Eating disorders

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An eating disorder is an illness that stems from both emotional and psychological distress, and results in an obsessive relationship with food in terms of over or under eating. Having the ability to control the amount and type of food consumed makes sufferers believe that they are coping with their problems and offers them a way to block out painful feelings.

Types of eating disorder:

• Anorexia: Sufferers have a distorted view of their own body shape and weight, leading them to deliberately starve themselves of food;
• Bulimia: Bulimics fall into an abusive cycle of gorging on food until they are sick and get rid of all the food they have eaten. Many will also use laxatives to induce diarrhoea;
• Compulsive eating: Again, this involves binge eating, but unlike bulimia, these people are unable to purge themselves.

Anyone can suffer from an eating disorder but they are most common among young women aged 15 to 25.

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