There Are More Than One Kind Of Disorder In The World Of Celebrities With Eating Disorders

By Mickey Jhonny

Late night talk show hosts and indeed a host of other satirists make them the object of continual jokes. Whatever you think of whether such jibes are in good taste or not, it's clear that many celebrities, particularly female celebrities, engage in dieting practices fueled by the very sort of driven personality which likewise enables them to achievement greatness in their craft.

It has become something of a clich by now to point a wagging, accusing figure at the mass media, blaming the glitzy lifestyle along with the shallow and sexist mindless consumerism of the general public, who are said to buy into it all. Such glib diagnoses, however comfortingly politically correct they may be in the current environment, serve to obscure the fact that all aspects of the lives of successful movie stars, performers and other media personalities is colored by the hard driving personality tendencies that motivate their success.

It should hardly be surprising then that once they turn their attention to weight loss, they can get a little carried away. Christina Ricci, in her usual irreverent style, suggests this personality driven aspect of celebrity eating disorders with her remark to the Guardian newspaper in 2004 that hers began while watching trash television. "At the time that I was starting to diet and stuff, I saw this TV movie, and I thought, 'Ooh - anorexia. I could probably do that.'"

Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, in a different way and tone, likewise helped dispel the PC myth machine when she acknowledged that the cause of eating disorders, even among celebrities, can be the simple challenges of coping with the roller coaster like ups and downs of everyday life. Celebrity status surely has unique pressures, but is their careers so much more stressful than many jobs and professions? Whatever the stresses of celebrity life, they do not dictate the coping strategy adopted.

The backlash against the innocent, ironic tweet of the ever entertaining Lady Gaga, from 2012, though is typical of the victimizing machine of the mass media and the self-appointed morals police. Young girls everywhere, it would seem, are in constant danger of the corrupting influence of social expectations. Even Lady Gaga, already on record as encouraging girls to develop a healthier sense of body image, couldn't acknowledge resisting a craving for a cheese burger without the self-appointed busy bodies raising hell. (Whether a cheese burger would actually constitute a healthy meal choice is of course another matter.)

So let's try to be real, here. If they're going to crucify a celebrity who it just so happens, by the way, is already on the public record as cautioning her young fans toward vigilance against potential dangers of eating disorders for an innocent witticism regarding her own freely chosen dietary decisions, what is up? Why this strange obsession with denying celebrities the freedom to be responsible for their choices. There's an uncompromising imperative that they be shown to be victims. I'm no mind reader, but I'm guessing the motivation behind this silliness is to legitimize the automatic treatment of any and all admirers of those same celebrities as also victims. Who though reaps the benefits from this relentless victimization?

The lesson in all of this, naturally, is not that celebrities are uniquely confronted with the trials of eating disorders. It is true though that such disorders are a product of the motivation and will power of the person making the food choices. It would be silly and a straw man to pretend that the view contrary to the busy body victimization crusade denied the role of environmental conditions in creating very real pressures. That though in no way changes the reality that in the end the bulimic or anorectic are making their choices. To claim anything else is to resort to two-bit mysticism.

And for those who think this assessment is unfair, who would dismiss it as a form of blaming the victim, perhaps you have the whole thing backwards. If the explanation for celebrities with eating disorders really was the mass media and the Hollywood glamour machine, there could be no other solution than to leave Hollywood or working in the media. Yet, there are plenty of success stories in which celebrities were victorious in combating their eating disorders, without needing to retire from their careers. They may have needed a break from the stress of work, but stress reduction is going to be an ingredient in any recovery plan. Rather, what this reveals is that just as the cause of the eating disorders lies in the celebrity, so too lay the solution. This shouldn't be offensive or threatening, it should be a note of encouragement. The news for all those who suffer eating disorders is one of hope: regardless of the difficulties in your own life, you have a secret weapon. That same strength and determination that holds you to the your current strict regime, the very engine of your eating disorder, is likewise there in you, the very same strength and determination, to draw from, when you decide you want to change your life.

Is that not encouraging, exciting, even exhilarating? Stop letting others cast you as the victim of your life. It's your life; you're the star and the writer. How you live your life is up to you. Reject simplistic excuses about mass media pressures and social expectations. You have the power to take responsibility for your life. Be the celebrity star of your own story.

