Eating disorders are serious and complex psychiatric disorders whose symptoms include a severe disturbance in eating behavior and often coincide with unhealthy weight loss and weight control methods (such as severe calorie restriction, food avoidance or self-starvation, excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, and laxative abuse). The main types of eating disorders are as follows:
- Anorexia Nervosa is a potentially life-threatening illness characterized by the inability or refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, unhealthy weight loss and weight control methods (including inappropriate compensatory behaviors, and a distorted self-perception of body shape and size).
- Bulimia Nervosa is a potentially life-threatening illness that also includes an intense fear of gaining weight, unhealthy weight loss and weight control methods (including inappropriate compensatory behaviors), and a distorted self-perception of body shape and size, along with the hallmark symptom of binge eating episodes that involve consuming large amounts of calories in a short period of time.
- Binge Eating Disorder is an illness characterized by recurrent episodes of this kind of binge eating, along with the sense of loss of control over content and/or quantity of food consumed. read more..
Why Eating for Life Alliance?
The Issue: College administrators report a 24.3% rise in reports of eating disorder behavior among college students (2010 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors).
The Hope: Eating disorders and their associated conditions; disordered eating, negative body image, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, are very treatable with the right interventions.
The Challenge: Eating disorders are of the most secretive of mental health issues and often go untreated because of the lack of awareness, education, and resources available.
The Mission: Eating For Life Alliance is dedicated to making user-friendly information, resources, protocols, and the wisdom of the nation’s experts- available to everyone. College is not only a time when eating disorders often develop — but an excellent time to address and heal from them.