Eating Disorders or Disordered Eating
* Note: This is a long post that is out of the typical post I write here. I know many readers were interested in the topic. Supply and Demand!*
When we are stressed, the first thing many people change is their eating habits. Stress tends to make us act differently and we cannot avoid stress entirely, stress can be healthy to push us forward or prevent us from making a mistake.
It is our behavioral response to the stress that alters our normal habits. Some people exercise to relieve stress, some people do the opposite-get extra sleep or go to a day spa for a massage. Some people respond to stress by chatting it out with friends, or drinking it up with friends, some unconsciously avoid eating, others eat to soothe themselves from the stress.
These responses can be minor events. Say you down a pint of Ben n Jerry’s over a bad break up or you have three too many adult beverages at the pub because your boss yelled at you… Okay, life doesnt’ stop there, you know it , you get over it, and move on back to normal the next day or maybe two days post-hangover. This post is all about when you DON’T…( don’t stop, know it, get over it, move on)
Why was that disordered? It’s disordered because the intent of using ice cream or alcohol is to make you feel better, or to make you not feel at all. This is not what food and beverages are intended for. Food and beverages are intended to provide nutrition, fuel for the activities and demands placed on your body. When drinking or eating, you can ask yourself “Am I really hungry” “Do I really need this bag of chips to live?” … The answer is often no. We can still have those things that we want, the ice cream, the alcohol, the chips though.
Why “disordered” can be normal…The occasional slip to that habit is pretty normal when it remains an occasional slip, once every few months…that is occasional. We run into problems with our health and well-being when those events happen every friday, then every friday and saturday, then the occasional tuesday, then every stress turns into soothing yourself with food. It is a risky habit that can become the naturally coping mechanism for many people.
Purpose and Consistency
The purpose behind the eating and how consistently you eat that way is what can distinguish normal eating from disordered eating, and also disordered eating from “clinical eating disorder”, although with those, comes additional diagnostic criteria found below.
When your decision about what to eat and how to eat is compulsive, inflexible, and resolving underlying emotional issues- There is problem. That is disordered eating. It is the misuse of food to resolve problems ( that problem not being hunger- resolving physical hunger by eating food is “normal” !). Many of us are emotionally or spiritually hungry, which we mistake for physical hunger.
We can also suffer from disordered eating for much longer and without resolve because we lack acceptance of it as a problem, “oh I just had to have some chocolate”, “oh I just have to have a drink”, “I’m just going to eating this bag and stop there…. I’m just going to stop at 2, okay 3″… “I deserve some…” …
The purpose becomes, “keep eating to avoid dealing”. It becomes consistently the way we handle the stress.
Good News: Disordered Eating can often (not always) resolve without formal treatment when we recognize the problem and deal with the emotions in the most appropriate way. Sometimes it is a matter of knowing ourselves better, accepting our abilities more, realizing “It is not my trip” when others cause you stress. Finding a new job that is more fulfilling, taking a new path that leads you to better decisions, giving up control of things that you need not control and focusing on living your life the way you want. It involves becoming conscious of the moment and consequences.
Bad News:
Eating in disordered ways can also lead to more severe, unhealthier habits, which can fit diagnostic criteria for eating disorders (E.D). 40% of college women displayed disordered eating and attitudes (Cordero & Israel, 2009), whereas 6% met diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia nervosa. Lives are usually not as deeply impacted by unhealthy views on appearance, exercising a bit too much, emotionally soothing through food.
I am posting the criteria because for I feel that eating disorders are not “talked about” enough. People seem to make assumptions about what they are, what they mean, or the social stigma involving them. I strongly feel that this is what helps keep the cycle going, no one wants to talk about the nitty gritty or face the conflict so girls keep falling into these habits, getting deeper into disorders. By posting the criteria, I also hope that it could help if you suspect yourself or someone you love is affected by an E.D, that you can find ways to help them.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia is a term used to define “lack of eating” or “loss of appetite”, it can occur with medical conditions, medication, etc. Anorexia Nervosa is a clinical eating disorder that involves:
1. Refusal to maintain body weight , maintaining a body weight less than 85% of ideal body weight for height/age
2. Intense fear of gaining weigh or becoming fat, despite being underweight
3. Disturbance in the way one view’s their body weight & shape, Denial of underweight
4. Amenorrhea ( in females, absense of at least three consecutive menstrual cycles).
Medical complications include: extremely dry skin ( lack of protein and fat for cells to maintain integrity), hypothermia ( same reasons as dry skin), hypotension, edema, anemia, infertility, osteoporosis, cardiac failure, and death ( from starvation, severe electrolyte imbalances).
As you can see, in addition to the disordered eating habits (intentionally not eating to avoid …denial …), these criteria make it a “clinical eating disorder” vs. just habits.
Bulimia Nerovsa
- Eating in a discrete period of time, an amount of food that is definitely larger than most would eat during a similar period of time, with lack of intention to fuel appropriately ( i.e you would obviously need to a larger than normal amount of food after you complete a triathalon, the intent is completely different)
- Inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to prevent weight gain.
- Recurrent episodes of such eating in #1 in addition to compensatory behavior in #2 for more than twice a week for more than 3 month
Medical complications: erosion of dental enamel, dental caries, menstrual irregularity, laxative dependences, electrolyte imbalances, gastric rupture, cardiac arrhythmias, and chronic pancreatitis.
As you can see, there are severe complications associated with these disorders. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that they are going away anytime soon for plenty of reasons. Even just a few years ago, no one ever talked about Depression or Erectile Dysfunction and now you see commercials for all kinds of anti-depressants and little pills to take. I think the more that we become aware of these issues, we can better deal with them and hopefully stop this cycle of eating disorders in the U.S.
Why is it seen much more in the U.S than anywhere else?
I feel the reason why it is much more prevalent here in the U.S is because we lack the awareness of the consequences to eating. Food has calories, that is its PURPOSE! I think we as a nation try to come up with “low calorie” foods or diets, we seek ways to “cheat” the system by taking out the fat, or bulking up the protein. We seem to forget that we eat to give us energy to function. We also eat for social reasons, gathering around the family dinner table is a social and comforting event as it should be! Even in paleolithic times, food was hunted for ( physical activity) and gathered ( grocery shopping), prepared in bulk for the tribe (cooking family meals), and enjoyed because of all that was put into it gave it value!
It is the fact that food is available to us in any format, everywhere we go in the U.S. It makes us “less responsible” for the actions of eating, less hunting, less gathering, less enjoyment for true value of food. In many other countries, people are working hard, farming hard, and walking miles to grocery stores just to access food.
What do you think?
If you suspect that you or someone you love might fit the criteria for either Eating Disorder or Disordered Eating- there are many places to go for help:
Renfrew Center Helpful Links
Help is a Click or Call Away at The National Eating Disorder Association
I look forward to reading your comments and thoughts on this post!
