Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious and often fatal illnesses that are associated with severe disturbances in people’s eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions. Preoccupation with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Eating disorders impact both men and women.

Eating disorders are NOT lifestyle choices or attention seeking.

It is important to seek treatment early for eating disorders. People with eating disorders are at higher risk for suicide and medical complications. People with eating disorders can often have other mental disorders (such as depression or anxiety) or problems with substance use. Complete recovery is possible.

Treatment options include:

Individual, group, and/or family psychotherapy

Medical care and monitoring

Nutritional counseling

Medications

In most cases, it is recommended that someone with an eating disorder have a multidisciplinary healthcare team that is comprised of a combination of the following: a medical doctor, psychiatrist, nutritionist, and mental health professional.

Symptoms include:

Extremely restricted eating

Extreme thinness (emaciation)

A relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a normal or healthy weight

Intense fear of gaining weight

Distorted body image, a self-esteem that is heavily influenced by perceptions of body weight and shape, or a denial of the seriousness of low body weight

Other symptoms may develop over time, including:

Thinning of the bones (osteopenia or osteoporosis)

Mild anemia and muscle wasting and weakness

Brittle hair and nails

Dry and yellowish skin

Growth of fine hair all over the body (lanugo)

Severe constipation

Low blood pressure

Slowed breathing and pulse

Damage to the structure and function of the heart

Brain damage

Multiorgan failure

Drop in internal body temperature, causing a person to feel cold all the time

Lethargy, sluggishness, or feeling tired all the time

Infertility