What Eating Disorder Do I Have?
Are you wondering if you are struggling with an eating disorder? This article will go more in depth about eating disorders types from a licensed therapist.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are occur more and more with things happening such as nationwide lockdowns, social media, and new fad diets every year. While some people have eating disorders, there are others who don’t meet all the criteria and still struggle with unhealthy relationships with food. This can make it difficult for people to get the help they need.
Types of Eating Disorders
Pica
Pica is the eating of non-food items. These can be things like hair, chalk, tissues, paper, etc. Pica has become more commonly known after the show My Strange Addiction grew in popularity. It can be very dangerous for individuals.
Rumination
Rumination is less common, but that does not mean it’s less dangerous. It’s where you regurgitate food that you either expel it, re-shallow it, or chew it again. This often occurs for at least a month to be diagnosed with this disorder.
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
ARFID is often more persistent in children but is not exclusive to kiddos. Some see ARFID as being a picker eater. Plenty of us could say we have experienced this one time or another, especially after a bout of nasty food poisoning, swearing off, never eating that food again. I am looking at you, vegan corn dogs. However, AFRID becomes an eating disorder when it has negative health effects.
With AFRID, you need to have at least one of the following occurring with the above situations, according to DSM-5 TR:
Significant weight loss (or failure to achieve expected weight gain or faltering growth in children).
Significant nutritional deficiency.
Dependence on enteral feeding (feeding tube) or oral nutritional supplements.
Marked interference with psychosocial functioning.
Anorexia Nervosa
The most common of the eating disorders is Anorexia Nervosa, or anorexia. You may restrict the food you eat or trying to compensate for the food you ate to decrease your calories. Body image issues, weight loss, and an inability to maintain appropriate body weight based on age, gender, or height are familiar characteristics associated with anorexia. While BMI is an outdated measure of health, DSM criteria include having a BMI less than 17.
Because of media, we often get told anorexia is a person who becomes very thin after restricting food. Anorexia is does not discriminate based on age, gender, body size, race, ethnicities, or sexual orientation. Individuals with large bodies go undiagnosed because of stigma, prejudice, and fat shaming that occur in the healthcare field.
DSM-5 TR identifies the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa as:
Restriction of food based on calories leading to being significantly underweight based on age, sex, developmental trajectory (behaviors appropriate to your age), and physical health.
Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain despite being underweight.
Disturbance in how one experiences their body weight or shape, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight. (Simply put body image and perception issues and denial of issues.)
There can be two types of anorexia: restricting type or binge-eating/purging type.
Restricting Type
No binge-eating/purging in the last 3 months.
Weight loss due to dieting, fasting, and/or excessive exercise.
Binge-Eating/Purging Type
Using purging aids such as diuretics, laxatives, or enemas.
Excessive eating followed by purging of food occurring within at least a 3-month period that is recurrent.
Bulimia Nervosa
We also see bulimia Nervosa or bulimia eating disorder in media sources. It’s where people self-induce vomit, have obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and are hiding their behaviors. Bulimia switches between a binging (eating a larger amount of food that is usual or than intended), followed by an elimination or purging of the food through several methods.
DSM-5 TR identifies you must have these two to meet criteria for Bulimia Nervosa:
Typically eating larger qualities of food than intended within a 2-hour time period.
Lack of control over eating, feeling that you cannot stop or control how much you are eating.
Other criteria include:
Inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain using laxatives, diuretics, self-induced vomiting, use of diet products and pills, or excessive exercising.
On average occurring at least once a week for a 3-month period.
Body shape and weight influences self-evaluation.
Does not occur during episodes of anorexia nervosa.
Binge-Eating Disorder
Binge-Eating Disorder is one of the newest feeding and eating disorders. While binge-eating can be a part of anorexia or bulimia, binge-eating disorder does not comprise a purging behavior. We often associate shame and guilt more with binge-eating disorder.
DSM-5 TR diagnostic criteria include:
Must have both:
Typically eating larger qualities of food than intended within a 2-hour time period.
Lack of control over eating, feeling that you cannot stop or control how much you are eating.
Other criteria include one of three (or more) of these:
Eating much more rapidly than normal.
Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.
Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.
Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating.
Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed or very guilty afterwards.
Distress caused by binge eating.
On average occurring at least once a week for a 3-month period.
Does not occur during episodes of anorexia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.
What If I am Still Not Sure?
You can find a self-screening tool here. This tool is only to determine if there is a possibility of an eating disorder. You must seek a therapist and medical team to get a formal evaluation. You can also reach out here for a free consultation or to schedule an intake for evaluation.