Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders, a difficult thing to explain!

What can I say about this page except: Been there! Done that! My main goal of this website is to help women, especially those with these disorders.

An eating disorder becomes your soul purpose in life. It doesn't matter which type you have (believe me, I've dealt with all 3), they still take over your whole being. Food becomes a 24 hour 7 day a week obsession, thinking about eating, or not eating, or what to eat, etc. etc. etc.. Even cookbooks and recipes in magazines became an obsession for me.

The scale becomes the "Powerful Wizard of OZ"! If the numbers go down, it's a good day, if they go up, it's a very, very bad day. My best advice to anyone is "THROW AWAY YOUR SCALE"!!!!! I have not had a scale around for about 8 years and I feel the best I've ever felt. Even when I go to the doctor and they weigh me, I don't let them tell me that awful number! I turn my back to the scale. That little tell-tell number is still too much for me to know even though I'm now 50 years old.

Eating disorders can also cause a lot of physical damage. Personally I was very lucky. I have osteoporosis and lost about 2 inches in height. I also had to have kidney surgery for a kidney stone which took up my whole left kidney. This was caused by dehydration. The other thing is acid relux disease from the vomiting, which I have to take medicine for.

Being in the inpatient treatment center several times, I saw many other things. One girl had hair growing all over her body because her body temperature was so low for so long. It was not just a little bit either. It was nature's way of keeping her warm. Several others had facial hair growing, like a beard. Another girl had lost one kidney and her other one was floating around in her body. It had detached itself and she needed surgery again. Some couldn't walk anymore and had to be in wheelchairs. This is just a few of the physical retributions your body fights back with, there's many, many more.

I have attached several articles which I hope will help either someone with an eating disorder or someone who loves a person with an eating disorder. There are also links to the 3 major types of disorders if you are trying to deal with one specific one. Please feel free to contact me, I will be gald to talk to anyone. I promise that everything will be confidential, I would just like to help!

Eating Disorders
The Three Types

By James Hunaban

There are three main types of eating disorder; these are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. The term eating disorder is used to describe any eating patterns that are obsessive and long lasting. In the last 20 to 30 years or so there has been a marked increase in the amount of people troubled by these disorders. Let’s have a brief look at the three variants.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is an eating disorder where individuals starve themselves of food, because they have an obsessive longing to be thin. This disorder tends to affect mainly teenage girls, but can also affect men, and it is serious and sometimes even fatal. About half of the people with anorexia who have hospital treatment still struggle with the disorder and have symptoms for a long time afterwards. One trait of sufferers seems to be a lack of self-esteem.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia nervosa, usually shortened to bulimia, is an eating disorder where individuals have a binge-eating session; this is usually then followed by them making themselves sick. This self-induced vomiting is because of feelings of guilt at having eaten so much. People with bulimia tend to suffer from an unnatural preoccupation with their own body, and as with anorexic patients they have a fear of gaining weight. Individuals who suffer with bulimia will devour huge quantities of food in an attempt to reduce stress, and help them deal with feelings of anxiety.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder involves bouts of overeating high calorie foods on a regular basis, but unlike bulimia sufferers, they don’t make themselves vomit. People with this disorder not surprisingly, are usually overweight. This disorder was first recognized about 45 years ago; but it is only in recent times that it has been seen as a widespread problem. Studies have shown that binge eating disorder seems to run in families, so it looks like there is a genetic link.

The rather worrying news is that the big three eating disorders - anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are reported to be on the rise all around the world.

About the Author: James Hunaban is the owner of http://eating-disorders.health-info4u.com/ a site full of Eating Disorders information.

Source: www.isnare.com

Eating Disorders Page Directory

Eating Disorders
A Disease Of Perceptions

By Gabriel Adams

Body image is something that young women in America often struggle with on a daily basis. Their minds are flooded with images of rail thin models and celebrities who run the "it" crowd. Unfortunately, this is where many women become obsessed with weight and looks in hopes of making themselves perfect. Although there is no clear cut cause for an eating disorder, people with a family history of depression or anxiety, obesity, and even social factors are listed as very possible perpetrators for such syndromes. There are two well known types of eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.

Anorexia is most likely the more well-known eating disorder in America today. Women with Anorexia will have what is called body-image distortion. This means because their views of what is attractive have become so distorted and skewed, what they see in the mirror isn’t necessarily what they actually look like.

So while you may see an attractive and healthy or sometimes underweight and malnourished individual, they will see nothing but flaws that need to be fixed typically their weight. Some tendencies include; using laxatives or enemas inappropriately, vomiting or excessive exercise routines. This can differ in several ways from the other common eating disorder called Bulimia Nervosa.

Bulimics have similar symptoms, but show different tendencies in their quest for the “perfect” body. While it is still classified as psychological condition dealing with body image this
condition causes the person to binge or overeat greatly on high fat or high calorie foods, and then purge most commonly with laxatives or vomiting. Although both of these disorders are generally categorized as psychological or sociological issues, new studies have shown that some sufferers of Bulimia could have hormonal imbalances specifically testosterone.

