Do you have an eating disorder? Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are two of the most common ones, although there are others. Both are serious, and require immediate treatment in order for recovery to take place.
You may be suffering from an eating disorder, yet you don't realize it at this time. If that's the case, this eating disorder quiz can help you. It will allow you to identify certain behaviors that indicate that you have a problem that needs to be addressed.
For the following questions, if your answer is yes, check the box next to the question. If your answer is no, leave the box blank. When you finish with the quiz, enter your email address and click submit to get your results.
There are many different types of eating disorders. These conditions cause people to have unhealthy relationships with food. Many times, eating disorders can even lead to addictions.
Perhaps you're wondering if you have an eating disorder. If you do, you would like to know where to get treatment. This quiz will give you a better understanding of whether or not you have an eating disorder. It will also give you information on what you should do for treatment.
The National Institute of Mental Health defines an eating disorder as follows:
"…serious and fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person's eating behaviors. Obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder."
In short, any unhealthy relationship with food can be described and characterized as an eating disorder. This includes people who starve themselves and those who eat too much and then purge. There are all sorts of variations.
People may develop eating disorders for many different reasons. Sometimes they're blamed on certain trends in our culture or that the media perpetuate. The idea is that there is a false sense of what the ideal body type is. Eating disorders can also result from mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression. There are all kinds of reasons that they may manifest.
What you need to know is that having an eating disorder is dangerous. There are serious physical and mental health consequences to continuing in that pattern of behavior. People who fail to get the help they need run the risk of fatal outcomes. Also, please know that anyone can be at risk of developing this problem. Eating disorders occur in both men and women.
It's interesting to note the connection between eating disorders and substance abuse. Both are serious issues that need to be addressed. However, they often will occur at the same time for the same individual. In fact, research tells us that about half of the people who have an eating disorder also have an addiction. That is a shocking statistic.
These two conditions are most likely connected for one distinct reason. When someone is suffering from an eating disorder, they're under a lot of mental stress. The very condition itself may make them feel anxious and depressed. That person is probably not seeking professional help for their mental health condition. Therefore, using substances seems to be an acceptable substitute.
For someone who has both an addiction and an eating disorder, using substances can help with some of their symptoms. For example:
When someone suffers from both addiction and an eating disorder, this is called having a co-occurring disorder. It is vital to treat both conditions at the same time because they feed into one another. When one disorder is ignored, recovery is not likely to take place from either of them.
Quite often, the eating disorder will develop first. At that point, the individual begins using substances as a way to cope. However, this isn't always the case. Certain drugs can lead to a depressed appetite, which can then develop into an eating disorder.
Regardless of how it develops, both conditions are serious and need to be addressed. If they're not, they will only get worse, and both can even eventually become fatal.
Reach out today. We know how hard addiction can be. Recovery is possible!
