Eating Disorders

What are Eating Disorders?

This article is a brief description of some common eating disorders and signs to look for if you think you (or your child) may be developing a problem.

Anorexia Nervosa (weight phobia) is a condition in which sufferers diet continually and starve themselves. The sufferer is frightened of normal body weight and restricts his or her food intake. They may also binge, vomit, use laxatives or exercise excessively in order to control weight. It usually occurs in young women, starting in their teens and it is estimated that about one in every two hundred young women suffer from anorexia nervosa.

Bulimia Nervosa is a condition in which the person also has problems in accepting normal weight but the problem is one of binge eating followed by vomiting and laxative or other medication abuse. Unlike patients with anorexia nervosa, they may manage to keep a normal weight but at the cost of a great deal of emotional and physical suffering. Bulimia is often accompanied by a chaotic lifestyle, not only in terms of eating but also in terms of other aspects of life. Sufferers from Bulimia nervosa may be older than sufferers from anorexia nervosa. Many suffer the symptoms of both conditions, but it is thought that bulimia is three times more common.

Binge Eating Disorder is now recognised as an illness in its own right. As with Bulimia it is characterised by periods of excessive eating but does not include laxative, vomiting or other purging behaviours. People who suffer with binge eating disorder can have periods of 'normal eating' and the bingeing may only occur as a response to stressful life events.

Food Addiction / Compulsive Eating may take the form of 'comfort eating' due to stress or unhappiness but may also be more severe, leading to severe obesity and its various medical complications. (Severely overweight is defined medically as being 20% or more above average weight). Probably, about one in five of the population is mildly overweight and about one in a hundred severely overweight.

Eating disorders are, of course, not only problems of shape, size or weight, but are often ways in which people (generally but not invariably women) try to deal with painful emotions and fears by over-control or distortion of their eating patterns and then become trapped. Treatment, therefore, is about help with self-esteem, self-confidence and emotional growth as well as help in restoring normal eating patterns and physical health.

Eastbourne Clinic has set up an Eating Disorder Unit, for more information please follow the link.