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Eating Disorders in Teens: Parenting Tips for the Recovery Process

A common question that parents ask is: "How much should I be involved in my child's recovery from an eating disorder?" I am sorry to say that there is controversy over the answer to this question. Some professionals believe that the child needs independence from the parent in order to learn how to cope with and recover from the disease on her own.

This stance would limit the involvement of parents in monitoring the disease and/or progress in recovery and places the responsibility for making increasingly healthy choices on the adolescent. But it is important to understand why this position is promoted.

First of all, overly controlling or authoritarian parenting generally serves to inhibit the healthy development of any adolescent, particularly given that their developmental task for this age is to separate from parents, not to remain closely attached. Thus, even in the absence of any psychological issue, there is often tension in the parent-child relationship because the developmental needs of an adolescent fly in the face of the type of control that parents of younger children are able to exert to successfully win compliance. In contrast, these tactics will be met with resistance by an adolescent.

 Much to parents' dismay, as children enter puberty, that docile, easy-to-get-along-with child may suddenly develop a mind of her own and no longer accepts parents' opinion at face value or dismisses the idea that theirs is the most important opinion to consider, favoring peers instead.

As painful as this displacement may be for parents, it is part of normal development and should not be treated as rebellion or betrayal. In addition, giving adolescents needed latitude to properly accomplish the developmental task of separation (toward the goal of independence) becomes a crucial part of the dance of successful parenting.

This means that adolescents must have the freedom to make some personal choices and to deal with the resulting mistakes as part of their preparation for independence. For adolescents with eating disorders, overly controlling behavior or an authoritarian style of parenting can be contributing factors for the development of an eating disorder because the adolescent is attempting to retake control over some aspect of her being; in this case, to literally control what goes in and out of her body.

In these situations, yes, the parent would need to step back and release the child from the choke-hold of demands that invade her person, space and emotional needs for independence in order to allow alternative forms of coping to be embraced by the adolescent that will help to pull her back onto a more normal developmental path.

Another form of developmental derailment occurs when the child becomes afraid of growing up. This can occur because parents have overly controlled her life to the point that she feels incompetent to make her own decisions and choices or because the parent has enabled unhealthy dependence through enmeshment (i.e., over involvement rather than over controlling).

 In contrast, for parents who are more balanced and authoritative in their approach to child-rearing and have been allowing the adolescent an appropriate amount of freedom to develop independence and make increasingly mature decisions, may need to step forward instead of stepping back in the event of an eating disorder diagnosis.

If a child is being adequately supported in the parent-child relationship and the developmental drive for separation and independence has been respected, then the adolescent's development of an eating disorder signals a failure to thrive and mature in an otherwise healthy environment, which argues for more parental support rather than less.

 One way that I explain this balance to parents and adolescents is to say that an adolescent's increasing need for independence and freedom in making personal decisions is to be respected so long as the adolescent is staying within expected bounds of behavior and healthy development.

This is not to say that they will not make mistakes, because it is part of growing up. But when an adolescent stumbles sufficiently as to cause serious harm to self, to others or to parents - this freedom has been forfeited for a season until recovery is obvious.

For example, once drug use has been established, then the sanctity of an adolescent's room or personal belongings is forfeited such that a parent has the responsibility to ensure that illegal substances are not brought into the home or are not found on the adolescent's person or in her belongings.

For an eating disorder, this means that the parents have the responsibility to ensure that the adolescent is consuming sufficient nutrition and to actively interfere with food restriction, bingeing, purging, medication manipulation, laxative use or over-exercising until such a time as the adolescent begins to demonstrate voluntary compliance and her thoughts, emotions and body indicate signs of recovery.

Once a recovery path has been established and the adolescent demonstrates consistent compliance, parents can then correspondingly back up on their level of involvement to allow the adolescent to continue developing healthy coping skills on her own, which is to be responsible for learning and practicing new coping skills and continuing to reduce the offending eating disorder behaviors.

 In reality, the exact nature of parental involvement, and the balance between respecting the development task of separation and individuation at this age versus protecting your child will vary according to the circumstances of each individual family. However, it is important to keep the big picture in mind.

