We need to eat every day to gain energy and stay healthy. You may have periods when you eat too much or too little. Sometimes this is because you want to lose weight, but your mental well-being can also affect your appetite. Under the influence of stress or anxiety, you may lose your appetite or eat more because it helps you feel good. An eating disorder, however, is of a different order. It is a psychological problem, where food starts to define your life. This, of course, has immense consequences for your body and mind.

An eating disorder arises as a strategy to make you feel safe. It can help avoid mental pain. There are different forms, where you eat too little or, on the contrary, eat a large amount at one time. Many people call it a welfare disease. While it may be the case that it occurs mainly in Western countries, it is actually a manifestation of psychological pain.

Types of eating disorders

• Anorexia nervosa: extreme fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. You eat too little and as a result gain too low a body weight.
• Bulimia nervosa: first there is an unstoppable compulsion to eat a lot, followed by vomiting, excessive exercising or laxatives.
• Eating disorder (binge eating disorder): you eat way too fast and too much, so much that you feel uncomfortably full. You will eat when you are not even hungry, even products you do not like. You always eat alone out of shame.
• ARFID (Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder): A person with ARFID has hypersensitive senses, making certain smells, tastes or the texture of food distasteful. This makes you want to eat very few different types of food.

Although it may seem that an eating disorder only leads to unhealthy eating, the disorder has a great deal of impact on daily life. Someone who suffers from this is constantly thinking about food, is preoccupied with his or her weight. This, of course, also affects concentration. The shame associated with secretly eating or vomiting affects relationships. Excuses are made up, you no longer want to eat with others or don’t have the energy to do things together. Eating disorders are often accompanied by loneliness and depression.

Physically, of course, it also has a lot of impact. An eating disorder can lead to digestive problems, heart problems and menstrual disorders. Obesity, caused by an eating disorder, can be the cause of diabetes.