Not everybody dies from a social disorder, but when it comes to anxiety disorders that relate to eating habits, this could well be the end result when diagnosis and treatment come too late, or don’t come at all. This is what can be faced by people who have an eating disorder. While these sorts of conditions may not be as hard to diagnose as others, because the physical results eventually become obvious, they are still sometimes harder to understand than other mental disorders.
The main eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, where people almost literally starves themselves to death trying to lose weight; bulimia, in which they let themselves eat but “purge” the food in some way shortly afterward; and the binge eating disorder, where eating large amounts of food is often used as a comfort after bad experiences.
These types of disorders may also be accompanied by a mental disorder, such as clinical depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, substance abuse or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Whether any of these “cause” each other, though, has yet to be established.
While there are many studies showing potential physical causes of this social disorder, there is also strong evidence that social pressures play a definite role. In a culture where a thin figure is so incessantly emphasized, girls in particular develop an unhealthy preoccupation with weight and body shape. Even girls as young as nine or ten are often already dieting. The same pressures to have the perfect body probably explain why eating disorders occur in the male population more often among gay or bisexual men.
What this means is that while diagnosis of this social disorder isn’t ultimately that difficult, treatment options are all over the map. No effective drug treatment has yet been developed, so various forms of cognitive therapy are the only available approaches in dealing with this mental health issue. These can include nutrition counseling as well as interpersonal and family therapies, and in some cases even art therapy. Each of these methods has a rate of success that seems to be rising over the years, so some refinement is obviously occurring. Improvements can’t come too soon for people with these disorders, since their very health can be so severely affected.
Find helpful tips on how to alleviate anxiety at Panic and Anxiety Disorders.