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Eating Disorders (General; Miscellaneous)

Mighty_Emperor

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Saw this on the front page:

Actas Esp Psiquiatr. 2005 Jan-Feb;33(1):66-8.

Orthorexia nervosa. A new eating behavior disorder?

[Article in Spanish]

Catalina Zamora ML, Bote Bonaechea B, Garcia Sanchez F, Rios Rial B.

Servicio de Psiquiatria, Hospital de Mostoles, Mostoles, Madrid. [email protected]

New eating behavior disorders such as bigorexia (muscle dysmorphia) and orthorexia are appearing in developed countries. These disorders have not been officially recognized so that they are not classified as independent entities. The term orthorexia comes from the Greek word orthos (straight, proper) and orexia (appetite). It is characterized by the pathological obsession for biologically pure food, which leads to important dietary restrictions. Orthorexic patients exclude foods from their diets that they consider to be impure because they have herbicides, pesticides or artificial substances and they worry in excess about the techniques and materials used in the food elaboration. This obsession leads to loss of social relationships and affective dissatisfactions which, in turn, favors obsessive concern about food. In orthorexia, that patient initially wants to improve his/her health, treat a disease or lose weight. Finally, the diet becomes the most important part of their lives. We present a clinical case that responds to the characteristics of orthorexia. The differential diagnosis with chronic delusional disorder, anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder is carried out.

Source

I have to say that the thing that got me was muscle dysmoprhia is called bigorexia - one would think they could come up with something fancier but they aren't pulling our (muscular) leg:

http://menshealth.about.com/cs/menonly/a/bigorexia.htm
www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Eating ... orexia.asp
www.pale-reflections.com/ednos.asp?page=bigorexia

That last link also has one for orthorexia:

pale-reflections.com/ednos.asp?page=orthorexia
Both the link and the website are dead. See later post for the MIA webpage's content.


Certainly a disorder for our modern times
 
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Yes, not o forget the most extreme form of this: Bretharianism.
Living on air alone.
Tried to find a decent website about it but I am at work and my lunchtime is limited.
 
Wasn't one of the leading lights of Breatharians caught scoffing out on pie and chips at an airport a few years ago? :lol:
 
Quake42 said:
Wasn't one of the leading lights of Breatharians caught scoffing out on pie and chips at an airport a few years ago? :lol:

Yep and another one was caught sneaking orange juice and choccy bars (all in the above thread).
 
Well, i imagine it would be hard to track down breatharians...being as they'd be short-lived. ;)
 
The female Peter Pan: How a woman of 23 terrified of growing up has taken to extreme dieting to give her the body of a 12-year-old
By Alison Smith Squire
Last updated at 1:06 AM on 03rd January 2009

Like a female Peter Pan, this 23-year-old woman is so terrified of ageing she has chosen not to grow up.
Vikki Hensley has frozen her body in time to that of a 12-year-old girl through extreme dieting.
As the science graduate became anorexic before she hit puberty, she has never had a period, needed to wear a bra or had a proper boyfriend.

To stop herself growing 'older' she sticks to a diet of less than 1,000 calories a day - a regime that has stunted her height to 5ft 2in and keeps her weight at 5 1/2 stones.
The dieting has come terrifyingly close to costing Miss Hensley her life.
But she insists she has a strange feeling of pride about her looks - and has no plans to change her lifestyle.

Miss Hensley, from East Croydon in Surrey, began to starve herself at the age of 12 when she was bullied for being a swot.
'I found if I looked younger and took on a more fragile appearance it frightened off the bullies,' said Miss Hensley, the daughter of an optician and a legal secretary.
'Even the teachers warmed to my vulnerable child-like appearance, treating me more sympathetically and giving me more attention.

'Now, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a curvy woman.'
At the age of 17, however, her weight dropped alarmingly to only 4st 4lb.
'Doctors told my shocked parents I was so ill, I could die of heart failure,' she said.
'So doctors forced fed me with a tube down my nose, which saved my life.'

Since then she has managed to control what she eats to keep her weight at a constant 5st 7lb.

'I don't eat at regular times. Instead I nibble throughout the day on bags of raw vegetables, cooked swede, tiny portions of tuna, occasionally eating a square of chocolate,' she said.
'I wanted to achieve my dream of going to university and knew I had to be well enough to study.'
Against all the odds, she has gained ten GCSEs, all As or A*s, four A-levels and a first-class degree in biomedical science from King's College London.
She now intends to study for a PhD, her ambition being to find ways of curing cancer.

But doctors have warned her that if she continues with her extreme diet she could seriously harm her liver and kidneys. She may have also damaged her fertility.
Yet she is still not ready to become a woman.
'Looking younger and having a child's body does give me an odd buzz and a sense of achievement,' she said.

