Eating disorder

Youngsters today are very concerned about how they look. Appearance is a priority with many of them and they are extremely conscious of their bodies. This is more commonly seen in adolescents reaching puberty, when children undergo a lot of physical changes and simultaneously begin to face the cruel world of social pressures.

Unfortunately, this concern of maintaining a certain appearance can sometimes grow into an obsession and result in an eating disorder. Very often eating disorders may also spring out of depression and stress related disorders that are pandemic today.

An eating disorder can be described as a condition that is characterized by abnormal eating habits that involve either overeating or eating very little food.

Typically, this is taken to such an extreme that it affects the person’s health. If you do not recognize the symptoms of an eating disorder in time, it can seriously damage your health to a great extent. In very severe cases, eating disorders can lead to hospitalization and even death.

It is sometimes difficult to recognize an eating disorder, as it is not always clear where mere fussiness or eccentricity ends and a disorder begins. However, there are a few common indications of eating disorders that are quite clear and unmistakable. Here are 10 signs that you are probably suffering from an eating disorder:

You feel you are fat despite having a normal body weight.
You want to be perfect all the time in everything that you do.
You have a feeling of worthlessness and insignificance, and feel bad for yourself.
You want to exercise all the time.
You avoid eating food and skip meals so that you can lose weight.
You eat excessive amounts of food and fill your stomach completely, and then forcibly expel your food by inducing vomiting or using laxatives.
You are either very thin or have put on a lot of weight.
Your reason for stuffing yourself with food is to avoid thinking of problems, situations and people that upset you.
You feel like you have committed a sin if you have had a meal with a few extra calories.
You pretend that you are not hungry despite your body craving for food.

There are also other medical signs that tend to accompany an eating disorder. Excessive sleeping is one such sign. On the other hand, in some cases insomnia could accompany an eating disorder. A lack of proper nutrition also results in the body taking time to repair itself; for example, if you suffer a minor bruise it would take a month or even longer to heal.