Eating Disorders

Eating disorders often begin in teenage years. There are usually combined individual and societal causes that lead to eating disorders and both girls and guys can develop them. There are several types to be aware of:

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder that involves self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Bulimia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder that involves a cycle of bingeing (eating lots of food in a short period of time), feelings of regret, and then behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or make up for the effects of binge eating.

Binge Eating Disorder is a type of eating disorder that also involves recurrent binge eating without the regular use of behaviors (such as with Bulimia) to counter the binge eating.

Seeking Help

• Eating disorders are a big concern because when they are experienced for long periods of time they can be similar to an addiction and can be very dangerous to a person’s health and sometimes fatal.
• Eating disorders can be treated with both counseling and medical services for nutrition, as well as possible medication.
• People can be helped for any eating behaviors, at any age or stage, through counseling.