When you're in a normal, healthy mindset, you'll usuallyknow when you're doing something harmful to yourself. In the case of peoplewith an eating disorder, they will often have such psychological trauma that theyno longer know what's right, or they no longer care. In many of these cases,they are so far gone that they only know what makes them feel better, whichjust reinforces the negative behavior and symptoms of an eating disorder. Areyou suffering from an eating disorder?

There are three overarching types of eating disorders:anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and addictive eating disorder. All three arevery dangerous and can kill you if you don't treat them as serious diseases.The reason they are so prevalent is because they fulfill an unhealthy need inpeople that isn't being met elsewhere, such as having a desperate urge to fitin, wanting to be more attractive, possessing control over some aspect of yourlife, seeking a way out of pain, giving in to hunger or lack of hunger, etc.

In modern times, the idea of an eating disorder is a directdescendent of the fashion industry in the 1990s. Models got thinner and thinnerand the media glorified this new trend. Once people became convinced thatstick-thin women were attractive, they began to appear everywhere, such as onmagazine covers, in commercials, etc. One big consequence of any fashion trendis that some people will always go too far. The problem with this ?trend? wasthat it was more than getting fancy new clothes. With this, some people wereforced to starve themselves to achieve the desired look.

Now, all of that back-story about eating disorders may ormay not directly relate to you, but knowing where the need to be thin came fromis important if you want to understand how things are and what you can do.While many people might say that you have to be thin to be attractive, thetruth is that some people are not genetically predisposed to be thin. Somepeople are born to be bigger, and as long as you take care of yourself withoutgoing to extreme lengths, you can be beautiful and still not be a size 0.

So, now you understand where the need to be thin came from.In order to tell if you are suffering from an eating disorder, you need to knowabout the different eating disorders.

With anorexia, people tend to be extremely self-consciousabout their weight, and will go to extreme measures to ensure that they arethin. They might have an irrational fear of getting fat or were abused somehow.If you aren't eating at least three meals per day, or if you take in fewer than1000 calories, these are signs of anorexia.

Bulimics are often similar, but they lose weight by vomitingafter meals, purging after binges, excessive exercise, or abuse of laxativesand diuretics. If you do any of these, know that it is not normal and seekhelp. Finally, people who are suffering from an addictive eating disordercannot control themselves and will overeat even when their body is telling themthey've had enough. Now that you know, if you or someone you know exhibits anyof these symptoms, seek professional help.