Eating disorders or eating disorders are diseases that affect and alter people’s eating behavior to the point of causing physical, mental or emotional health problems. The problem is usually related to weight, physical shape and figure and causes extreme and obsessive behaviors that can range from uncontrolled food consumption to lack of voluntary intake. Names like “anorexia” or “bulimia” are becoming more popular.
Although popular belief states that the time of greatest risk for suffering an eating disorder is adolescence and with greater predominance in the case of females, this type of mental conditions can appear at any time and regardless of sex, ethnicity or body weight . Although an exact cause has not been determined, the eating disorder follows the same pattern as other mental illnesses and usually appears due to a host of biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological and social factors . The imposition of idealized models of beauty and the social pressure that is indirectly exerted on people are also factors to take into account and that can be especially decisive in the case of young people .
One of the main difficulties that eating disorders present is that they tend to cause rejection in people who suffer from them, who deny their situation and influence the fact that they may appear healthy and yet be seriously ill . Despite the great advances that have been made in recent decades, this type of disorder is still considered taboo by society and that makes it difficult to normalize it as a disease and to provide possible treatments.
The objective of any therapy against eating disorders is based on achieving the restoration of adequate nutrition with a healthy weight and the disappearance of obsessive behaviors, be these excessive physical exercise, binge eating or purges with provoked vomit or fasting. Due to their presence in society, it is necessary to know the different types of disorders that exist , know how to identify them and be aware that they are serious mental pathologies that can be treated and overcome .
