Eating disorders

James Tighe

Not all of us spend much time thinking about what we eat. People affected by an eating disorder, however, find they’re totally absorbed in their eating, thinking about it almost obsessionally between meals.

This article was first published in May 2011.

What is an eating disorder?

Eating disorders is a broad name for a number of problems we face with food in our society. While many of us slip into overeating or comfort eating at some point, for some the problem goes to life-threatening extremes.

In both anorexia nervosa and bulimia, there is a deep fear of being overweight that leads to an obsession about restricting the number of calories the person is taking in. This leads to an extreme state of starvation, which in turn has a number of effects on the way that the body functions and how hormones are produced.

This is complicated in bulimia, when the person still finds comfort in the feeling of being full but dreads taking on the extra calories. This is when they may induce vomiting, causing long-term problems for their throat and teeth on top of psychological problems.

Common behaviour of someone affected by an eating disorder includes:

• Mentally keeping a balance between calories taken in and calories used up
• Deep-seated feelings of anxiety if they consume a few calories too many
• Self-loathing, depression or panic if they haven’t lost any weight or put a little on, despite their best efforts

Many anorexics and bulimics have researched the issue of diet quite deeply and know the damage they are doing to themselves but are still unable to stop. This just makes the feelings of despair and self-loathing even worse, causing their condition to continue.

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