What is Anorexia Nervosa?
A person with anorexia nervosa, often called anorexia, has an intense fear of gaining weight. Someone with anorexia thinks about food a lot and limits the food she or he eatgs, even though she or he is too thin. Anorexia is more than just a problem with food; it’s a way of using food or starving oneself to feel more in control of life and to ease tension, anger, and anxiety. An anorexic has a low body weight for her or his height, resists keeping a normal body weight, has an intense fear of gaining weight, thinks she or he is fat even when very thin, misses 3 menstrual periods in a row (for girls/women who have started having their periods).
What is Bulimia?
Bulimia nervosa, often called bulimia, is a type of eating disorder. A person with bulimia eats a lot of food in short amoutns of time (binging) and then tries to prevent weight gain by getting rid of the food (purging). Purging might be done by making yourself throw up or taking laxatives. A person with bulimia feels he or she cannot control the amount of food eaten. Also, bulimics might exercise a lot, eat very little or not at all, or take pills to pass urine often to prevent weight gain. Unlike anorexia, people with bulimia can fall within the normal range for their age and weight. But like people with anorexia, bulimics fear gaining weight, want desperately to lose weight, and are very unhappy with their body size and shape.
What is Binge Eating Disorder?
People with binge eating disorder often eat an unusually large amount of food and feel out of control during the binges. Unlike bulimia or anorexia, binge eaters do not throw up their food, exercise a lot, or eat only small amounts of only certain foods. Because of this, binge eaters are often overweight or obese. People with binge eating disorder also may eat more quickly than usual during binge episodes, eat until they are uncomfortably full, eat when they are not hungry, eat alone because of embarrassment, or feel disgusted, depressed, or guilty after overeating.
Information taken from womenshealth.gov, a project of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health
How Eating Disorders Challenge Families
As many as 11 million people in the U.S. have an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, and about 25 million more are struggling with binge eating disorder, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).
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Yoga and Body Dysmorphic Disorder
In every eating disorder, be it anorexia, bulemia, binge eating or anything else not otherwise categorized, there is an element of body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia is literally not seeing what you are when you look at yourself whether its in the ...
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Midlife Eating Disorders
When Eating Disorders Strike in Midlife
By RANDI HUTTER EPSTEIN
Margie Hodgin, a nurse in Kernersville, N.C., had struggled to lose weight since she was a teenager. But it wasn’t until she turned 40 that she finally took o...
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CHILDHOOD OBESITY AND THE SCHOOLS
Shame hurts more than helps
By Dina Zeckhausen
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/09/08
The health of Georgia's children hangs in the balance. As obesity rates soar, so too do the numbers of young children and tee...
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