Posts Tagged ‘Eating Disorders’

Moving On After Eating Disorders

Eating disorders like bulimia, anorexia nervosa and binge eating disorder are conditions that can cause serious health implications if not treated early.

It is important to note that, between male and females, it is the latter that are at risk of developing eating disorders. But whether it occurs in men or women, the effects can be critical since it can lead to life threatening situations.

Unlike before where the topic of eating disorders are taboo, now, more and more people acknowledged the situation thus getting the most proper treatment are now more plausible.

The effective treatments may include psychotherapy, nutrition education, family counseling and several medications. Hospitalization may be required for severe cases.
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How to Stop Compulsive Eating

You have four basic needs that must be fulfilled on a consistent basis. Your subconscious mind views these needs as mandatory, not options. When those needs go unmet, your mind implements compensatory behavior. For compulsive eaters, this behavior is food consumption. What are these needs and how can you keep them balanced in order to stop eating compulsively?

The Mandatory Needs You Need to Fulfill

The needs your mind struggles to keep in balance are security/control, variety, significance, and love/connection. When any of these needs are lacking in any way, your mind employs whatever habits it has been programmed with to compensate. For you, as an over eater, this behavior is eating food.

What is your first reaction to boredom, rejection, loneliness, or stress caused by your lack to control a situation? Is it to head to the kitchen to pacify your out-of-balance emotions? Don’t feel bad, embarrassed, or hopeless. This behavior was something you learned, and therefore it can be unlearned.

Stop Compulsive Eating

The key to stop yourself from eating compulsively lies in your subconscious mind. Somewhere in your past, you were taught to compensate your unfulfilled needs with food. Don’t worry too much about the details of how, when, or why this behavior came to be, focus instead on correcting it.

The simple aspect of stopping compulsive eating is to both correct the self-sabotaging behavior and the organic balancing of your needs (not participating in any compensatory behaviors). Complication comes during the process of correcting the self-sabotaging behavior. You see, the very nature of a habit is to lie hidden, almost invisible to your conscious mind. You may not even realize you are engaged in compulsive eating until it’s too late. A habit is also difficult to break and requires plenty of time, effort, and persistence on your part.

In order to correct compulsive eating behaviors, you have to both reprogram your subconscious mind to stop signaling for food whenever a need is going unmet, and begin to take steps to organically balance the needs in your life so that your mind will not engage in any compensatory behaviors. This may sound much easier than it really is, but you can literally do whatever you put your mind to. What you will soon learn is that the most important belief you can have regarding any action you need to undertake, is simply that you can

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Different Eating Disorders in Children

Have you ever heard of eating as a disorder? Yes, it is. A person who eats either too less or far more than what is required by the body is said to be suffering from eating disorder. Not only grownups, even children suffer from different eating disorders. There are different odd eating patterns that children follow, which bring them to be diagnosed with eating disorder. Different eating disorders found in children are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Children, especially between ages 5 to 12 years, suffer from different eating disorders. They become problematic in context to their eating habits. These eating disorders can even lead to major health problems, even life-threatening, at times. Let us have a look at these eating disorders and their causes and consequences, one by one.

Anorexia is one of the eating disorders in which a child denies to eat adequate amount of calories because of fear of becoming overweight or fat. Generally, children suffering from anorexia have a distorted, grotesque body shape. They become dangerously skinny and underweight, and become obsessed with this physical condition of theirs. They often see themselves as being fat and overweight, and further cut down on the caloric intake. Anorexia is extremely dangerous and can even cause the child to faint or suffer from nervous breakdown. Other symptoms of anorexia are anxiety, depression, and being self-critical. Children start exercising and reduce on their diet even when they are so emaciated. Generally, females develop problem with their menstrual cycle in his condition. Anorexia often causes the sufferer to even black out. Anorexia can be treated with help of antidepressant medications and behavioral counseling. Family support and healthy, nutritional diet play a vital role in fighting with anorexia.

Another eating disorder that children suffer from is bulimia. In this condition, the child eats excessive amounts of food and then purges the food either by vomiting or by using laxatives in order to prevent weight gain. These children generally lose control on themselves and overeat at one point; and then feel disgusted and ashamed at later point. Then they resort to laxatives or induce vomiting to purge out the eaten food, to prevent gaining weight. Some even try diet pills, enemas, or diuretics. Body weight of people suffering from bulimia fluctuates frequently. Other common symptoms of bulimia are drug abuse, alcohol abuse, frequent mood swings, sadness, overeating, excessive exercise, etc. Bulimia can be treated with help of antidepressant medications and behavioral modification. Nutritional counseling and family support can also cure this disorder.

Next type of eating disorder that children suffer from is binge eating. As the name suggests, children eat excessive amounts of food items without feeling the need to purge. Children eat nearly everything they get and even ask for more. These children feel like they are hungry all the time. They eat so much that they get overweight and obese at one point. This weight gain puts them at risk of several other diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc. Binge eating can be treated with help of antidepressant medications and counseling. Behavioral therapy and psychotherapy also prove to be pretty beneficial in treating binge eating disorder.

To get a perfectly-functioning body, one should always keep a check on their eating habits, be it a child or an adult. One should eat healthy food and that too in adequate amounts. Under-eating or overeating can both lead to numerous problems and disorders in body. Hence, to inculcate healthy eating habits in your children, one should inculcate these habits in oneself first. After all, healthy eating is healthy living.

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