We help you to get an overview of the following eating disorders:
- Anorexia (=anorexia nervosa)
- Bulimia nervosa (= bulimia)
- Binge Eating (=Psychogenic Hyperphagia)
Definition
Every living creature needs a regular and (desirable) balanced diet to ensure its own survival. For us humans, however, food has other meanings as well. For example, food can be seen as a mirror of the inner psychological state.
For example, the first consultation with a psychiatrist always includes the question of appetite. However, the change in eating habits can become so great that it is no longer a symptom of an illness, but becomes an illness itself. In general, it is by no means to be called pathological if one reacts to psychological stress and changes with changed eating behavior (which person does not know the loss of appetite before exams or the chocolate hunger in case of lovesickness).
However, the changed eating behavior becomes problematic when it is no longer temporary, but rather becomes a fixed and later controlling factor in life and an eating disorder develops. Often enough eating disorders occur together with other psychological disorders. For example, the risk for patients with a borderline disorder to develop an additional eating disorder is over 50%.
Anorexia
Anorexia nervosaAnorexia is an eating disorder in which weight loss is the main concern. This goal is often pursued by the patient with such consistency that it can even lead to life-threatening conditions. The diagnosis is confirmed, among other things, by the fact that the patient’s body weight is at least 15% below that of a “normal” comparison person, and that there is a noticeable change in the patient’s hormone balance.
Bulimia
The main characteristic of the disorder of bulimia is recurrent eating fits. During these eating fits the patient eats a very large amount of food in a short period of time. This amount is significantly larger than that consumed by a healthy person in a comparable period of time. The eating fits can be followed by self-induced vomiting, but this is not necessary.
