| SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series: Mental Illness
Explain Mental Illnesses To Me
How
to Identify an Eating Disorder
Eating disorders can be a large detriment
to your lifestyle and to you being healthy. There are several
factors that will allow you to recognize an eating disorder.
Once you have done this, it is important to get the right help.
This will allow you to bring your health back up to normal,
and will give you the energy to live your life more fully.
An
eating disorder is anything that involves an obsession
with weight, body shape and eating. It is defined as an effect
from mental health. Usually, this obsession causes you to react
by eating badly. This may include things such as under eating,
eating too much, and trying to maintain your weight and body
shape through forming responses to the food that you eat around
you.
There
are three major types of eating disorders. The first
is known as anorexia. Those with anorexia will often tell others
that they are overweight, even though they are thin. Eating,
with anorexia, becomes something that is obsessed over. Because
of this, there are often obsessive behaviors that follow. Avoiding
food and eating is one of the first signs of anorexia. The
next thing that you may find yourself doing is obsessing about
body weight and constantly checking to see how much you weigh.
Compulsive exercise may also become a part of the routine.
The second type is bulimia. In this case, one will over eat
food. Later, they will purge the food out of their system.
They can do this by vomiting, using medication, and laxatives
or over exercise. You can recognize this type of eating disorder
if you feel like you have a lack of control over the food you
are eating. If you feel this and are still over eating, than
this is a good sign that you have bulimia. The next sign that
you have this disorder is if you begin to use a method to try
to use weight. Overtime, the weight loss and your body shape
will become an obsession for you to change.
A third type of eating disorder is known as binge-eating disorder.
This has not been defined as a mental illness; however, it
is being seen more frequently in those with eating disorders.
This is where you will continuously loose control of how much
you eat, often over-eating. The difference between this and
bulimia is that there is no sign of one trying to control the
food by purging it out of the body. Instead of trying to control
weight, those with a binge-eating disorder will often be overweight.
One of the things to keep in mind with these eating disorders
is that it is a mental illness. Because of this, there are
several factors that are related to those with these types
of eating disorders. Usually, those with low self-esteem and
constant feelings of guilt and shame will try to find a way
to balance these feelings. Controlling, or not controlling,
the food in their system is one way of compensating for this.
This, as well as responding to the style of being thin that
is popular in society both lead to these eating disorders.
If you have one of these disorders, then there is hope for
you to be able to treat it. The first thing to do is to recognize
that you have an eating disorder. The sooner you are able to
take care of it, the less chance you will have of becoming
unhealthy and will be able to reverse the problems with the
eating disorder. While each of these eating disorders will
have fairly different ways of treatment, they all follow certain
methods.
If the eating disorder is extreme, it is possible that you
will be hospitalized for a short time. This is so your body
can begin to react to food in a healthy way again. Once you
begin to regain weight, then you will be given anti-depressants
in order to help with shifting moods and weight maintenance.
The second factor to the eating disorder is psychotherapy.
This is to help one in regaining their self-esteem as well
as allowing them to break the habit and cycle of the eating
disorder.
There are also several eating treatment plans to help overcome
the eating disorder. By doing this, you will be able to regain
control over your eating habits. If you believe that you have
an eating disorder, it is important to start getting help now
so that you can overcome this problem and live a healthy and
balanced life.
# # # # #
by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
> Home > Mental
Illness Articles : Main Page
|
