With the Holiday season here, many are preparing for celebrations with friends, family, and food. In our culture food has many meanings and everyone’s relationship with food is unique.
But for some food can become a negative way to cope with stress, mental illness, or trauma.
When this happens it can lead to an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a psychological disorder that involves extreme disturbances in eating behavior.
Studies show approximately 30 million Americans live with an eating disorder. Females are 4 times more likely to suffer from eating disorders than males and Eating Disorders are the 3rd most chronic illness among adolescent females in the United States.
There are three main eating disorder types: anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder.
Anorexia nervosa is identified by a refusal to eat, an intense desire to be thin, repeated dieting attempts, and excessive weight loss. Individuals with this disorder typically appear extremely thin or underweight.
Bulimia is characterized as eating a lot of food in a short amount of time (this is called bingeing) and then purging to not gain weight. Purging means using extreme measures to quickly rid the body of food consumed during the binge phase.
Individuals with bulimia often appear to be of normal weight.
Binge-eating disorder is described as individuals who lose control eating and consume unusually large amounts of food. However unlike bulimia, periods of binge-eating are not followed by purging. As a result, people with binge-eating disorder are often overweight or obese. Binge-eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the U.S.
It is important to seek treatment early for eating disorders. The good news is there are effective treatments and complete recovery is possible.
The most successful treatments include counselors who can help individuals increase their coping skills, confidence, and self-esteem. In more extreme cases, a team approach including medical and nutritional professionals has been successful.
If you or someone you know might be struggling with an eating disorder, there are resources available or reach out to the counseling center. We are here to help.
NATIONAL EATING DISORDERS HELPLINE
· Toll-Free Phone Number: 1-800-931-2237
Hours: 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM (ET) Mon-Thurs; and 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (ET) Fri
· For 24/7 crisis support, text 'NEDA' to 741741
Author
Jennifer Fletcher, M.Ed., LPC Associate, LCDC
Supervised by R. Bartee, PhD, LPC-S, LMFT-S