The Dissimilarity Between Eating Disorders And Diet Programs
Many people confuse eating disorders with strict dieting
, but they are not the same thing at all. They are caused by mental and emotional problems and cause the sufferer to experience feelings of low self worth which will in turn effect their behaviour towards everyday life and their friends and family.
One of the most common is Anorexia Nervosa, which is a Greek term that stands for 'a lack of desire to eat'. An individual suffering from this condition has an abnormal obsession with being fat. They will be meticulous about counting calories petrified of losing control of themselves and giving in to the urge to eat. Low self esteem also means some sufferers of this condition believe that they do not deserve the pleasure that comes along with eating.
Commonly linked to Anorexia is Bulimia Nervosa. It shares some of Anorexia's features especially the sufferers' low self esteem. The difference is food is used by the Bulimic as a comfort and is not avoided at all. Bulimics are able to ingest as much food as they wish and rid themselves of it soon afterwards by taking laxatives or making themselves vomit it up again, this is known as purging.
Another closely linked eating disorder is Compulsive Eating Disorder. In many ways this is very similar to Bulimia and to Anorexia, the factor that sets it aside from both of these is that sufferers do not purge.
People who suffer from Compulsive Eating Disorder tend to eat obsessively until they are dangerously overweight. Conditions such as heart attacks and strokes are liable to be a cause for real concern amongst sufferers due to high cholesterol in their diets.
Binge Eating Disorder is another closely related illness with the sufferer showing the same symptoms of low self esteem as in all the previously mentioned disorders. Binge eating is most closely linked to Compulsive Eating Disorder and shares many of the same features except it is done with less frequency.
The same issues with self esteem are very apparent in this illness and the shame the binge eater feels at eating beyond their own bodies calorific needs leads of a cycle of yet more comfort eating. Much like the compulsive sufferer the binge eater will not purge but rather keeps the calories. The only reason they are not generally as large as the compulsive disorder sufferers is they binge less frequently.