What are Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are diseases that affect over ten million Americans alone. Of all documented cases, women are ninety percent more likely to develop an eating disorder than men. However, there are about one million reported cases involving men with eating disorders, so it should not be dismissed that eating disorders only affect women.

Eating disorders can oftentimes be corrected through psychological and psychiatric treatments. Patients need to learn about proper eating habits as well as deal with their feelings that are the root cause for most eating disorders. There are support groups for people diagnosed with an eating disorder so that they can share their experiences with others as well as receive support while on the road to recovery.

Studies have shown that eating disorders occur in modernized countries around the world. The occurrence is the result of mainstream media depicting thin models, actors and the like in advertisements, on television and in movies. As a result, society adopts this as the norm as to how people should look. With an eating disorder the afflicted person becomes obsessed with achieving a certain look that they forgot about proper nutrition. It is one thing to go on a diet to lose a few pounds, but when a person becomes compulsive to the point where they feel fat, even if they are their ideal weight, is where it can become a problem.

Not all eating disorders involve people striving to become thin. There are other eating disorders on the other end of the spectrum that involve people not being able to control the amount of food they eat. These people are so addicted to food that they will eat almost constantly from the time they wake in the morning, until they go to bed in the evening. If they wake up at night, most of the time they will stay up long enough to eat food before going back to sleep.

While eating disorders can occur in anyone regardless of age or sex, most cases can begin as early as becoming a teenager to the time a person is in their mid-twenties.