Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that manifest in various forms, each with unique characteristics and challenges; this section will provide an overview of the different types and their symptoms.
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Anorexia Nervosa
What is it?
People with Anorexia limit their food intake significantly in order to lose weight. They might also engage in compensatory behaviour including excessive exercise or using purging techniques. Anorexia Nervosa can affect people of any age, background or gender.
What are the common symptoms?
- Not being fully honest when saying how much weight they’ve lost or how much food they are eating.
- Strict dieting and avoiding food with high calories and/or carbs.
- Skipping meals.
- Counting the calories in food excessively.
- Developing strict rules concerning food and exercise.
- Avoiding eating with other people.
- Hiding food.
- Excessive focus on body weight and shape.
- Weight loss.
- Difficulty sleeping.
- Tiredness.
- In people that can menstruate their periods may become less frequent or stop completely.
- Lack of sexual interest.
Bulimia Nervosa
What is it?
People with bulimia go through periods in which they eat a significant amount of food (binges) and then engage in purging techniques to compensate for the food they have eaten. Purging can include being sick or using laxatives. The amount of food eaten in a binge varies from person to person and sometimes would even be considered a ‘normal’ amount of food by other people.
What are the common symptoms?
- Excessive focus on body weight and/or shape.
- Eating large amounts of food (bingeing)
- Engaging in purging techniques.
- Organising life around shopping, eating and purging behaviour
- Avoiding eating with other people.
- Spending a lot or most of their time thinking about food.
- Difficulty concentrating
- Low confidence and self-esteem
- Difficulty sleeping
- Tiredness
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
What is it?
People with Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) avoid certain foods or types of food and also may have an overall restricted intake of food.
What are the common symptoms?
- Being sensitive to the taste, texture, smell, or appearance of certain types of food, or only able to eat foods at a certain temperature.
- Avoiding specific types of food or eating entirely due to a past experience of choking or vomiting, or significant abdominal pain.
- Only eating ‘safe foods’ and finding in hard to explain or articulate why these foods are considered safe.
- Having little or no appetite.
- Eating feeling like a chore.
Binge Eating Disorder
What is it?
People with Binge Eating Disorder eat large amount of food due to experiencing the feeling of losing control around food intake. Binge eating disorder can affect people of any age, background or gender.
What are the common symptoms?
- Buying lots of food
- Organising life around bingeing episodes
- Always having a lot of food in your home, often hiding it from others.
- Eating very rapidly
- Eating when not hungry
- Eating until uncomfortably full
- Spending a lot or most of their time thinking about food
- A sense of being out of control around food, or a loss of control over eating.
- Avoiding eating with other people.
- Low confidence and self-esteem.
- Feelings of shame and guilt after bingeing.
- Tiredness.
- Difficulty sleeping.
- Weight gain.
- Bloating.
Other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED)
What is it?
What are the common symptoms?
- Atypical Anorexia Nervosa: All criteria are met, except despite significant weight loss, the individual’s weight is within or above the normal range.
- Binge Eating Disorder (of low frequency and/or limited duration): All of the criteria for BED are met, except at a lower frequency and/or for less than three months.
- Bulimia Nervosa (of low frequency and/or limited duration): All of the criteria for bulimia nervosa are met, except that the binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behavior occurs at a lower frequency and/or for less than three months.
- Night Eating Syndrome: Recurrent episodes of night eating. Eating after awakening from sleep, or by excessive food consumption after the evening meal. The behavior is not better explained by environmental influences or social norms. The behavior causes significant distress/impairment. The behavior is not better explained by another mental health disorder (e.g. BED).
- Purging Disorder: Recurrent purging behavior to influence weight or shape in the absence of binge eating.