Recovery from the eating disorder and preventing your child from continuing the downward spiral is certainly the primary goal in the initial stages of recovery and more rather than less parental involvement may be required.

However, ultimately it is only the adolescent who can truly beat the disease through personal knowledge and acceptance of the disorder, skill development and long-term lifestyle changes. Thus, the balance of power and responsibility for recovery must at some point transfer to the adolescent and away from the parents. If you are struggling with the notion of whether you are to blame for your child's eating disorder, please see the Ezine article: "Eating Disorders in Teens: Are Parents to Blame?" for an enlightening discussion on this topic.

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Eating Disorders Effects

Eating disorders have very many effects on the sufferers. The effects can be divided into mental, spiritual and physical. The mental effects can be associated with different levels of anxiety (from moderate to very severe), depression, and difficulty to focus on tasks, low span of attention, lethargy or impulsivity and distortion of thoughts.

 One of the very specific effects of eating disorders is a distorted body image when people see a wrong picture of themselves and others. This mental problem is called "broken eye syndrome". This is when the sufferer sees in the mirror a much fatter reflection of themselves then they actually are. And when they look at other people they judge them according to the person's weight and body looks.

Other people can also look bigger to them then the person really is. Spiritual effects of eating disorders can be associated with loss of self-identity or insight, inability to maintain healthy relationship with people and loss of coping strategies. Eating disorders become a way suffers see themselves.

When you ask a person:" Please, describe yourself. Who you are? And what do you do?", the sufferer describes her/his eating disorder and how they feel about food and other things associated with food or their eating behaviors. It means that the eating disorder replaces their insight completely and they become incapable of relating to the things other then food and eating. Also anorexics -bulimics loose their ability to be close or intimate with people.

They can't connect to another human being on a spiritual level because their spirit (soul) is taken over by food and distorted feelings. Many sufferers even feel disgusted in relation to opposite sex or some other people. Some of them even say:"My best friend is always here with me." By "my best friend" they mean their eating disorder.

 Coping strategies with everyday stress disappear or significantly diminish and get replaced with food and abnormal feelings about food and eating. For example, a bulimic response to stress, boredom or other uncomfortable feelings would be an increase in the binging-purging behavior cycles.

 Anorexics will starve themselves and exercise more then usual in relation to the same feelings. Eating disorders effects on a body could be differentiated by organs being affected. Kidney damage often occurs especially in long standing cases.

The heart can slow its rhythm or become irregular and can even stop resulting in death in severe cases of anorexia-bulimia. Teeth get eroded. Skin becomes dry, fragile and old looking. Bones loose their density resulting in broken bones easily. Immune system deteriorates making a person become susceptible to many infections and other illnesses. In conclusion, eating disorders effects are harmful and can be lethal. To avoid the worst, one should start doing something immediately.

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Eating Disorders and Their Symptoms

Eating disorders are a group of serious conditions in which you're so anxious about food and body weight that you can often focus on little more else. The main important types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating problem. 

Eating conditions can cause serious physical issues and, at most serious can even be life-threatening. Most individuals with eating conditions are women, but men can also have eating conditions. An exemption is binge-eating problem, which seems to impact almost as many men as women. Eating conditions symptoms differ with the particular type of eating conditions.

 1. Anorexia nervosa:

 When you have anorexia therapy, you're enthusiastic about foods and being slim, sometimes to the factor of dangerous self-starvation.

 Anorexia warning symptoms may include:

 • An extreme fear of gaining weight
 • Irritability
 • Thin appearance
 • Abdominal pain
 • Low hypertension
 • Dehydration

 2. Bulimia nervosa:

 When you have bulimia, you have periods of binging and getting rid of. During these periods, you typically eat a lot of foods in a short duration and then try to rid yourself of the extra calorie consumption through nausea or extreme work out. You may be at a regular body-weight. 

