeating disorder, will tend to "hide" overeating. You might never see such a person overeat. If you do see them eat, it will almost always tend to be within "normal" ranges, and they will take precautions not to bring attention to themselves, so they will take smaller bites, and even chew for longer, or simply feign not being hungry, or not having the desire to eat at all. I can guarantee that to someone with a binge disorder, leaving ANYTHING on your plate is unheard of - it MUST be eaten even if you're stuffed beyond capacity.
Eating takes place not just when you're hungry, but also when you're not, when you're bored, sad, depressed, and happy. The preoccupation with food compensates for feelings of inadequacy, little-to-no affection/love, loneliness, low-to-no self-esteem, and even constantly being mentally/emotionally/verbally/physically abused. This is why I stated above that while food provides a calm after the storm, it does so on a temporary basis, which is then followed by almost immediate feelings of guilt. It's a vicious circle. Unlike drugs and alcohol which can be stopped and there be no further need to rely on or ever touch them again, you cannot totally walk away from food. Unfortunately, we need to eat in order to survive. That makes trying to cure this problem more than a little challenging.
Now that we have all the known and little known facts, let's go through some that are a little more diverse, and perhaps not near as widely known or spoken about - at least, not within the "normal" world. There is a physiological condition commonly known as vampirism, but for posterity's sake, let us refer to it hereafter as an "energy deficit". Having this particular condition myself, and having done almost 5 years worth of study on it myself, and that of other people claiming also to suffer with the same condition, I have seen certain patterns come forth and make themselves known.
Because the whole of this condition revolves around the body's inability to produce enough in the way of adequate viable chi or prana energy, many, including myself, tend to overeat almost as a compensatory action towards the attempt to produce more energy. When energy needs are not met, it becomes an unconsciously automatic act to seek other available sources of energy to help compensate for the body's lack of energy, and food is a readily available source. The problem here is, everyday eating, drinking, and excercise do not produce enough viable energy for the body to make use of. Therefore, overeating is a wasted venture, and unfortunately, it is more often than not, an unrecognised problem. Overeating because of very low energy levels tends to happen most especially during winter months when the weather slows our bodies down almost to the point of hibernation. A good means of comparing is like a bottle to an alcoholic who hasn't had one in a long time, and desperately needs it. Those who have an "energy deficit" almost always tend to have a diagnosed obsessive/compulsive disorder too.
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