Eating Disorders and Overtraining
by Mayte Lara
What are they?
Anorexia: a mental disorder that makes people lose more weight that is considered healthy for their age and height
- intense fear of food
- fer of weight gain
- may diet and exercise too much to loose weight
Compulsive Exercise: when a person is addicted to exercising and feels anxious and guilty if they don't exercise
Facts about Eating Disorders
- Eating disorder are categorized as mental illnesses where there is an unhealthy relationship with food
- There is so "one" cause for eating disorders- each eating disorder has many possible causes
- Society's emphasis on appearance and idealization of thinness promotes dangerous dieting behaviors that can blind people and not let them realize when someone has an eating disorder
- With anorexia, the cycle of self starvation denies the body of essential nutrients it needs to function properly so the body is forced to slow down all of it's processes in an attempt to conserve energy
- abnormally heart rate and blood pressure, osteoporosis, muscle loss, fatigue, dry skin, and growth of hair all over body to try and keep warm are all consequences of developing anorexia
- compulsive exercising can lead to damage of tendons, ligaments, bones, cartilage, and joints
- With both anorexia and compulsive exercising there comes hormone imbalances that can change menstrual cycles, or even loose their period(amenorrhea)
- Eating disorders can kill- they have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness- 20%
- Eating Disorders are treatable but require very good treatment
Eating and Body Dysmorphic Disorders: Crash Course Psychology #33