Bulimia warning symptoms may include:

 • Damaged teeth and gums
 • Irregular heartbeat
 • Constant diet
 • Self-induced vomiting
 • Excessive exercise

3. Binge-eating disorder:

 When you have binge-eating problem, you constantly eat extreme amounts of foods, but don't try to make up for this actions with workouts as someone with bulimia or anorexia might. You may eat when you're not starving and continue eating even long after you are irritatingly complete. After an extreme, you may feel bothered, which can induce a new circular of binging.

 Symptoms of binge-eating problem may include:

 • Eating faster during binge episodes.
 • Feeling that your eating conditions are out of control.
 • Feeling frustrated, embarrassed or disappointed over the quantity eaten.

 Causes:

 The exact cause of eating disorders is undefined. As with other psychological diseases, there may be many causes. Main causes of eating disorders include:

 Biology: There may be genetics that make certain individuals more susceptible to creating eating conditions. In addition, there's some proof that this, a normally sourced mind substance, may impact eating habits.

Psychological and mental health: People with eating conditions might have psychological issues that give rise to the problem. They may have low self-esteem, perfectionism, energetic actions and struggling connections.

Society: Success and worth are often associated with being thin in popular way of life. Stress from peers and what individuals see in the press may fuel this wish to be slim, particularly among women.

Prevention:

 Although there's no sure way to avoid eating conditions, some steps may help avoid eating disorders:

 Enlist the help of your kid's doctor - At well-child trips, physicians may be in a good position to recognize early signs of diet conditions and avoid the development of full-blown sickness. They can ask kids questions about their dietary routines and fulfillment with their overall look during schedule medical sessions, for example.

Encourage healthier - dietary routines and avoid diets around your kids. Family cuisine routines may also impact the relationships kids create with foods. Consuming food together gives you an opportunity to educate kids about the stumbling blocks of diets, and motivate healthier eating.

Keep an eye on pc use - Because there are numerous websites that enhance anorexia as a way of life choice rather than a diet condition, it's important to observe your kid's pc use. You can do this by keeping the pc in a common location in the house, or by consistently verifying the pc's history page to see what sites your kid has visited.

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Effective Treatment For Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are some of the commonly occurring disorders these days. There are several factors contributing to eating disorders. People affected with this disorder exhibit psychological illness such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and anxiety.

People even fall prey to multiple personality disorder under extreme conditions. An effective eating disorder program will identify the root causes of the problems and lower the effects of illness. It prevents further physical problems such as malnutrition, dehydration, kidney and liver damage. Over eating of any food items without any control may lead to disgust after eating. It causes undue stress on their health and mind state. This type of disorder is called binge eating disorder.

 Pro-eating disorder idea might help the people to embrace the disorder and suggest them with healthier tips. A good treatment center will have trained and skilled professionals who can work round the clock to solve the issues of the patients. These kinds of disorders must be treated at its early stages. Family members might find it very difficult to envisage the difficulties faced by their beloved ones.

Eating disorder programs are specially designed to cater the needs of the individual. The reasons and the root cause must be correctly identified by the therapist. Professional assistance is always preferred. This program includes a list of healthy diet to be supplemented for the patients. A healthy body can overcome any difficulties easily. Eating Disorder Program can rightly identify the causes which may be due to

 # Neurological or medical conditions

# Impact of Rigors of dieting

# Biological and genetic factors.( neurotransmitter serotonin ).

# Depression and anxiety

 The symptoms might include:

 # Weakness, vomiting blood

# Fatigue and exhaustion

 Different kinds of psychological therapy are employed in curing the patients. The success rate is high in group therapy and family therapy. Eating disorder programs and the treatment centers must offer greater assistance to the patients and assist them in every process of recovery. Better rehabilitation is needed to cope up with the aftermath of the disorder. The recovery period can take few months for a complete cure. 

The treatment options vary according the severity of disorder. The first step is to enroll in any treatment center. Some prefer Inpatient treatment and some residential treatment. Inpatient eating disorders treatment programs can be the right kind for the ones affected and are still in the early stage of disorder. They can overcome the difficulty easily when compared to others.

Skilled professionals can offer great counseling which will enable the patients to speak out frankly regarding their problems. When patients speak their mind, there are more chances for them to be relieved. This builds great amount of self confidence in them. A better understanding of their problem and the impact of illness will help them in speedy recovery. The patients offer better co-operation with the doctors which are some positive signs of recovery.

