How to see the signs of an eating disorder

Signs of an eating disorder

Being able to read the signs of eating disorders is the first step toward finding treatment for a loved one. It might seem that, in their extreme forms, some of these disorders should be fairly easy to notice - a skeletal- looking body (the result of extreme weight loss), obvious signs of vomiting and diarrhea, hours spent each day at the gym, and so on. But many eating disorders don't reach these extreme stages, and often there are other factors that hide the telltale signs.

Disordered dieting

"Cultural thinness" means that, since it's okay to be slim, it takes sharp eyes to see who is too thin. People with anorexia may not receive medical or psychological attention until they have already become dangerously thin and malnourished. The consequences of "normal," or socially approved, dieting can resemble anorexia or bulimia in milder forms.

Researchers at the University of Toronto found that people who go on diets tend to eat like "starving" people - they deprive themselves for as long as they can and then end up gorging on food - in other words, to act like people with true eating disorders and thus make the real ones harder to identify. Also, people with bulimia are often normal weight and are able to hide their illness from others for years because they don't get too skinny.

Dieting itself ("normal" and disordered) can take many forms: for example, avoiding eating for long periods of time (in other words, starving, which may lead to bingeing); avoiding eating certain types of food (craving may lead to bingeing); and restricting the total amount of food eaten (starving, which may lead to bingeing). Each type illustrates an unhealthy approach to nourishing the body. There are different levels of dieting, from casual to obsessive.

For example, the "chronic dieter" keeps careful track of foods selected from a limited list, focusing on those that will help "lose weight" and avoiding those that might cause weight gain. Chronic dieters conscientiously exercise at least once or twice a day and weigh daily, but they can stop this pattern, and often do, even when they hope to lose more weight.

Or, someone may have "disordered" approaches to food that aren't severe enough to qualify as eating disorders. For instance, they may eat only "low-calorie" foods, or eat only once a day, and weigh themselves frequently. Finally, true eating disorders involve obsessive-compulsive behaviors. That is, sufferers experience a compulsion - an irresistible inner urge - to commit an irrational act, and are fueled by an obsession - a persistent, unshakable idea that repeats again and again. People for whom dieting becomes an obsession can't stop.

You can't always tell by looking that an adolescent is struggling with an eating issue. Overweight teens sometimes take the drastic and unhealthy step of using laxatives to try to lose weight. Or, they may eat, but only certain foods. Someone who has an incredibly strict eating regimen may not lose weight because he gets enough calories to maintain it.

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