Eating disorder is defined as a set of cases that lead to insufficient or excessive food consumption due to a disorder arising from the mental or emotional state of the person.
What is an Eating Disorder?
People with eating disorders have bad eating habits that threaten their health. It occurs in both men and women, but is more common in women. It is a health problem that is usually seen in people with a high socioeconomic level.
Paying attention to thinness, being afraid of getting fat, and having plenty of food and drink at home prepare the ground for people to have eating disorders.
Eating disorder can be defined as a series of psychological conditions that cause the development of unhealthy eating habits. It may start with an obsession with food, body weight, or body shape. Severe cases develop very serious health problems and can result in death if left untreated.
Eating disorder manifests itself with various symptoms. The most common of these symptoms can be listed as
- the person's sudden overeating or excessive restriction of eating,
- vomiting after meals
- heavy exercise after meals.
What are the Risk Factors Caused by Eating Disorders?
Individual Risk Factors
- Early maturation,
- Being obese,
- Flirting (desire to be liked),
- Concern about being overweight,
- Low self-esteem,
- Perfectionism,
- Depression.
- Having obese individuals in the family,
- Physical or sexual abuse,
- Overprotective parents,
- Presence of psychological illness,
- Conflict,
- Overdominant parents.
- Being ridiculed
- Concern about being overweight among peers,
- Idealism of being thin in the group,
- Social impositions of beauty,
- Physical appearance is important for success
- Media influence
What are the Types of Eating Disorders?
Although anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa often come to mind when eating disorders are mentioned, there are also other types of eating disorders defined as atypical eating disorders.
Anorexia Nervosa It is an eating disorder that is characterized by intense fear of being fat despite being fat, impaired body image, consciously losing 25% of normal body weight, and refusal to reach the ideal weight for age and height.
For detailed information about Anorexia: What is Anorexia? You can read our article.
What is Bulimia? How Is It Treated?
It is an eating disorder that is characterized by repetitive and uncontrollable overeating and an effort to gain weight and lose the weight gained. It is seen that the patient cannot stop eating despite all his efforts and fears. There is excessive preoccupation with body weight, beauty and ugliness.
For detailed information about bulimia: What is Bulimia? You can read our article.
Atypical Eating Disorders
Although the clinical picture of atypical eating disorders is not similar to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, it can be as clinically severe as these diseases in case of accompanying diseases.
Big eating disorder / Binge eating disorder:
It is an eating disorder that is characterized by a tendency to overeat despite not being physically hungry, dissatisfaction with oneself after binge eating episodes, and depressive behaviors. This disease should not be confused with bulimia nervosa because these patients do not exhibit behaviors to prevent weight gain. Patients are at risk for obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, Type 2 diabetes and heart diseases because they take very high amounts of energy.
Night eating syndrome:
Taking more than 50% of the daily energy after the evening meal and at night It is an eating disorder syndrome characterized by loss of appetite in the morning due to those who are eaten, waking up and sleeping problems at least once 3 nights a week, consumption of high-calorie snacks during night awakenings, feeling guilty and nervous after eating. This syndrome is observed in up to 40% of patients who have undergone bariatric surgery.
Pica:
The person's non-nutritive substance It is an eating disorder that is characterized by binge eating. People with this disease consume non-nutritive substances such as soil, ice, paper, hair, soap. It is a type of eating disorder that is mostly seen in pregnant women and children.
Pica; It may result in infection, nutrient deficiency, poisoning and digestive system injuries. It is a type of eating disorder that is mostly seen in children.
Rumination disorder should be suspected if chewing movement is observed again for longer than one month. It starts to be seen in babies from the 3rd month and decreases in adolescence. Although rare, it can also be seen in adults. If not treated in infants, serious clinical pictures such as severe weight loss and malnutrition may be encountered.
How to Treat Eating Disorder?
Eating disorders can have life-threatening consequences if left untreated. Consultation with a psychiatry clinic is essential for treatment. In the psychiatry clinic, the patient's clinical evaluation is made, an eating disorder test including the eating disorder criteria is performed, and psychiatric treatment is started after the diagnosis is made.
In addition to psychiatric treatment, nutrition education by a nutritionist is among the steps of eating disorder treatment. The treatment varies according to the severity of the disease. If there is an additional disease such as obesity, heart disease or malnutrition, separate treatment should be applied for them.
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