Eating disorders: A guide to understand the signs and ways to cope

Being a youngster has never been easy but in these social-media fuelled times, the pain's even more excruciating. Not only are youngsters today exposed to every celebrity's diet and exercise regime and viral trends, they are also being constantly judged by everyone from their friends to followers online. With appearance being the ‘card’ to attain coolness, it's not surprising that this generation too is weighed down by unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders.  

A Bloomberg report in January this year stated that “an estimated 9% of Americans — 28.8 million people — will develop an eating disorder (ED) in their lifetime, a figure that has grown almost three-fold since the dot-com bubble peaked in 2000. These disorders often follow a person through life, putting not only their physical body in peril, but also their mental health, personal relationships and even bank accounts.” 

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An eating disorder can technically be described as ‘an abnormal behavior or action of eating’.  People who have these disorders tend to show significant discomfort towards food based on anxieties related to themselves or others around them. These eating disorders are often characterized by a distorted body image where an individual's self- evaluation is unduly influenced by their body shape and weight. According to the diagnostic criteria of mental health disorders, there are three main types of eating disorders: 

Anorexia Nervosa:  A person with this disorder attempts to restrict energy intake by reducing the amount of food they eat. They fear weight gain and so, often starve themselves. Their body weight tends to be lower than normal weight related to their age.

Bulimia Nervosa: An individual with bulimia consumes larger quantities of food at one go or within the gap of a few hours. There is a sense of lack of control in the overeating episode, or an inability to stop eating even when they are full. This overeating is then compensated by the uncomfortable act of inducing vomiting by misusing laxatives, diuretics and medications. Bulimics also obsessively indulge in fasting for excessive hours or put themselves through long, strenuous durations of exercise. All of this is done to reduce the guilt of eating enormous amounts of food.

Binge-eating:  In this case, a person consumes larger or full meals in a short duration. There is a lack of control in how much they eat even if they are feeling full. That uncontrolled eating is often followed with feelings of disgust towards themselves. Alternately, they feel guilty for the food they've eaten in a day or even after every meal. Despite the guilt, the binge-eating episodes do not stop. 

How does one cope with these eating disorders? 

Start your intervention by first understanding the emotions, thoughts or feelings that you think you are suppressing while eating. Observe the patterns inherent in the behaviour. What causes you to binge or guilt you while taking a bite? Identifying feelings of intensity and satisfaction that the behaviour engenders can help you get to the root of the problem.  

Journalling can help.  Develop the habit of writing down every emotion and thought that goes in your head while you indulge in these behaviours.  Having a record and going through it later can provide clarity about the stressors that trigger you. 

Do not try to invalidate what you are feeling or doing in any stressful situation. Instead, take a moment to process your emotions and get clear about how you want to act at that moment. 

One can often feel overwhelmed while trying to achieve unrealistic goals in life. Work to develop healthy self-awareness where you know your own potential, strengths and weakness to achieve a goal. Making short-term goals can help reduce chances of developing (or worsening) abnormal eating patterns.

Sometimes, these coping methods may prove too much to deal with all by yourself. In such a circumstance, consult a mental health professional who can help you implement these strategies, and eventually, develop healthy eating behaviours and a healthy sense of self. 

This article was authored by Aishwarya Kumar, an RCI licensed counselling and rehabilitation psychologist based in Delhi.