Eating Disorders

According to ANAD, at least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder. Every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Having an eating disorder is like riding a bull, you fall off and the bull still tries to attack you. Most people say recovering from an eating disorder is the hardest thing in their life.
National Eating Disorders Collaboration explains what an eating disorder is and talks about recovery. "Eating disorders defy classification solely as mental illnesses as they not only involve considerable psychological impairment and distress, but they are also associated with major wide-ranging and serious medical complications, which can affect every major organ in the body." With an eating disorder, a person will try extremely hard to disguise or deny their behavior, but they may have disturbed eating behaviors coupled with extreme concerns about weight, shape, eating and body image.
There are three main eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder (BED). Anorexia nervosa causes people to obsess about what they eat, when they eat, and how much they eat. The symptoms are trying to maintain a below normal weight by either starving or too much exercise. People may also experience brittle nails, bruising, depression, sensitivity to cold and a slow heart rate. There are more than 200,000 cases per year. Bulimia nervosa is binge eating followed by purging. Purging is self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxative, diuretics or enemas. People with bulimia usually binge eat and then take steps to avoid gaining weight. This includes either purging or fasting. The symptoms are bad breath, food aversion, hunger, fatigue, water-electrolyte imbalance, abnormality of taste, depression, poor self-esteem, and a sore throat. Finally, according to NEDA, "Binge eating disorder (BED) is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food (often very quickly and to the point of discomfort); a feeling of a loss of control during binge; experiencing shame, distress or guilt afterwards; not regularly using unhealthy compensatory measures (e.g., purging) co-counter the binge eating." BED is very similar to bulimia but a little more extreme. BED's symptoms are lack of control once one begins to eat, depression, grief and disgust or self-hatred about eating disorders. The binge eating occurs once a week, on average, for three months. Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the United States; it is estimated to affect 1-5% of the general population. BED affects 3.5% of women, 2% of men, and 1.6% of adolescents.
There are many ways to treat an eating disorder. The National Institute of Mental Health wrote an article on eating disorders and explains them in detail. "Typical treatment goals include restoring adequate nutrition, bringing weight to a healthy level, reducing excessive exercise, and stopping binging and purging behaviors." There are different options of treatment, such as, individual, group, or family psychotherapy, medical care and monitoring, nutritional counseling and medications. In individual psychotherapy the focus is the one-to-one relationship with the therapist. The individual with the eating disorder is focusing on his or her emotions and behaviors. Then, group psychotherapy is to help the people in the groups understand the projection they have towards other members, while learning from the feedback from the other people in the group and the therapist. The last one in this category is family psychotherapy helps family members understand what the patient is going through and how they can support them through their journey of getting better. Medical care and monitoring is when the patient goes and lives at an eating disorder facility and nurses watch them to make sure they are eating what they need to be eating. This only occurs if they have been to the hospital several times or if they aren't getting better. Finally, medication can't cure the eating disorder but it can help stay on the path to recovery. Antidepressants are the most commonly used with cases of bulimia and purging.
Evidence has shown that if you get treatment as soon as you realize you have an eating disorder, it would be a higher chance to fully recover. There are YouTube videos of the survivors that overcame this obstacle in their life. It is possible if you get help when you start seeing the symptoms. If you know or have heard of someone that could possibly have an eating disorder, try and find help. You could possibly save their life.