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Overeating As An Eating Disorder

As commonly known to most of us, Anorexia and Bulimia are the most common forms of eating disorders. While this is true to a large extent, Compulsive over Eating is another type of an eating disorder which is slowly becoming very common too.

The symptoms are the exact opposite to that of Anorexia and can cause serious damage to ones health. It too is basically a mental problem and has been found to be difficult to surmount. Let us try and understand this disorder more thoroughly. Firstly, gender is not a bias for those affected by this disorder and therefore both males and females are affected. Recent studies have however shown females being more afflicted.

Over eating can be described as going on a food eating binge and literally gorging on food. This binge in most cases is caused by accepting eating as a comfort from mental stress and is followed by a period of guilt and depression.

 A person affected continues eating even after they are full and does this regularly every day, every meal. All of us tend to pig out on food at times, but when one overeats every single time, it is cause for worry and also for a check up to ensure you too are not becoming a compulsive over eater.

 Some common pointers to one being a compulsive over eater are (a) Finishing your meal well before others and a desire to virtually attack the food on your plate. (b) Eating when not physically hungry that is eating without any hunger pangs or eating just for the heck of it. (c) Eating to a point when you feel distinctly uncomfortable.

Every time you get up after a meal you realize you have over eaten but cannot help it. (d) Realizing that you are experiencing the symptoms mentioned above regularly and are yet not able to stop your self. Although compulsive over eating may not seem like a major problem or serious enough to cause worry, it has a very large number of negative affects on your good health. Heart disease, heightened cholesterol level, type II diabetes and obesity can result from this disorder.

 The mental affect of having low self esteem is a major fall out and can have serious consequences. Proper counseling and guidance is required to relieve this mental strain. The best option in case some one you know is affected by this disorder is to make him/her open up to discuss the problem with you or an expert. While discussing such a problem be very serious and use a sympathetic and compassionate manner.

 Understand the physical and mental stress the person is undergoing and make sure you do not ridicule him ever. If symptoms are left untreated it can have serious consequences and it is therefore highly advisable to consult a specialist for counseling. Compulsive over eating is a disorder affecting a large number of people, especially in large towns and cities and we need to tackle such symptoms early.

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Information On The Different Types Of Eating Disorders And Their Impact

There are very many eating disorders. Many people assume an eating disorder is only classed as an eating disorder if it is extreme. This isn't necessarily the case. All eating disorders start somewhere, and usually they begin with very minor or very occasional aversions to either consuming food in the first place, or keeping food within the system.

 Eating disorders aren't always psychological and sometimes there are physical reasons why a person may not wish to eat or can't keep food down which has absolutely nothing to do with aversions to food, so people mustn't be too quick to make snap judgements. Underlying illnesses or internal defects often account for a large number of cases in which people simply assume a person has an eating disorder.

 Many people, particularly women and an ever growing number of teenage girls, suffer from eating disorders. The vast majority of the time the reasons are psychological and have much to do with a persons' self-image of themselves. These days there is an immense pressure on women to look super slim and have model good looks, and this is simply an unrealistic expectation for the general populace to follow.

Not every person has been blessed with such extraordinary genetics, and feel they are been judged by people for not matching up. This can cause many women to consume ridiculously small amounts of food, and often the food they do consume they bring back up in the mistaken and dangerous belief they can somehow fulfil the mythical expectations that are being imposed upon them.

 The most common eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. Typically, anorexia is an altogether loss of appetite which inevitably makes a person unable to eat as the condition worsens. Bulimia is a disorder in which people often binge eat great amounts of food then purposely bring the food back up to avoid gaining weight. Eating disorders are extremely dangerous.

The human body needs to consume food and needs the food to stay in the system to be broken down into vital nutrients. Eating disorders, whether food is consumed to begin with or brought back up, is paramount to starvation and the effects of malnutrition will soon begin to show.

Eating disorders can be particularly distressing for the person suffering as well as loved ones who often feel powerless to help. If you suffer from an eating disorder it is important you are true to yourself and admit this, and seek professional help as soon as possible so you can begin to recover and deal with not only your eating disorder, but the issues in which sparked it to begin with.

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