Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
Open Access

A Short Description on Eating Disorders

Zening Song^{* *}Correspondence: Zening Song, Department of Psychology, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Haidian, China, Email:

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Description

Eating disorders (such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder) are characterised by aberrant eating practises as well as distorted body image. Patients often keep eating problems hidden, and they can be interwoven with other psychiatric diseases, such as depression, making it difficult to diagnose and treat. Eating disorder signs and symptoms typically do not appear suddenly, but rather gradually over time, often leading to long-term health effects, including death. Individualized pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment, including psychotherapy, should be evaluated.

Individuals with eating disorders have severely disrupted eating practises, erratic food thoughts, and a distorted body image. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) significantly broadened the scope of eating disorders, recognising "Feeding and Eating Disorders" as a broad category. Pica, rumination disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, other specified feeding or eating disorder, and nonspecific feeding or eating disorder are all examples of eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder will be discussed in this article. Eating disorders can have a variety of negative health implications, including death. Treatment options include psychotherapy and/or medicines.

In the United States, there are roughly 30 million clinically significant cases of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or unexplained eating disorders, with 20 million of those afflicted being women. Many cases go unreported due to the disease's covert nature. As a result, case estimates may not be entirely accurate. Through the media, Western ideas of beauty have spread over the world, resulting in an increase in eating disorders in non-Western countries. In the United States, anorexia nervosa is the most frequent eating disorder among non-Hispanic Whites, but all other eating disorders have similar prevalence rates across ethnic groups.

Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder have lifetime prevalence estimates of 0.6 percent, 1.0 percent, and 2.8 percent, respectively, in the United States, according to a 2007 study. The most common eating disorder among young women is anorexia nervosa. Over the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in cases of girls between the ages of 15 and 19, a group already designated as high risk. This could indicate that the illness is being detected and/or manifesting at a younger age. Since the early 1990s, the overall reported incidence of bulimia nervosa has decreased slightly. When compared to the general population, persons seeking weight loss treatment are more likely to suffer from binge eating disorder.

An eating disorder is a physical and psychological condition in which the patient's thoughts and emotions about food, as well as their eating practices, are severely disrupted. These people are frequently fascinated with eating, as well as their weight and appearance.

Anorexia is the oldest recognized eating disorder, but its etiology is unclear. Persons afflicted with anorexia nervosa have below normal body weight due to underrating or the refusal of food, obsessive exercising, and laxative use. They also often have low self-esteem and body image-being very critical of their bodies and suffering from body dysmorphia, seeing themselves as overweight or being fat when they are, in fact, underweight, and may even be close to starvation. In patients with anorexia, there is an intense fear of weight gain and, therefore, drastic measures are taken to avoid this weight gain.