Eating Disorders
Eating disorders involve extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food. They are serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for females and males.
Close to 10 million females and 1 million males in the U.S. are battling eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, while millions more suffer from binge eating disorder.
- Ten percent of all eating disorders occur in males.
- The onset of eating disorders most commonly occurs during puberty and the late teen/early adult years, but symptoms can occur as young as kindergarten.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, purging, and taking laxatives.
Eating disorders typically are of three types: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.
- Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.
- Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by a secretive cycle of binge eating followed by purging. Bulimia includes eating large amounts of food in short periods of time, then getting rid of the food and calories through vomiting, laxative abuse, or over-exercising.
- Binge Eating Disorder (also known as Compulsive Overeating) is characterized primarily by periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling comfortably full. While there is no purging, there may be repetitive diets and feelings of shame or self-hatred after a binge.
Eating disorders are complex conditions that arise from a combination of long-standing behavioral, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors.
If you feel that the disorder has become unmanageable and out of control, this is where Mulberry can help find Solutions For Life.