What are Eating Disorders?

Somebody who is suffering from one is attempting, through their control over food and their bodies, to gain control over the parts of their lives which are causing them distress.

Any form of obsessive behavior feels, to the doer, as though it releases them from the emotional pain they are experiencing.

Of course, it doesn't, but in order for them to be able to escape from this trap, they need to realize that the obsessive behavior is perpetuating their unhappiness rather than relieving it.

And they need to know that there is a way out - that there is a much better way to deal with what they are feeling.

The disorders typically fall into three categories: anorexia Nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge/compulsive eating disorder.

Somebody suffering from anorexia nervosa habitually starves him/herself of food.He or she also exercises fanatically in an attempt to lose weight.Losing weight is so crucial to the person with anorexia that it feels as though his or life depends on what the scales say.

Bulimia Nervosa.

Like the anorexic, somebody suffering from this disorder is torn between their hunger for food and their desire to be thin.When they eat, they feel guilty, so they force themselves to vomit, which releases the guilt.

Binge eating or Compulsive eating disorder is to do with eating for comfort.People with this disorder believe, somewhere deep inside them, that their need for love can be met by food - so they eat large amounts of food in order to fill the gap where love should go.Eating is followed by feelings of guilt and shame, which usually leads to another binge, and so on.