eating disorder

Any obsessive and abnormal eating pattern that has been adopted to cope with inner psychological or emotional stress. Eating disorders include anorexia (a disinclination to eat), bulimia (‘binge’ eating), and compulsive dieting. Methods used to control food intake may include fasting, purging, or the use of slimming pills, diuretics, or laxatives. As essential nutrients are omitted from the diet, primary deficiency diseases, such as anaemia, will occur. Severe, and even terminal, disorders can be inflicted on an otherwise healthy body. Treatment needs to address the underlying psychological problem as well as the disturbed eating pattern, in order to restore a balanced diet. Although anyone can develop an eating disorder, teenage girls and young women are most at risk.

Factors that may contribute to eating disorders range from stress caused by academic or social pressure to bereavement or family upheaval. At home, the attitudes of a significant family member towards food may affect eating behaviour. Experiencing a long-term disability or illness may also give rise to an eating disorder. Sufferers may have a distorted body image. It is believed that some people may have a genetic predisposition to developing some form of eating disorder.