Anorexia Nervosa

Eating disorders are very widely known but not fully comprehended the average person would right them off as an extreme diet or a “phase”, but they are indeed actual serious mental disorders. They have the highest rate of physiological disorders that have a direct death due to the disorder. The disorders slowly destroy the body but in order to recognize the signs and to treat we must realize that they are disorders of the mind and not the body. In the United States, there are Twenty million women and Ten million men that have had or are having an episode of an eating disorder. These numbers are close to any civilization that has come in contact with western ideals of thinness if a group of people hasn’t experiences that then the cases of an eating disorder are very low to non-existent. One of the very first disorders that a person comes to face in life is ARFID or Avoidant or Restrictive Food Intake.

This disorder is normally observed in children under seven years of age but can be carried into adulthood. This disorder has an equal Affectiveness to women and men. The most common symptoms of this disorder are restrictive food intake or complete avoidance that keeps the individual from consuming enough nutrients or calories. Losing weight or a poor development for a child’s age and height. Another symptom is eating habits that go against normal social junctions where the individual is eating with others. AFRID isn’t normal eating behaviors for children like being a picky eater or low intake in adults, it goes to a state of no food intake unless it’s absolutely necessary. The lack of nutrients and calories isn’t dictated by the availability of food or external factors such as culture or religion but just the complete lack of interest or disgust for certain colors, smells or taste and other influences.

This just shows how fast a severe eating disorder can impact someone at such a young age or continue later in life. Another eating disorder that is rather disturbing is Pica that has only become recognized as an official eating disorder by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). People with pica have an unnatural craving for non-food items such as and not excluding hair, dirt, soap, small rocks, laundry cleaners and other non-food items someone could find in every day to day life. The individuals that have been reported with pica the most are people with mental disorder and children as well as pregnant women. One way for pica to be diagnosed it must not be part of the person’s cultural or religious views and must be not socially acceptable in their community. Individuals that have been diagnosed with pica have a higher chance of infections, poisoning, and stomach injuries and can be fatal based on the non-food object that was eaten. What is known to be the most widely known of eating disorder is Anorexia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa is best know for the individual with this diagnosis to view themselves as grossly overweight even if they are grossly underweight.

The individual will keep away from eating certain foods and greatly reduce their calorie intake to a well below average number. Some of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa include heavily restricted diets, a constant chase for thinness and not wanting to maintain a healthy weight. Anorexia had been put into two types, the food restricting type and the binge eating and purging kind. Some anorexic people take it a step further by becoming the binge and purge type, this includes eating large amounts of food or a small amount either way the individual purges the food by either puking, using laxatives or exercising vigorously. The end goal for someone diagnosed with this disorder of Anorexia Nervosa it be always be thinner than they are because they always see themselves as grossly overweight. On the list of newly recognized mental disorders/eating disorders list is Rumination Disorder, this disorder is when the individual regurgitates the food they have already chewed or swallowed they will then eat it back up and after they with either chew it up and spit it back out or swallow it again. This disorder has been shown in all stages of life for any person, when found in the infant stage it begins to show symptoms at three months to twelve months old but for adults with it, they will need to seek therapy.

This disorder does cause harm as well for infants if not corrected can lead to the child being underweight or malnourished, for adults it can cause them to not eat in public since about 30 minutes after a meal they will cough up their food and chew it or eat it again. Since the individual restricts their diet so much, they can become severely underweight. Another widely known easting disorder would be Bulimia Nervosa, Bulimia is very similar to Anorexia Nervosa because they are introduced at a young age and they both have a large impact on the body. An individual with Bulimia is harder to tell for a distance because with bulimia they normally maintain a normal body weight. They are able to achieve this by having large binge eating sessions by following it up with a purging method or fasting themselves. Bulimia also has many ill effects on the body such as an irritated gut, tooth decay, or severe dehydration. In conclusion there is still a lot of research that needs to be put into learning about eating disorder and why and how they affect the mind to behave like it does. By learning from these disorders today will allow us in the future how to properly treat and resolve these issues while keeping our bodies healthy and vibrant and our minds free and pristine