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Many in the medical community have begun to classify eating disorders as an addiction. It certainly fits the criteria: first, of being something that the person begins doing with no thought of the destructive implications, fully believing at the time that he has complete control over what he is doing; second, failing to recognize that a problem actually exists; and third, the psychological factors which underscore the problem.
Whether classifying the eating disorder as an addiction can be beneficial or a hindrance in a person seeking professional assistance has much to do with the individual himself. For those who are the most responsible in general, simply being faced with the fact that he has a problem that is damaging to his health and possibly even his life is enough to prod the person into going for help. However, as most people who have addictions of any type rarely fall into this category, it can be a very difficult situation-- not only for the person who suffers from an eating disorder, but also for those who are in the position of witnessing it.
Trying to tell a person who has any form of addiction that he indeed has a problem is generally an impossible proposition. If you have ever dealt with anyone who has an addiction, you probably already know that any concern and efforts on your part will give few results other than hostility, anger, resentment, and defending himself and what he is doing. Regardless of how far the condition has progressed, or even the damage that you are capable of seeing, the person will continue to assert that he has full control over what he eats, when he eats, and how much he eats.
The inability to see that he has no control over it whatsoever is the primary factor that underscores an eating disorder as being an addiction. This is the case whether the individual is a teenaged girl who is insisting that allowing herself no food is “nothing but normal dieting,” or whether it is a person who stuffs in an amount of food at one sitting that is appropriate for three people instead of one. It can be a very helpless feeling for the observer, because there is very little that one can do on a reasonable basis to be of help.
Eating Disorders | Eating Disorder And Addiction | Symptoms Of Eating Disorders | Unhealthy Eating Patterns | Popular Influence | What Is Bulimia? | What Is Bulimarexia | What Is Bingeing | Anorexia | Casualty Of Eating Disorders |
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