subject: Recognizing The Consequences Of Diverse Eating Disorders [print this page] Many people if asked could not tell the difference between someone who is on a diet and someone who is suffering from an eating disorder. They are however two very different things though. A diet is used as a means to lower your weight in a healthy manner; a disorder however, is an illness which effects the self esteem of the individual suffering from it in a very dangerous way.
Anorexia Nervosa is one of the primary disorders. The phrase itself means "a lack of desire to eat". The sufferer of Anorexia Nervosa believes themselves to be fat, no matter how thin they become. They become obsessed with counting calories and will adopt devious behaviour in order to skip meals and hide food. In common with all of these disorders, Anorexics suffer from low self esteem and tend to use the condition as a means of self punishment.
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.
Compulsive Eating Disorder is another similar but different illness. In this condition the sufferers are classed as having an addiction to food and using it as a means to close themselves off from their worries and the outside world.
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.
Next we have Binge Eating Disorder, again very similar to Compulsive Eating Disorder. It differs in the frequency in which food is consumed and in its secretive nature. Binge eaters will meticulously plan their binging and store large quantities of food away to eat all in one sitting when they know they will be alone.
Binge eaters will gorge themselves until they are uncomfortably full but they will not purge. Binge eating is often used as a form of self-punishment linked to low self-esteem and self worth. The binge eater is more likely to be of normal weight or slightly overweight than the compulsive eater because the binging isn't as frequent as the compulsive eaters.
