What Should A Parent Watch Out For?
We can never deny the possibility that one or two of your children may suffer from eating disorders. Seeing our son or daughter not eating anything and shedding out pounds in a short period of time, or seeing them eat everything is a very worrisome sight to see.
Knowing the signs and symptoms of eating disorders makes it easy for you to spot the problem on your kids and implement the right treatment method to get it out of their system fast; rather than slowly noticing the disease when it is already too late.
Change In Their Eating Habits
One sign of eating disorder is the sudden or gradual change in their eating habits. Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa might stop eating that comes with their drive to lose weight and get back their lost self-esteem, even when they are already in their normal weight level.
Bulimia nervosa is the opposite — individuals under this condition indulge in overeating, mostly in secret, to avoid embarrassment. Overweight and obesity coupled with cardiovascular problems are common signs of this eating disorder.
Observing Your Daughter
Females are more prone to eating disorders than males. Medical survey shows that 7 out of 10 eating disorder problems are attributed to women than men. One reason for this is that females are more susceptible to emotional and behavioral changes, as well as being overly conscious with their physical outlook.
If your daughter has stopped eating as their weight loss solution, and scantly eating for months, then you can be sure that they are already suffering from eating disorder. But this doesnt stop there; females might still think that they are huge even if they are below the average weight, so they would most likely continue to stop eating until they get over their low self-esteem problems.
Overeating And Excessive Exercise
If your son or daughter is suffering from the bulimia nervosa eating disorder, then overeating is a simple sign you can watch out for. But another manifestation attributed to excessive eating is the compulsion to lose weight through excessive physical exercise.
Most feel ashamed of this condition and will try their best to get rid of the evidence by indulging in strenuous physical exercise to lose weight fast. The only problem with this is that they will still continue with their eating habits and find that their solution to weight loss is rendered ineffective. They will just keep on doing it just to get rid of the depression and anxiety that comes with being heavy with no visible results.
Eating Even When Not Hungry
People suffering from binge eating or bulimia nervosa are prone to eat even when they are not hungry. It’s normal to overeat when you’re hungry but eating still when you’re stomach is still full is purely another matter entirely.
Try to observe your son or daughter’s eating habits, especially after regular meal time. If they tend to eat more in between meals then they are surely suffering from this condition, especially if this is a daily habit.
Desperate In Purging
People with eating disorders are prone to bouts of desperate purging — especially those who are suffering from binge eating or bulimia nervosa. They usually take laxatives or herbal supplement to help them get rid of the waste and food inside their bodies. This is mostly done in secret and tries to repeat the process in random intervals until they feel satisfied — which usually end up in more eating sessions afterwards when they start to feel empty or visited by the urge to binge.
Quick Treatment
Parents should be very observant with the above signs and symptoms of eating disorders if they dont want to put their children’s health in danger. It is possible for anorexia nervosa patients to suffering from weakness and fatigue that comes with the lack of nutrients in their body — as well as being prone to diseases that can easily attack them in their weakened state. Obese and overweight individual are prone to high-blood pressure, body pains, muscle spasm, cardiovascular problems, or cancer if left unchecked.
It is essential that you are quick to react to these signs and confront your son and daughter regarding their eating disorder. After all, acceptance is one way to get rid of the problem and can pave a way for effective treatment to get rid of it before it has a permanent hold on you.
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Types Of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are taking its toll, not only to adults but to youngsters as well. The National Institute of Mental Health cited in their reports that about 5 to 10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men suffer from eating disorders. Aside from these alarming numbers, there are still many unreported cases.
Most common reasons and cases of eating disorders would be because of the increasing social pressure to achieve a thinner body shape and appearance. This can be associated with the changing standards of beauty as described and portrayed by media and popular culture. Subconsciously, everybody is creating an image that being thin is being beautiful.
There are different types of eating disorders. The three main types of eating disorders are:
Anorexia- this is commonly described as refusal to eat normally. In comes from a Greek word which means lack of appetite. Most anorexics are described as individuals who fear of gaining weight. The person affected with this kind of disorder rarely eats which is why extreme weight loss happens. Aside from drastic weight loss, the individual also experienced lack of energy for any physical activity, hair, skin and nail problems. Anorexics also suffer from very low self-esteem and most of the times have depression.
