What are eating disorders?
Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions characterized by an unhealthy relationship with food, often accompanied by an extreme focus on weight and body image.
Individuals with eating disorders may display harmful eating behaviors, such as overeating or undereating, and have a distorted perception of their body and weight.
What are the types of eating disorders?
There are several types of eating disorders, but three of the most common ones are:
- Anorexia nervosa: Involves having an extreme inclination towards managing your weight. Individuals with anorexia may go to extreme lengths to cut their body weight even if they are dangerously thin.
- Bulimia nervosa: Characterized by a loss of control over how much food you eat at a time. Individuals with bulimia often eat large portions of food in a short time (binge eating) and then try to get rid of it using different purging methods such as vomiting or excessive use of laxatives or diuretics.
- Binge eating disorder: Similar to bulimia, binge eating disorder is characterized by consuming large amounts of food in a short amount of time. However, individuals with binge eating disorder may not actively attempt to purge or get rid of the food once consumed.
- Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder: In ARFID, people fail to meet their nutritional needs because they lack interest in food, are repulsed by the texture or appearance of food, and carry fears like choking. Unlike other disorders, ARFID focuses on sensory issues or fear-based avoidance of food rather than weight concerns.
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Pica: Common especially in children, pica is a disorder in which people consume items that are either not food or carry no nutritional value, like paper, paint, ice, or chalk. Pica, in some cases, might be a sign of nutritional deficiency like anemia.
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Rumination Disorder: This disorder involves regurgitation and re-chewing of food. While it is common amongst children, it can also affect adults.
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Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorder: People with dietary habits that impair their health, work, and social life but do not fit the above list are categorized under OSFED.
Signs of Eating Disorders
Whereas different eating disorders have different, specific symptoms, there are some generic symptoms.
Early Symptoms of Eating Disorders
- Body-image issues
- Changes in eating habits
- Changes in appearance
- Excessive exercise
- Eating slowly
- Chronic fatigue or low energy levels
- Frequent visits to the bathroom, especially after eating to purge the food
- Lying about food
- Obsession or a growing focus on body weight or size
- Self-isolation, especially when eating
- Purging
Physical Symptoms of Eating Disorders
- Poor dental hygiene
- Heart problems
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Fainting or passing out
- Hair loss issues
- Menstrual cycle issues in females
- Sleep issues
- Weak bones
- Muscular weakness
- Significant weight changes
Psychological Symptoms of Eating Disorder
- Anxiety
- Body dysmorphia
- Obsessive thoughts
- Difficulty concentrating
- Depression
- Fear of weight gain
- Perfectionism
- Social withdrawal
Causes of Eating Disorders
Even though the exact cause of eating disorders is unknown, there are certain factors that can be behind the issue. These include:
- Genetics
- Brain biology
- Other mental health issues
- Social pressures
Risk factors of Eating Disorders
While anyone can have an eating disorder, some risk factors can increase their probability. These include:
- Family history of eating disorders
- Trauma
- Co-occurring psychiatric conditions such as anxiety, OCD, and substance abuse.
- Careers that emphasize body size such as modeling or professional sports
- Type 1 diabetes
- Perfectionism
- Major life changes
- Bullying
What is Eating Disorder Counselling?
Eating disorders are psychological conditions concerning behaviors and attitudes around dietary habits and body image. Eating disorders impair one’s physical and psychological health as well as their social life. Characterized by unhealthy relationships with food, body image issues and at times, compulsive exercise, eating disorders can be life-threatening.
Eating disorder counselling in Abu Dhabi helps individuals overcome eating disorders, improve their mindset and behaviors around food, and come up with coping strategies.
Eating disorder treatment in Dubai
Eating disorder treatment focuses on helping individuals cope with and overcome detrimental eating tendencies and behaviors by instilling healthy body weight perception and weight control practices. This can be achieved through a combination of medications with lifestyle changes.
Individuals with eating disorders have also shown noticeable improvements through psychotherapy, especially CBT involving individual, group, or family therapy sessions. Eating disorder treatment includes:
Nutritional counseling
It helps people eat better, especially to maintain a healthy weight. A nutritionist also helps in addressing different physical complications of the illness.
Medical care
It is done to mitigate the harmful physical effects of eating disorders.
Medication
Medication is often used as part of a holistic treatment plan to manage co-occurring medical issues like anxiety and depression. However, there is no one medication to treat eating disorders.
Therapy
There are different psychotherapy techniques that help with eating disorders. These include:
1. Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
CBT helps address harmful thought patterns and behaviors. It helps with body image issues, meal planning, self-monitoring and eating well.
2. Dialectical-behavioral Therapy
DBT helps with emotional regulation and impulse control. It helps improve relationships and make better coping strategies.
3. Family Therapy
As the family has an important role to play in eating disorders, especially those among children, including them in the treatment is important. Family therapy helps equip parents to build a healthy home environment to improve the causes and symptoms of eating disorders.
Eating disorder counselling in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
According to a study conducted in the UAE, 24% of the females in the sample had disordered eating habits. Hence, eating disorders are an important issue for society. If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, seeking professional eating disorder treatment in Dubai can be a life-changing decision.
Counsel Clinic provides eating disorder counselling in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and the UAE. Our licensed eating disorder therapists are here to guide you on your journey towards a healthier lifestyle. Eating disorder therapy is highly beneficial in helping you develop strategies to control unhealthy habits such as binge eating while improving your perception of your weight and body image.
To get eating disorder therapy in Dubai, you can pick any therapist from the above list or contact us to get matched for an online talk session.