Body image matters have really evolved over time and have risen to staggering new heights in America over the last decade. Many will attribute this in large part to the fashion industry and endless media coverage on celebrities. While there is no "cure" for these disorders, anyone who has Anorexia or Bulimia needs treatment. It's been shown that people who receive treatment at earlier stages have a vastly higher chance of keeping a healthy body and mind.

It is important to be educated about the signs and symptoms of these disorders. If you or anyone close to you is more than moderately underweight, show obsessive or irrational fears of food or gaining weight seek help immediately. These are life threatening diseases, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

About the Author: Opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the view of Sober Living Home and Halfway House which the author would like for you to visit.

Source: www.isnare.com

Mirror Mirror On The Wall
Who Is The
Fattest Of Us All?

by Mary Desaulniers

Copyright 2006 Mary Desaulniers

Did you know that 75% of women believe they are fat even though only 25% are actually considered medically overweight? Did you know that 75% of 4th Grade girls report that they are on a diet? Did you know that dieting can be an eating disorder as serious as binge eating? Given the impact of body image on women’s consciousness, it is not surprising that eating disorder is becoming a critical problem in our age of affluence.

It is estimated that Bulimia affects between one and two per cent of women aged 15 to 40. Anorexia is estimated to affect between one and five teenage women in every 100,000, and the age at which most cases develop is 16 to 17. Most of the victims are females. Take a look at this confession from a young woman who is working on her recovery from an eating disorder. The excerpt comes from the book “It’s Not About Food”, written by Carol Emery Normandi M.S. MF.C.C. and Laurelee Roark M.A.CCHT, founders of Beyond Hunger Inc.

“I began dieting at 13 and started throwing up at 16, after I saw another friend do it. At first, it was just something I’d do now and then, after I’d eaten too much or when I felt too fat. But soon it seemed like I was eating too much too often and feeling fat all the time. In college, I started running to try to keep my weight down, but I couldn’t stop eating. The academic and social stress was just too much for me. I remember at night going from vending machine to vending machine, trying to fill this insatiable need to eat and then feeling so disgusted afterward I would find the nearest bathroom and throw up. Only then would I feel calm enough to sit down and study. Soon it became a way of life for me, and I was throwing up 3 to 4 times a day. I lived with hatred and disgust with myself for this behavior, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I would begin everyday by telling myself that I was going on a diet and would stop eating and then wouldn’t have to throw up. I would end every day by hating myself for all the food I ate, for all the times I threw up and for how fat my body was. I was in the middle of a destructive, depressing cycle and couldn’t see my way out." (Laura)

Laura’s situation typifies the hatred many women feel for their bodies. A cultural obsession with thinness has created a disquieting definition of the “perfect body.” Advertisements, TV, movies are proclaiming a standard that is genetically and physically impossible for 75% of female bodies. Most young girls grow up with a hatred of their bodies that is often manifested in depression, anger, isolation. Many resort to eating disorders to quell the emptiness they feel within.

Food issues are not about food; they are about the way women feel about themselves and their bodies. True recovery, say Carol and Laurelee in their book, "It’s Not About Food", is “looking at your eating disorder as a friend instead of an enemy, letting it teach you who you are and what you want from life. It is healing your relationship not only with food, but with yourself and your spirit.”

Like Laura, Carol and Laurelee both grew up feeling that they were never thin enough; both were trapped in an eating disorder, an obsession with food and hatred for their own bodies which they felt were never perfect enough for acceptance. “Thinness was my god and I was on a spiritual quest. I sought refuge from pain in the churches of Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Dr. Atkins diets. I was looking outside myself to fix the ache inside me,” writes Laurelee.

Both worked through their despair to recovery by learning to embrace their bodies and tapping into their bodies’ wisdom. The result is not only their ability to stabilize and maintain normal weight and eating behavior for several years now but also “Beyond Hunger Inc.”, a non-profit organization they founded to help women who are desperate about the severity of their eating disorders. Using workshop techniques that help women break the cycle of vicious eating by going deep within their bodies’ wisdom, Carol and Laurelee have turned their personal journey into a universal one—to preserve the integrity of women’s body image by stripping away the artificial constructs of cultural pressures.

Their work will be a consolation for many who do not know how to begin. A woman in the depths of an eating disorder may think that there is no way out of her pain. But Carol and Laurelee assure them that “there is a cure and it is right inside each and every one of us.”

Mary Desaulniers Ph.D will be interviewing Carol and Laurelee ( Beyond Hunger Inc) on Internet Radio show "Reclaiming The Body's Wisdom" October 5/06 till January 4/07. Get details at http://www.GreatBodyat50.com

Article Source: ArticlesOn.com