What Is An Eating Disorder? Despite the fact that many people think of an eating disorder as being an unhealthy quest for a perfect body, eating disorders are not about vanity and not really about weight. Eating disorders are complex, psychological illnesses where people try to control conflict and stress in their lives by controlling food. The food, weight, and body image issues are identifiable symptoms of deep-rooted, often difficult-to-identify problems. Typically, people who develop an eating disorder are in emotional turmoil. They want to be in control but feel they are not. Any anxiety, self-doubt, or feelings of failure or inadequacy become tied to how they look. People with eating disorders become preoccupied, even obsessed, with food and weight. Eating disorders can lead to extreme behavior including self-starvation, bingeing, purging, and compulsive exercise. Anorexia - Self-starvation and excessive weight loss Bulimia - Secretive cycle of binge eating followed by purging Binge Eating Disorder - Consuming mass quantities without purging activities. Eating disorders can affect anyone -- adults, young adults, teenagers, boys, girls, men, women, athletes, and couch potatoes. There is no single cause for eating disorders. Although eating disorders were once thought to be strictly psychological illnesses, recent research indicates that some people may have a genetic predisposition toward eating disorders. Studies also show that there is often a connection between eating disorders and other illnesses such as clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disease. More than 60,000 people on the prairie suffer from an eating disorder. One of them could be someone you care about.   ABOUT THIS PROGRAM | UNDERSTANDING EATING DISORDERS WHEN IT'S SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT | TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO LEARN MORE | DISORDERED EATING MAIN PAGE BACK TO HEALTHWORKS | RETURN TO TV HOME PAGE © 1999 Prairie Public Broadcasting, Inc.