What is an eating disorder?

• A misguided attempt to solve problems

• How one fills in the empty spaces of life with the disordered use of food

• A way to disconnect from the body

• A way to hide from feelings and needs

Recovery from an eating disorder involves addressing both physical and emotional aspects. 

Focusing on one aspect without the others is like heating your house with wood taken from structural beams.  You might be warm, but your house is unstable.  This can lead to relapse. 

 

What is emotional recovery from an eating disorder?

• You stop disciplining yourself into silence

• You define yourself from the inside out rather than from the outside in

• You make choices our of curiosity and passion rather than from fear and guilt

• You are able to give and receive (take in) love, help, nurturance, and kindness

• You are able to name and know what nurtures you… and give it to yourself

Types of Eating Disorders

Anorexia Nervosa

 

• Obsessive pursuit of thinness in a deliberate attempt to starve oneself

• Weight loss can be through starvation, exercise abuse, diuretics and/or laxatives.

• Loss of menstruation for three consecutive cycles.  For males, lower testosterone

• Distorted body image and fear of becoming fat

Personality Characteristics

• Perfectionist and high achieving in school

• Low self-esteem

• Irrational belief that one is fat regardless of how thin one becomes

• Difficulty dealing with emotions; particularly anger and conflict

• Unresponsive to inner needs

• Introverted

• Compliant

Medical Complications

• Dry skin

• Estrogen deficiency

• Slowed metabolism: abnormal thyroid functioning

• Wasting of muscle tissue

• Growth of Lanugo (fine body hair) which covers the body due to lower body temperature 

• Anemia

• Cardiac abnormalities such as thinning of the ventricles

• Anorexia Nervosa can result in death.

Statistics

• 10-15% of those who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa will die of complications.

• Major depression is common in approximately 40% of Anorexics.

Bulimia Nervosa

• Compulsive over eating and purging to prevent weight gain through self-induced vomiting use of laxatives, diuretics, strict dieting, fasting, vigorous exercise, or a combination of the above.

• Lack of control over food intake in a discrete period of time.

• Eating in secret

• Self evaluation of weight and body shape is affected

• Binging and purging occur twice a week for a period of 3months

Personality Characteristics

• Impulsive with tendencies to engage in drug and alcohol abuse and suicide attempts

• Mood swings

• Extroverted

• More sexually active than anorexics

• Usually normal weight

• Angrily submissive, i.e. will engage in indirect behaviour that has an element of hostility.

Medical Complications

 

• Dehydration which leads to electrolyte abnormalities, particularly sodium and potassium

• Dental erosion of the enamel

• Delayed emptying of the stomach

• Arrhythmias, (abnormal heart beat), secondary to electrolyte imbalances

• Swollen glands under the jaw from vomiting

• Scars on the knuckles from putting finger down the throat

• Ruptured esophagus

• Bulimia Nervosa can result in death

Statistics

• 1-20% of high school and college students suffer from bulimia.

• Depression is often secondary to the distress felt by the lack of control over the eating and the adverse effects of the bulimic behaviour.

Compulsive Overeating

• Inability to control food intake and repeatedly attempting to lose weight by dieting

• Eating rapidly, feeling uncomfortably full

• Eating when not physically hungry

• Eating alone due to embarrassment over how much one is eating

• Feelings of disgust, guilt, or depression after eating (distress)

• Eating much more rapidly than normal

• Occurs on average 2 days a week for 6 months

Personality Characteristics

• Food is often used to anesthetize feelings of being overwhelmed

• Long history of repeated attempts to loose weight

• Possible prevalence of major depressive disorders

• Low self- esteem

• Introverted

• Difficulty with intimacy in relationships

• More in touch with thinking than feelings; tendency to intellectualize

Medical Complications

• Diabetes

• High blood pressure

• Stroke

• Heart attack

• May increase chances of getting some types of cancer

• High cholesterol

Statistics

• Most common eating disorder affecting slightly less than 3% of the population.

• 40% of Compulsive Eaters are men