'Also, while I have never had a proper boyfriend or even felt sexy, I wouldn't want to develop curves because I wouldn't feel comfortable attracting men's attention.'
Her parents have 'begged and cajoled' her to eat more, she said, but to no avail.
Miss Hensley added: 'While in some ways I long to break out of the bubble I've created for myself and be like any other 23-year-old woman, I am also terrified of taking that step.'

Experts warn more and more young women are controlling their weight to a dangerous extent.
Deanne Jade, a psychologist at the National Centre for Eating Disorders, said: 'Women, particularly young women, are these days under such pressures to have the perfect body that we are seeing a new trend in eating disorders emerging.

'Dubbed the "high functioning anorexics", they are women who keep themselves pin thin but able to manage every day life simply by consuming very low calorie diets.
'However, in their bid to stay so slim they take terrible risks with their health - ironically ending up suffering from diseases usually associated with the elderly such as osteoporosis and crumbling teeth.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... r-old.html
 
Studies have shown the health benefits of brief periods of fasting, but one couple is making the bizarre claim that they have learned to survive largely without food and are instead sustained by “cosmic nourishment”.


Camila Castello, 34, and Akahi Ricardo, 36, are what is known as “Breatharians”. They say they eat just three times a week, with each ‘meal’ consisting of just a piece of fruit or some vegetable broth.


http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-castello-akahi-ricardo-ecuador-a7792841.html
 
Breatharians all seem to be young and look like models. Maybe that's what they're selling?
 
That last link also has one for orthorexia:
pale-reflections.com/ednos.asp?page=orthorexia
Both the link and the website are dead. See later post for the MIA webpage's content.

Certainly a disorder for our modern times

As noted above, the linked website is defunct, and the webpage about orthorexia hadn't been detected since 2007.

Here is the text from the MIA webpage ...
Orthorexia nervosa

Orthorexia is a pathological obsession with eating proper food. The exact type of food may vary, but the individual has a fixation on only eating food they consider to be healthy or beneficial - to them, it is "pure" food.

Somebody who is orthorectic will spend more and more of their time thinking about food and how to plan their meals. They impose rigid regimes on themselves and must be punished if they "break the rules". The punishments do not tend to be as extreme as someone with anorexia or bulimia and usually involve imposing even tighter restrictions on what they can and cannot eat. By the same token, they may reward themselves if they do not give in to temptation and avoid foods which are not "pure".

How is it different to anorexia?
At first glance, there seems to be little difference between orthorexia and anorexia. However, there ARE many differences, the biggest one being that an orthorectic is not consumed by thoughts of being "thin" and losing weight. Also, somebody with anorexia (or bulimia, for that matter) focuses on the quantity of food, whereas an orthorectic concentrates on the quality.

Long-term consequences
The long-term consequences of orthorexia depend on the diet the person has imposed upon themselves. Often, the health risks are not particularly greater than that of a vegetarian or vegan. Many of the problems tend to be social ones, with the individual finding it harder and harder to maintain a conversation that doesn't involve food. They may also be isolated, often eating alone and spending a considerable amount of time planning and buying food.

Important notice
Orthorexia is not a condition your doctor will diagnose. It is a fairly new and controversial term which is still being explored.

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070806191929/http://www.pale-reflections.com/ednos.asp?page=orthorexia
 
This Live Science article provides an update on orthorexia. After all these years there is still debate over whether orthorexia is a miedical versus a psychological disorder. Still, there's no doubt that in extreme cases the disorder can be detrimental to the patient's health.
Orthorexia: Causes, symptoms and treatment

When "clean eating" becomes extreme.

Orthorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by an obsession with the perceived "purity" of food. People with orthorexia might restrict themselves to eating only unprocessed or organic foods, cut out whole food groups from their diet or restrict themselves to eating raw foods only.

The condition goes beyond a general concern with maintaining a healthy diet. For people with orthorexia, the pursuit of a "perfect" diet takes up a significant amount of time and energy, and interferes with work, school and relationships. In some cases, it can even lead to malnutrition. ...

There's disagreement over whether orthorexia is a valid diagnosis, said Jennifer Mills, a clinical psychologist at York University in Toronto, Ontario. The condition isn't listed in the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the American Psychological Association's official diagnostic guide, which was last updated in 2013 and contains criteria for various psychological conditions. Some experts say orthorexia falls under the umbrella of other mental health diagnoses, while others say recognition of the condition makes good eating habits seem abnormal or unhealthy, Mills said. But in recent years, the condition has received an increasing amount of attention from researchers and clinicians.

"There is a consensus that [orthorexia] deviates from what we would consider to be normal or 'healthy' eating," Mills said. "Research has really highlighted how individuals who have this pattern of eating can suffer quite significantly." ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/orthorexia.html
 
This Live Science article provides an update on orthorexia. After all these years there is still debate over whether orthorexia is a miedical versus a psychological disorder. Still, there's no doubt that in extreme cases the disorder can be detrimental to the patient's health.


FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/orthorexia.html

You can see why psychologists are in a tizz over this as most of them will have the diagnosis.
 
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