Eating Disorder Symptoms

Eating disorder symptoms can develop in early adolescent stage and disproportionately affect women. Approximately 0.5% of young females have anorexia nervosa, 1.1% to 4.2% of females suffer from bulimia and 5-10 % of eating disorders cases occur in males.

Many individuals, mainly in adolescence have a combination of eating disorder symptoms. Psychiatric comorbidities are common, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and material abuse.

Emotional and medical complications can occur secondary to eating disorder symptoms, and can have a negative impact on cardiac, growth, and nutritional status.

Various Eating Disorder Symptoms

There are a number of eating disorder symptoms such as:

Inappropriate behavior to recompense the avoidance of weight gain, for instance self-induced vomiting, abuse of diuretics, enemas, laxatives, and other medications, fasting and excessive exercise are one of the main eating disorder symptoms.
Recurring episodes of binge eating are characterized by excessive eating, in a discrete period of time with a sense of a lack of control during the episode. Body weight and shape is influenced unduly by self-evaluation.
Another one of the eating disorder symptoms if inappropriate compensatory behavior and binge eating both arise at least twice a week for around three months.
Vomiting and excessive exercise as in compensatory behavior follows the episodes of binge eating. Bulimics usually weigh within the normal ranges for their height and weight; though related to anorexics they enormously feel dissatisfied with their body and will have a fear of weight gain or may have a wish to lose weight.
Sufferers of bulimia often conceal their behavior and feel ashamed and disgusted during their binge episodes and it is relieved later through vomiting.

Binge Eating

Research has proved that between 2 and 5% of females are experiencing binge eating in a six months period.

Symptoms of Binge Eating Include:

Eat an abnormally huge amount of food even when they are not hungry, arises at least two days per week for a period over six months, episodes involve eating an excessive amount of food in a short space of time with a lack of control during the episode.

Keep eating until they are uncomfortably full, eating more rapidly than normal, eating alone due to embarrassment, eat or graze continuously without ever feeling satiated, feelings of self-disgust, depressed, feelings of guilt following binging.

The binge eating disorder symptoms are mostly similar to those who suffer from bulimia, except purge/vomit afterwards. Due to this, most of this disorder people are overweight. This disease is related with feelings of self-disgust and shame that make a spiral of binge eating, which persists for extended periods of time.

Eating disorder symptoms can be successfully treated to a point where a healthy weight is re-established. So, the sooner the disorder is diagnosed and treated the better outcome can be achieved.

Eating disorders symptoms are really very complex necessitating a specially planned treatment, which not only includes diet but also counselling, both emotional and nutritional and in some cases, medication. Once it is diagnosed, the health professional must decide whether or not direct hospitalization is necessary due to self-danger.

Eating Disorders - Three Stages Restore Your Attitudes

There are three main stages that are set out in the treatment for eating disorder symptoms though a specific treatment should be adapted for each patient. The stages are as follows:

Stage 1 – restoring the weight lost due to rigorous diet.
Stage 2 – treatment to the psychological issues with regards to alteration of body image, lack of self-esteem.
Stage 3 – work towards long term reduction, treatment following a long-term recovery.

By following these stages you can restore your attitude towards food and aid in their long-term recovery from eating disorder symptoms.