Eating Disorders – The Three Types
Author: James Hunaban

There are three main types of eating disorder; these are
Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder.
The term eating disorder is used to describe any eating
patterns that are obsessive and long lasting. In the last 20 to
30 years or so there has been a marked increase in the amount of
people troubled by these disorders. Let's have a brief look at
the three variants.

Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia is an eating disorder where individuals starve
themselves of food, because they have an obsessive longing to
be thin. This disorder tends to affect mainly teenage girls,
but can also affect men, and it is serious and sometimes even
fatal. About half of the people with anorexia who have hospital
treatment still struggle with the disorder and have symptoms for
a long time afterwards. One trait of sufferers seems to be a
lack of self-esteem.

Bulimia nervosa,

Bulimia nervosa, usually shortened to bulimia, is an eating
disorder where individuals have a binge-eating session; this is
usually then followed by them making themselves sick. This
self-induced vomiting is because of feelings of guilt at having
eaten so much. People with bulimia tend to suffer from an
unnatural preoccupation with their own body, and as with
anorexic patients they have a fear of gaining weight.
Individuals who suffer with bulimia will devour huge quantities
of food in an attempt to reduce stress, and help them deal with
feelings of anxiety.

Binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder involves bouts of overeating high calorie
foods on a regular basis, but unlike bulimia sufferers, they
don't make themselves vomit. People with this disorder not
surprisingly, are usually overweight. This disorder was first
recognized about 45 years ago; but it is only in recent times
that it has been seen as a widespread problem. Studies have
shown that binge eating disorder seems to run in families, so
it looks like there is a genetic link.

The rather worrying news is that the big three eating disorders
- anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are reported to
be on the rise all around the world.


About The Author: James Hunaban is the owner of
http://eating-disorders.health-info4u.com/ a site full of
Eating Disorders information.