Recently I was reading an article that mentioned that anyone who is obsessed, regimented or highly focused on their diet, is classed as having an eating disorder. Well under that umbrella, there seems to be a lot of people (myself incl.) that have Eating disorders. When I was in high school an eating disorder was basically only "anorexia or bulimia" which seems very different from that. What is the heck is going on? I never really thought of myself having an ED, or needing therapy for that matter. I just want a nice body and don't want to be overweight, or do the yo-yo dieting which has characterized my life for many years. It is no way to live and I want to get past that. But now all the sudden I have an ED. Is anyone else struggling with this issue? What did you do to resolve it?
Does everyone have an Eating disorder now?! The criteria for an ED are pretty specific in the DSM-IV. There is also a difference between those who have ED-behaviours yet don't necessarily meet the criteria for an eating disorder (and of course, the DSM does change every decade or so, and that can skew the statistics). If you are interested, here is the current criteria, which isn't necessarily an article's interpretation but how psychologists would diagnose an actual patient. http://casat.unr.edu/docs/eatingdisorders_criteria.pdf
I think any behavior, as we all know, can be taken to an extreme. I would say eating behaviors that severely compromise one's health have reached an extreme that could be labeled disorderly. Therefore, one can be strictly regimented, but not in any way negatively impacting their health. This would not constitute an eating disorder. It might constitute more of a compulsive disorder that has more to do with control than eating, but that's a whole different topic. Basically, anything taken to extremes has the potential to be damaging in one way or another. I wouldn't let the article bother you. If you know your habits are healthy, then that is all that matters
I can honestly say that I also have an eating disorder. Being Asian, our staple food is rice. That's starch, carbs and sugar in one. I'm having a hard time controlling how much rice I have during a meal. Sometimes I'd eat four times to five time a day depending on how I feel. I have problems, I know. My brothers and I grew up to processed foods because our parents can't cook. We mostly have fried food like hotdogs, chicken nuggets, canned ham, even things that's are classified as street food here in the Philippines. I'm the heaviest at 207lbs in the family but my brother is the first one among us four siblings who was diagnosed with high blood pressure. I definitely don't want to be next. We had a family discussion and soon enough, my mom was preparing salads. I've learned how to make soups and stews and other real foods. We still have the occasional processed foods.
My own ED came from lot's of unresolved stress and bad eating habbits. We didn't really eat heathily at home, so naturally I was a chubby kid even though I didn't really like junk food. Eventually I went to a dietician who gave me the science behind my errors and a method to fix it: a nutrition plan. I only saw how much my own psychology played upon my eating habbits and seemingly random binges when I faltered because of them from my ideal weight. Had I not dealt with those issues, now I would be in a very tight situation.
