Eating Disorders

Eating food is something essential to our survival and our bodies have a built-in process that regulates our appetite and eating. Our eating patterns are influenced by many different things like our environment, culture, and circumstances. It is extraordinarily complex and difficult to pinpoint the cause of eating disorders as there are many eating disorder types but one thing we do know for sure is that it is a massive growing problem amongst young people today.

Often eating disorders occur alongside other mental and physical problems like depression, anxiety, substance abuse and can cause illnesses like kidney failure, heart conditions and death. There are different types of eating disorder with different behaviours that occur when someone is preoccupied with food and eating, or not.

Anorexia nervosa, eating disorder definition - a persistent restriction of food intake because of an obsessive fear of gaining weight or being seen as fat by others, is magnified in our current culture of social media madness. Constantly comparing ourselves to other people via photoshopped pictures, cleverly captured in unrealistic perfection, means we gain a distorted perception of how we see ourselves, permanent dissatifaction and self critisism are eating disorders symtoms. If we do not match up or compete with the idealistic visual of this preceived perfection, we become driven by the desire to lose weight through dieting, exercising excessively and fasting. This behaviour can lead to self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives creating the binge/purge habits that eventually cause serious physical problems.

People who suffer from anorexia see themselves as overweight even when they are seriously underweight and are intensely dissatisfied with the way they look and these feelings automatically lead to self-loathing, shame, binging and purging. The constant cycle of this eating disorder behaviour can be treated but it is important to understand many of those who suffer these illnesses will not recognise they have a problem. Eating disorders treatment involves specialist one to one talk therapy.

Spending too much time on your phone especially in isolation is not going to give you a true perspective on life or the way you should look. We are all individuals with different qualities and things to offer the world. No one is perfect unless airbrushed or made up in our minds. This unrealistic striving to be thinner, fitter, prettier, perfection, forever young comes from constant marketing, no carb diets, cosmetic procedures, tv, movie, glossy magazines, and social media.

So what are the treatments to eating disorders? My advice is simple. If you are looking for true perfection step outside into nature and go for a long walk on a cold crisp frosty morning in the countryside.

Here you will find real beauty in its natural form, the colours, the sounds, the smells, the peace. No matter how much you believe you are not good enough, pretty enough, thin enough, I can promise you perfection does not come in a bottle, a pill or any procedure you can buy, we are surrounded by it and part of it, it is free for everyone to appreciate when you start to change the way you look at things.

Trying to gain a sense of self-control through food and exercise or binge and purge behaviour is not the answer and will never help you gain control in other areas of your life where there appears to be no control. These are the eating disorder signs to watch out for. This obsessive behaviour is down to having no self-worth and the more you participate, the more you will experience other unhealthy issues like shame, guilt and feelings of self-blame. You are self harming. This is then followed by anxiety and depression, a vicious cycle of negative emotions reoccuring repeatedly until temporarily finding a feeling of relief through starving, binging, or purging. Self-destruction is not the answer to your issues so begin to realise and accept you have a serious problem that needs help and eating disorders treatment through therapy before a more serious complication occurs.

Photo by: averie woodard Unsplash