MENTAL ILLNESS

EATING DISORDERS

WHAT IS IT?

An eating disorder is a mental health condition where you use the control of food to cope with feelings and other situations. Unhealthy eating behaviours may include eating too much or too little or worrying about your weight or body shape.

There's no one cause for eating disorders. Genes, environment, and stressful events all play a role. Some things can increase a person's chance of having an eating disorder, such as:

• Poor body image

• Too much focus on weight or looks

• Dieting at a young age

• Playing sports that focus on weight (gymnastics, ballet, ice skating, and wrestling)

• Having a family member with an eating disorder

• Mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, or OCD

The most common eating disorders are:

• Anorexia Nervosa: trying to control your weight by not eating enough food, exercising too much, or doing both. People with anorexia are very strict about what and how much they will eat. They may think about food or calories almost all the time. To lose weight, some people with anorexia fast or exercise too much. Others may use laxatives, diuretics (water pills), or enemas.

• Bulimia: losing control over how much you eat and then taking drastic action to not put on weight.People with bulimia eat much more (during a set period of time) than most people would. If a person regularly binges and purges, it may be a sign of bulimia. Unlike people with anorexia who are very low weight, people with bulimia may be thin, average weight, or overweight. People with bulimia often hide their eating and purging from others.

• Binge Eating Disorder (BED): eating large portions of food until you feel uncomfortably full. Many people with binge eating disorder eat faster than normal. They may eat alone so others don't see how much they are eating. Unlike people with bulimia, those with binge eating disorder do not make themselves throw up, use laxatives, or exercise a lot to make up for binge eating. If a person binge eats at least once a week for 3 months, it may be a sign of binge eating disorder

• ARFID: People with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder are not interested in food or avoid foods, lose weight, or don't gain expected amount of weight, are not afraid of gaining weight, don't have a poor body image. People with ARFID don't eat because they are turned off by the smell, taste, texture, or color of food. They may be afraid that they will choke or vomit. They don't have anorexia, bulimia, or another medical problem that would explain their eating behaviors.