Types of Eating Disorders Essay Sample

When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself differently than you actually are? Are you always in comparison and feeling obsessive towards your eating? Eating disorders are a mental illness in which a person can be obsessive of their food intake, weight loss or gain, or body shape. (NIMH) This paper will present the topic of different types of eating disorders, the journey to awareness, and what the future can look like for a person with this disorder.

According to NIMH there are four main types of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa, the most common one, occurs when “people avoid food, severely restrict food, or eat very small quantities of only certain foods.” Another common kind is avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, this is where “people limit the amount or type of food eaten.” Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder is different from anorexia nervosa, this happens as the person most likely is not obsessive towards weight gain and most likely doesn’t suffer from a distorted body image.   Next is bulimia nervosa, which is “where people have recurrent and frequent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food and feeling a lack of control over these episodes.” Finally, a binge eating disorder, this is “where people lose control over their eating and have recurring episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food.” (NIMH) Eating disorders show up in people’s lives most commonly in their teenage years or young adulthood, although they may also develop during childhood or later in life. (NIMH) Eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa almost always establishes in females between the ages 15-19, with an incidence rate of 0.48-0.7%. (NCBI) There are separate risk factors for each type of eating disorder. Some common ones are: thinning of the bones, multi organ failure, or infertility (anorexia nervosa). Severe dehydration, chronically inflamed throat, electrolyte imbalance (possible results of Bulimia nervosa). Each different type can lead to many other dangerous results. This mental illness can foster anywhere as it can influence people of any gender, weight, body type, or racial or ethnic history.  To a low note, eating disorders may cause PTSD which can halter recovery. Harmful or negative outside forces like certain influential people, celebrities, or overall social media can also get in the way of a healthy full recovery. The people that normally oppose this issue are the people that have and struggle with it. Someone in the precontemplation stage of this disorder (talked about later in this paper) may oppose the fact of seeing such a thing in themselves.

Eating disorders, a common but taboo topic, has had a journey to awareness. One of the most common eating disorders, Anorexia nervosa, started to get acknowledged as a physical disorder in the late 1800s and in 1952 this disorder became more widely known as it was placed in the first edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder.” (VW) Things like funding and money donations had been set off by congress back in 2017. This money was made for the ongoing research for prevention, interventions, and treatment programs. (NEDA) Various celebrities have also spoken out and shared about their eating disorders to help bring awareness and inspire people to keep fighting. Demi Lovato is a celebrity that has come out and talked about her eating disorder to the public. She was in the movement to bring awareness to the illness and inspire people of all ages not to get caught up in their foods and diets. (EDH)

Next to discuss is what recovery can look like with someone with an eating disorder. Physical recovery can be seen in restoring normal weight, a normalized hormone and electrolyte level, and possibly the restoration of menstruation. Behavioral recovery can be illustrated by reduction habits like reduction in food restriction, over exercise, purging, and/or binge eating. Lastly, physiological recovery can be experienced by the relief of body image distress, perfectionism, and/or self-made guidelines around eating, food, and weight. Long term recovery can be made in five stages or steps: Pre-Contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. Pre-Contemplation is when a  person is in denial about their mental illness but people around them may pick up on signs of an eating disorder. The next stage, contemplation, happens when a person is willing to share and admit that they do have a problem, a psychiatrist is common at this stage. Preparation, the next stage, is where improvements with a person start to happen. They start to work on a different mindset and progress to breaking mental barriers. After, is when the action stage starts. This is when a person faces the issue head on and makes the most progress. The person has to be willing to make the change at this stage. The last stage of recovery is maintenance. This stage happens when someone has been in the action stage for 6 months to over a year. The person is actively improving and making progress. (NEDA) A difficult part of this stage presents that a patient has to revisit older triggers to prevent later relapse. 75% of people that have anorexia nervosa make partial recovery. Only 21 percent of people with this mental illness make a fully successful recovery. (UCSF)

Eating disorders consist of extreme comparison, fear, anxiety, guilt, dieting, and self restriction. This is a very serious mental disorder that can't be ignored. Eating disorders can affect people of all ages, and have various dangerous side effects and symptoms.  Some may include heart failure or even death from starvation. Recovery from ED’s are complicated but procedural and take extensive amounts of time and patience. Someone with this mental illness can be very obsessive, tilted toward perfection, and overall in a very bad place. These people could be in these mental places without any physical symptoms yet showing. It doesn’t matter if they are skin and bone or not, people of all shapes, sizes, races, and genders can envelop this mental illness. That's what's so scary, the mental part, the non-visible side of things. Wouldn't you want someone to be there for you and be educated on what you’re going through?