Eating Disorders – The Whys and Whats

Eating disorders have always fascinated me.  They are so prevalent in our society, yet they are so hidden at the same time.  Eating disorders mostly affect young and adult women. Why is this?  It occurs to me that women and food and bodies are closely linked in our society. Women are supposed to look a certain way and women are also, still traditionally associated with food and eating through cooking and also feeding children.  While eating disorders are not always about looking a certain way, they can definitely be associated with body image. In addition, women are more likely to use their bodies in a negative way to cope, than men. Another interesting angle on eating disorders is that it is mainly a first world problem.  Using food to cope with negative emotions is often the privilege of a privileged class of people living in a developed country.  In a developed country, we have the access to food to make some eating disorders function and in other cases, we have the consideration to use food to deprive ourselves, which is something that people who don’t have enough food to begin with, would likely not think of doing with as much readiness.

Let’s look at the different kinds of eating disorders.

The first type of eating disorder that I want to tell you about is anorexia.

Anorexia occurs when someone denies herself food in an attempt to control her life.  Often a person with anorexia also has dysmorphia which is a distorted view of her body.  Anorexia can be incredibly dangerous.  A person can literally starve herself to death.  Often as this is happening, the person thinks that she is fine.  She looks in the mirror and sees herself as looking totally normal, even if she weighs 75 pounds and is almost dead. In addition, anorexia is often hidden (like most other eating disorders) until the person is well on her way to being too underweight.  Even if someone ends up in the hospital, they can still maintain that they have no problem.  Unfortunately, anorexia often gets encouraged in the beginning of the problem, as the person can be encouraged by favourable comments concerning her weight. In our culture, being skinny is so over-valued, that this initial loss of weight can make the anorexic feel as if her behaviour is positive.  Anorexia is a common eating disorder.

 Another eating disorder is bulimia. 

Bulimia is also often called “purging”. This behaviour looks like throwing up after eating.  Bulimia is another very dangerous eating disorder and can result in stomach problems, teeth decay (from the stomach acid destroying the enamel of the teeth) and can also be fatal if it goes on too long.  Bulimia is easily hidden as the bulimic person can sit at a table and eat a perfectly normal, healthy meal in front of others.  After the meal, the bulimic person will throw up without anyone knowing about it.  Additionally, bulimia can look like a lot of bingeing of unhealthy food.  The bulimic person knows that they can eat the unhealthy food without worrying about putting on weight because they are going to throw it up. This gives them licence to consume a lot of calories and put a lot of junk food into their bodies.  Bulimia is also a very addictive eating disorder, where the person who is afflicted becomes so used to making themselves throw up that they can do so up to a dozen times per day.  The body gradually wastes away from lack of nutrition.

Lastly, the third most common eating disorder is one that not many people even know exist. This is “Compulsive Eating Disorder”. 

The eating disorder looks like someone who binges on high calorie, low nutrition food but she doesn’t throw it up. She is eating because she feels bad and she is using the food to stuff her emotions down.  Days and weeks and months can go by without any nutritious food going into her body.  Obesity and mood disorders, brought by the lack of nutrition and also high fat and high calorie foods are common side effects of this eating disorder.  Sometimes I go to the store and I see a very overweight person who is buying a lot of junk food and I think that there may be something going on there.  Compulsive Eating Disorder is another disorder that is done in secret.  Eating a large quantity of unhealthy food in one sitting is not something that most people do in front of others.

If you think you might have one of these eating disorders, please do not think that you are alone. Many other people have it too and it is just a coping skill that you have developed. There are many places that you can go to get help.  Please reach out and get help. Many people beat these and you can too.

Works Cited:

https://nedic.ca/

https://cmha.ca/mental-health/understanding-mental-illness/eating-disorders

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/warning-signs-and-symptoms

https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/eating-disorder