Appearance is very important in our society. Especially during adolescence, eating disorders therefore often occur, which can become an addiction and a serious, life-threatening illness. A distinction is made between bulimia, anorexia and binge eating.

 

 

Bulimia

 

Bulimia sufferers have binge eating episodes in which they suddenly stuff themselves with everything they can eat. After the binge, they feel very guilty and compensate for the overeating with self-induced vomiting, laxatives or excessive exercise. Many bulimics have a normal body weight, but suffer from dental problems due to the vomiting and withdraw from social life. 

Despite having a normal body weight, bulimics always feel too fat. 

 

Anorexia nerviosa (anorexia nerviosa)

 

Anorexia usually affects women between the ages of 15 and 30, but many men also suffer from this disease. An anorexic suffers from a body image disorder, which means they always think they are too fat, even if they are already severely underweight. Their dissatisfaction with their body causes them to ignore their feelings of hunger and literally starve themselves.

 

Binge eating

 

Patients are unable to control their food intake. They have strong impulses to eat and consume excessive amounts of food. In contrast to bulimics, they do not vomit after eating and therefore suffer from severe obesity. 

One form of binge eating is grazing, in which the patient eats without interruption.