Overview
Overview – Feeding and Eating Disorders, Part 2
Feeding and Eating Disorders include a group of complex mental health conditions that can seriously impair health and social functioning. Eating disorders can manifest in various ways including ingesting either very small amounts or eating absolutely no food at all. They can affect every aspect of an individual’s daily life including physical, emotional, and relational health. Possibly 20 million women and 10 million men have suffered from a type of eating disorder at some time in their lives. These are often first identified in the adolescent years. Issues related to image, weight, and body shape that underlie eating disorders may begin at a much younger age. Estimates are that 40-60 percent of elementary school girls struggle with concern about body weight.
Although the exact cause for eating disorders is not known, a variety of genetic, biological, behavioral, neurochemical, and environmental-socio-cultural factors likely play a part. Males with eating disorders tend to focus more on making their bodies larger and more muscular as opposed to women who seem to be more interested in making their bodies lighter and smaller. Adults in the United States with a history of eating disorders may be 5-6 times more likely to also have a history of suicidal behavior, compared with adults without an eating disorder.
Feeding and Eating Disorders, Part 1, presented information on four types of disorders, one type each day for four days. These were:
- Pica Feeding Disorder
- Rumination Feeding Disorder
- Avoidant/restrictive Feeding Disorder
- Unspecified Feeding and Eating Disorder
Feeding and Eating Disorders, Part 2, presents four additional types of eating disorders, one type each day for four days. These are:
- Anorexia Nervosa Restricting
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Binge Eating Disorder
- Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder
On the fifth day, the Team reviews each of the four eating disorders, helping you to fix the information in your memory and to reaffirm the strategies for dealing with each type. Typically, the average person needs to review information three or four times to move it from short-term memory into long-term memory.
