What do you think of when you think of an eating disorder?

I feel as though there is a very negative stigma surrounding eating disorders.  A lot of people think that someone who suffers from an eating disorder is probably just “trying to loose weight,” or “craving attention from anyone who will give it.”  It’s actually something much more serious and I don’t think we talk about it enough and teach the youth enough about eating disorders, because if we’re being completely honest it’s a serious disease that can have serious consequences.  I don’t think many of us realize how many eating disorders there are that someone can be diagnosed with, or really if they even know the definition of an eating disorder.  According to the American Psychiatric Association, an eating disorder is an illness in which people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors related to thoughts and emotions.  I think many people would actually find it quite interesting that this information came from the American Psychiatric Association, being that psychiatric is dealing with the mind and the brain.  When we think eating, obviously we think of us psychically putting something into our body’s through our mouth so how could the brain be involved? The interesting thing about an eating disorder is that a lot of times it does stem from the brain.  The brain is the most powerful part of the body.  It can play the greatest tricks on someone.  If your brain is telling you that somethings is wrong with your body, it doesn’t look the way it should, you’re going to believe it. We don’t realize sometimes how true the saying “easier said than done” really is.  You can tell someone all day long that they look beautiful, they look amazing, they don’t need to loose weight, they don’t have to worry, but until that person believes it themselves; that’s the only time that something will change.  Some people who have eating disorders develop them because they almost see themselves a different way than the rest of the world might view them.  They might be a physically thin individual, but when they look in the mirror they see someone who is “overweight, fat, obese etc.”  If the traditional diet and exercise isn’t giving them the results that they’re looking for the next best option they think would be to maybe stop eating all together.  When you stop eating all together it greatly effects every part of your life.  It makes it hard for you brain to work properly, your emotions and hormones become all out of whack, or it might just be hard to complete simple every day to day life tasks.  Many people don’t realize how severely an eating disorder can impact your health.  The Mayo Clinic explains how eating disorders can harm the heart, digestive system, bones, teeth & mouth, and lead to many other diseases.  When someone isn’t receiving the proper nutrients for whatever reason, many aspects of their life can become compromised.  People that haven’t had to deal with eating disorders might not understand how someone could just “not eat”, or force themselves to throw up after they finish a meal.  Because what’s the point of eating the meal if you’re going to just throw it back up after?  We don’t realize that it’s almost uncontrollable, and without the proper professional guidance, an eating disorder can do serious damage to someone’s life.