EDSP Orkney
Eating Disorder Support Project
Eating Disorder Support Project
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What is an eating disorder?
Food and eating play a very important part in our lives. We all vary in the foods we like, how much we need to eat, and when we like to eat. Food is essential for our health and development. It’s not unusual to experiment with our eating habits, for example someone may decide to become a vegetarian or try changing their diet to improve their health. However, some eating patterns can be damaging.
Food and eating play a very important part in our lives. We all vary in the foods we like, how much we need to eat, and when we like to eat. Food is essential for our health and development. It’s not unusual to experiment with our eating habits, for example someone may decide to become a vegetarian or try changing their diet to improve their health. However, some eating patterns can be damaging.
Problems with food can begin when it is used to cope with those times when a person is bored, anxious, angry, lonely, ashamed or sad, to help them to cope with painful situations or feelings, or to relieve stress perhaps without them even realising it.
Who do eating disorders affect and when?
An eating disorder can develop as a result of one or many factors, events, feelings or pressures which lead someone to feeling unable to cope. These can include: low self-esteem, family relationships, problems with friends, the death of someone special, problems at school, work, college or at university, lack of confidence, sexual or emotional abuse.
A person may think that they are simply feeling ‘too fat’ or ‘not good enough’ and that the eating disorder is the only way they feel they can stay in control of their life, but as time goes on they are not really in control, it is the eating disorder.
Anyone can develop an eating disorder, regardless of age, sex, cultural background, although the people most likely to be affected tend to be young women, particularly between the ages of 15-25. It is not unusual, however, for an eating disorder to appear in middle age.
Anorexia Nervosa
‘Anorexia nervosa’ means ‘loss of appetite for nervous reasons’ but this is misleading because in reality you have lost the ability to allow yourself to satisfy your appetite. You restrict the amount you eat and drink, sometimes to a dangerous level. You may exercise to burn off what you perceive to be excess calories. You focus on food in an attempt to cope with life. It is a way of demonstrating that you are in control of your body weight and shape.
Ultimately, the disorder itself takes control and the chemical changes in the body affect the brain and distort thinking, making it almost impossible for you to make rational decisions about food. As the illness progresses, you will suffer from the exhaustion of starvation.
Occasionally people die from the effects of anorexia, especially if it is untreated.
Bulimia Nervosa
The term bulimia nervosa means ‘nervous hunger’. The hunger, however, is really an emotional need that cannot be satisfied by food alone. After binge-eating a large amount of food to fill the emotional or hunger gap, there is an urge to immediately get rid of the food by vomiting or taking laxatives (or both), by starving or reducing food intake, or by working off the calories with exercise in an attempt not to gain weight.
Bulimia is more difficult for others to notice as you tend not to lose weight so dramatically, or your weight will fluctuate. People close to you at home or work may not recognise the illness, so it can persist for many years undetected.
An eating disorder can develop as a result of one or many factors, events, feelings or pressures which lead someone to feeling unable to cope. These can include: low self-
A person may think that they are simply feeling ‘too fat’ or ‘not good enough’ and that the eating disorder is the only way they feel they can stay in control of their life, but as time goes on they are not really in control, it is the eating disorder.
Anyone can develop an eating disorder, regardless of age, sex, cultural background, although the people most likely to be affected tend to be young women, particularly between the ages of 15-
Anorexia Nervosa
‘Anorexia nervosa’ means ‘loss of appetite for nervous reasons’ but this is misleading because in reality you have lost the ability to allow yourself to satisfy your appetite. You restrict the amount you eat and drink, sometimes to a dangerous level. You may exercise to burn off what you perceive to be excess calories. You focus on food in an attempt to cope with life. It is a way of demonstrating that you are in control of your body weight and shape.
Ultimately, the disorder itself takes control and the chemical changes in the body affect the brain and distort thinking, making it almost impossible for you to make rational decisions about food. As the illness progresses, you will suffer from the exhaustion of starvation.
Occasionally people die from the effects of anorexia, especially if it is untreated.
Bulimia Nervosa
The term bulimia nervosa means ‘nervous hunger’. The hunger, however, is really an emotional need that cannot be satisfied by food alone. After binge-
Bulimia is more difficult for others to notice as you tend not to lose weight so dramatically, or your weight will fluctuate. People close to you at home or work may not recognise the illness, so it can persist for many years undetected.
As with anorexia, you become reliant on the control of food and eating as a way of coping with emotional difficulties in your life. You may also find you become obsessed with maintaining your weight. It is also often associated with low self-esteem or a general lack of self-confidence.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
Like bulimia, binge eating disorder has been recognised as a distinct condition. BED shares some of the characteristics of bulimia but the essential difference is that you binge uncontrollably but do not purge.
It is believed that many more people suffer from binge eating disorder than either anorexia or bulimia nervosa.
Because of the amount of food eaten, many people with BED become obese which can lead to problems with blood pressure, heart disease and a general lack of fitness.
Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive Overeating is a variation on binge eating. You will eat at times when you are not hungry and this may happen all the time or it may come and go in cycles.
Most people who are compulsive eaters are overweight, and may use their weight or appearance as a shield they can hide behind to avoid social interaction, others hide behind a happy or jolly façade to avoid confronting their problems. Sufferers often have great shame at being unable to control the compulsion to eat.
Symptoms
It’s important to know that everyone will not have the same symptoms. Some people will have a mix of symptoms and you do not need to have all these symptoms to have an eating disorder.
You can be affected by different eating disorders at different times in your life.
Like bulimia, binge eating disorder has been recognised as a distinct condition. BED shares some of the characteristics of bulimia but the essential difference is that you binge uncontrollably but do not purge.
It is believed that many more people suffer from binge eating disorder than either anorexia or bulimia nervosa.
Because of the amount of food eaten, many people with BED become obese which can lead to problems with blood pressure, heart disease and a general lack of fitness.
Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive Overeating is a variation on binge eating. You will eat at times when you are not hungry and this may happen all the time or it may come and go in cycles.
Most people who are compulsive eaters are overweight, and may use their weight or appearance as a shield they can hide behind to avoid social interaction, others hide behind a happy or jolly façade to avoid confronting their problems. Sufferers often have great shame at being unable to control the compulsion to eat.
Symptoms
It’s important to know that everyone will not have the same symptoms. Some people will have a mix of symptoms and you do not need to have all these symptoms to have an eating disorder.
You can be affected by different eating disorders at different times in your life.