Bulimia is commonly described of incidents of overeating or binge eating and then would induce themselves into vomiting, excessive exercise, over-se or misuse of diet pills or fasting. Bulimic individuals do not have to be underweight like anorexics but they still feel unsatisfied with their body. Just like anorexics they would also have low self-esteem. Long sufferers of bulimia tend to suffer gastrointestinal system problems, and also problems in other parts of the body, mouth, teeth and kidneys.
Binge eating this disorder is often characterized to be compulsive and excessive overeating. Unlike bulimics, binge eaters do not do anything to treat or counteract their overeating tendencies. Most binge eaters would use food to distract them from uncomfortable moments and problems in life. Food is often used to remove stress or deal with any painful feelings.
These three eating disorders are the main eating disorders. However there are other eating disorders that can be congenital conditions or associated to mental conditions. For example pica, another compulsive eating disorder, is about eating non-food items or foods with no nutrition at all. Pica sufferers would eat items like chalk, plaster, baking soda, paint chips, glue, starch, ice, coffee grounds and eve cigarette ashes. Sometimes, this disorder can be associated to mental deficiencies and developmental delays.
There is also a congenital eating disorder or condition, the Prader-Willi Syndrome. This is mainly due to abnormality in genes. This condition can be described as insatiable appetite which can be often associated to behavioural and mental problems. Prader-Willi Sydrome sufferes would also have motor development problems, abnormal growth, speech impairments, dental problems, obesity and diabetes type II.
Understanding eating disorders is important to know how to address these issues. Increasing number or adults, also teens, are suffering from eating disorders. Increasing our awareness would help us deal with this fast becoming social concern.
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Recovering From Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are not only sickness among adults, alarmingly 15 percent of young women shows eating disorders. When put into numbers, that would be 1 out of 100 American women have eating disorders. Males are also not left out, about 5 to 10 percent of anorexics and bulimics are males.
The sad thing is that these figures are the reported ones, a large number of eating disorders cases remain unreported. Therefore, the numbers are deemed to increase. This is because of media hype about standards of beauty. Sadly, the idea of is that thin is beautiful. Because of this influence in pop culture, women would have to conform to be accepted in social circles. As young as 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders are already thinking or being afraid of getting fat.
For an individual to recover from eating disorders, it would be an emotional and long process. Suffering from eating disorders can be because of physical, mental or psychological problems. As part of the recovery plan, it is important for the individual to consult a psychiatrist or a therapist. There are different types of eating disorders, whether it is anorexia, bulimia or binge eating, it is very important to get professional help.
Getting psychological assistance would help the individual to identify the reasons why he or she view their body in a negative way. Another reason can be biological factors. There are eating disorders that are genetic just like Prader-Willi Syndrome.
Not like dieting or treatment of any kind of disease, there are no specific period how long would be the recovery period. It depends on every individuals attitude, case and speed of improvement. Experts would recommend different things that could ensure and speed up recovery.
Be comfortable and love yourself. Individuals who are suffering from eating disorders would have low self-esteem and confidence. They are also not content with their body shape and show that in their attitude. Starting to love yourself would encourage you to rest and exercise more and eat healthier foods.
Start the healing process by clearing your closets or removing this around the house which can dampen your spirits and emotions. You could make friends or relationships with people that lead a healthy lifestyle so your would be able to adopt their habits.
Another part of the healing process is forgiving. Eating disorders could be because of a traumatic experience which left a huge impact on how the individual view and value herself. It is important to forgive other people and yourself.
Find a creative outlet or you can start getting involved in some physical activities like camping or walking to clear your mind and at the same boost or increase your energy. Some eating disorder sufferers also lack energy because of little physical activity.
Get the support you need. A recovering eating disorder patient would need to surround herself with positive people. Aside from that it is important that they get the support from friends, family, relatives and loved ones. If they cannot give you the understanding and support you need, there are support groups which would be very happy to help and accommodate you. There can be members who have undergone the same problem but were able to overcome it, you could learn so much from their experiences and how they dealt with their issues.
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