Body Image & Weight Loss Articles

Eating Disorders, Emotional Eating, & Healthy Body Weight Info

Jul 29, 2007
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

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Here's a hub of body image, eating disorder, & weight loss articles. Included is information about adult weight loss camps, emotional eating, anorexia nervosa, & obesity.

Eating disorders can range from simply being unhappy to having a serious psychological disorder. Below this information about eating disorders are live links to body image, eating disorders, and healthy weight loss articles.

Eating Disorders: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulima, Binging, & Emotional Eating

When you inhale a quart of cookie dough ice cream, a pan of fudge brownies, and four soda pops all in one sitting – you have a problem. When you then rush off to the bathroom to purge by forcing yourself to throw up, or you use laxatives to rid your body of the calories and fat – then your problem with an eating disorder is potentially life-threatening. These are signs of binge eating and bulimia, signs that you’re sad about your body and life. There are other obvious and harmful eating disorders: anorexia or self-starvation, laxative use, compulsive eating, and over-exercising. Some eating disorders are obvious, others less easy to see.

Eating disorders aren’t about losing weight. They’re about unexpressed feelings of fear, anxiety, grief, inadequacy or failure. Eating disorders are efforts to take control in a chaotic life – desperate attempts to deal with difficult situations and negative feelings. Eating disorders may start as a way to take control or avoid certain emotions, and then develop into a habit that is incredibly difficult to overcome (but not impossible, so don’t lose heart!). The feelings that can lead to a full-fledged eating disorder are exacerbated, or made worse, by society’s standards of beauty and perfection.

There is a huge difference between an eating disorder, which requires diagnosis and treatment, and simply being preoccupied with weight loss, fitness, and healthy eating. It’s almost impossible to live in North America and not be concerned with those things, since as a whole we’re obsessed with beauty and perfection. The line between thinking about food and eating in a healthy versus unhealthy manner can be blurry.

So, how do you know if you have a “real” eating disorder?

You may have an eating disorder if you:

feel fat even if your weight and BMI is normal
eat to avoid dealing with feelings, people, or situations
want to be perfect
feel bad about yourself, unworthy, or insignificant
are preoccupied with food, calories, and eating
binge eat until you’re painfully full, and/or purge by using laxatives or vomiting
don’t recognize when you’re truly physically hungry for food (you're an emotional eater)
don’t eat at all, or eat less than 1,000 calories a day
are excessively thin or overweight
exercise all the time

Read Overcoming Bulimia for help fighting the bulimia monster & Sleep Eating Disorders to learn about eating while sleeping.

Did you know that anorexics' brains are different? Anorexics have a different way thinking style, which contributes to the eating disorder. Anorexia is a psychological disorder - and should be treated as such.