Please note that the information in this post is not meant to diagnose eating disorders. It is only meant to spread awareness. If you think that you may have an eating disorder, please contact your doctor to get a formal diagnosis.
What is an Eating Disorder?
Psychiatry.org defines an eating disorder as “behavioural conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviours and associated distressing thoughts and emotions.” This article will discuss the three more common disorders found in youth: anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating.
The Causes
With the increase in social media use globally, we’ve seen a rapid growth of “fitness pals”, “nutritionists”, and influencers all around the world dedicated to selling different trends that will gain viewers and attention. However, while seeing a “what I eat in a day” video a few times a week on your feed can appear seemingly harmless on the surface, the truth is that a lot of these so-called “health-influencers” contribute to the rapidly deteriorating mental health and body image of their audience. Youth, particularly teenage girls, are particularly vulnerable to the damage that these videos can induce, because of the increased amount of self-consciousness and hormone levels that are in our bodies due to the fact that we are rapidly maturing. These videos can worsen our mental health regarding appearance, and encourage unhealthy obsession with the way that we look. This is what fuels eating disorders.
Even worse, the media specifically targets young females to market weight-loss diets, treatments, and workouts. One day, when I scrolled onto an ad on Youtube Shorts with an obviously Photoshopped fitness influencer selling a “waist-snatching weight-loss” workout, I decided to use Google’s “Why did I get this ad?” function because I had never expressed an interest in weight loss or workouts of the sort on any social media platforms. I discovered that the only reason that Google had pushed the weight-loss ad to me was because the algorithm had decided I was under 40 and female. With no more additional information about my health, weight, or age, it decided to sell me a weight loss ad.
Other Influences
Additionally, other influences such as heredity, biases and comments from family members or peers, genetics, and advertisements in the media can also contribute hugely to eating disorders. There are many things that can contribute to psychological disorders such as eating disorders, and it’s often impossible to narrow it down to just a few.
1. BED (Binge-Eating Disorder)
The binge-eating disorder is characterized by regular “episodes” of eating very large amounts of (usually) comfort food. People who suffer BED overeat, and then continue to eat even when they are uncomfortably full or nauseous. This is called bingeing, and it can often feel uncontrollable. People with BED typically binge at least once a week for a month or longer. They may have large weight fluctuations, or hide containers, wrappers, or food in uncommon places (bedroom, bathroom closets, etc).
There are no official causes for the binge-eating disorder, although scientists and doctors have found a few trends in those who are diagnosed:
- a history of dealing with conflict by eating
- a history of extremely restrictive diets
- a habit of skipping meals
In my opinion, binge eating is one of the most commonly under-diagnosed disorders. Bingeing food has almost become normalized in North America – for example, emotional eating on a regular basis, midnight binges – and because of this most people who binge eat don’t get diagnosed. Eating disorders are also commonly associated with losing weight rapidly, which might not be the case with BED and might be another reason why people don’t recognize or get treatment for their disorder.
2. Anorexia Nervosa
One of the more commonly known eating disorders, anorexia is characterized by an irrational fear of gaining weight, an unhealthily low body weight, and a distorted perception of weight. However, it should be noted that not all of those boxes need to be filled when someone has anorexia. People who suffer anorexia tend to under-eat, avoid eating in social settings, and overexercise to avoid gaining weight. They may have an obsession over their bodies’ appearance and control calories by using laxatives or diet ads. People with anorexia might feel constantly tired, cold, or catch sicknesses easily.
Despite all of the research and knowledge that doctors and scientists have about anorexia, it is still often under-diagnosed due to the normalized thin models and actors that we see in the media. Many people are thin without being anorexic, but where many doctors diagnose wrongly is in assuming that everyone who is anorexic is extremely thin, or in assuming that all thin bodies are healthy. Some are, but some most definitely aren’t.
It’s important to note that the danger of anorexia is that no matter how much weight that the person loses, they will continue to restrict their food and fear weight gain. The physical symptoms of anorexia are similar to that of starvation; they are quite similar in the fact that the body is not getting enough calories to survive.
This diagnosis for anorexia is critical, because anorexia can be fatal.
3. Bulimia Nervosa
Similar to anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa is almost like a combination of both. People who are bulimic binge large amounts of food, and then purge it through vomiting, misusing laxatives, exercising excessively, or fasting. These reactions to bingeing may stem from guilt or fear of weight gain.
Anxiety disorders, substance disorders, and mood disorders, are often involved in the causes of bulimia. However, genetics, social media, and cultural ideas that place value based on body weight, also play a huge role.
The largest danger of bulimia is involved in the purging of food. When a person vomits their food, a lot of their stomach acid will also come up the throat. Long-term, not only can this burn the throat, but it can also cause esophageal cancer and lung aspirations.
Bulimia is one of the hardest eating disorders to diagnose, because sometimes it has no obvious physical signs. As well, people with bulimia usually purge privately and secretively, so sometimes the only person who knows about a bulimia disorder is the one who has it. This means that in order to receive treatment, the person will have to admit that they have a disorder. This can be incredibly difficult and intimidating, because often the person will be in denial about their disorder despite knowing about it, in order to avoid admitting that they are doing harm to themselves.
Help is Here.
Eating disorders can feel extremely isolating. But I promise that you are not alone.
If you think that you might have an eating disorder, I urge you to contact your doctor to get a diagnosis and treatment. If you would like to do some more research, here are the sources that I pulled my information from for this article:
Bulimia Info Source 1
Anorexia Info Source: 1
BED Info Source: 1
An important note about eating disorders is that sometimes they go hand in hand with depression. If you are ever struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or call the Canadian Helpline: 9-8-8
