Anorexia and Bulimia: What Causes Them?

Anorexia and Bulimia: What Causes Them?

An eating disorder is an illness that affects all aspects of each sufferer's life, is triggered by a variety of emotional factors and influences, and has profound effects on sufferers and their loved ones. In this article we will concentrate on Anorexia and Bulimia. Anorexia is a unique reaction to a variety of outer and inner conflicts, such as tension, concern, unhappiness and feeling as if life is uncontrolled. Anorexia is a negative way to deal with these emotions. An Anorexia sufferer may be extremely sensitive about being overweight, or have deep-seated fear of becoming overweight - though not all Anorexia sufferers experience this fear. They may fear to lose control of the quantity of food they consume, combined with the craving to control their emotions and responses to their emotions. With a low self-esteem and need for acceptance they will turn to obsessive weight control and starvation as a way to control not only their weight, but their feelings and actions. Some also feel that they do not deserve pleasures of life, and will avoid situations offering pleasure (including eating). Some of the behavioral signs can be: obsessive exercise, calorie gram counting, starvation and restriction of food, self-induced vomiting, the use of diet pills, laxatives or diuretics to attempt controlling body weight, and a constant concern with the way they look.

Bulimia sufferers seek episodes of binging and purging - they will binge on food in a comparatively short period and then use behaviors such as fetching laxatives or diuretics or self-induced vomiting - because they feel overwhelmed in managing their emotions, or in order to punish themselves. Bulimia sufferers may seek binge and purge episodes to avoid and let out feelings of anger, depression, tension or anxiety. Repeated episodes of binging followed by tremendous guilt and purging (laxatives or self-induced vomiting), a feeling of losing control over food consumption, engaging in strict dieting and exercise on a regular basis, the misuse of diuretics or laxatives, and/or diet pills and a persistent concern about the way they look can all be warnings somebody is suffering from Bulimia. The two illnesses have a lot of similarities, the commonest being the cause. They are complex emotional issues. Though they may seem to be nothing more than a dangerously obsessive body weight concern on the surface, for most people having an eating disorder there are deeper emotional conflicts to be resolved.