Eating disorders are caused by abnormal eating patterns. These could be overeating or inadequate food intake. Many people tend to eat more food to suppress extreme emotions and depression. They use the snacks and food indulged in as escape routes to deal with emotional stress or bad relationships. Some common eating disorders are anorexia, compulsive eating, binge eating and bulimia.

Psychologists qualify an eating disorder as something of a mental illness that affects a person’s eating habits in such a way that drastically disturbs the physical health of that person. An in-depth analysis by psychologists and psychiatrists list the types of eating disorders as Anorexia Nervosa, Beriberi, Bulimia Nervosa, Hyperphagia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome, Rumination, Binge Eating Disorder, Orthorexia, and Pica. Among these, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa rank as the most common eating disorder.

Eating foods with addictive substances such as sugar and salt. Overtime people become addicted to these ingredients as does their body. It's very difficult to stop eating disorders. Most of the time people who try to stop eating a certain food they are addicted to or change their way of eating to stop eating disorders can't last for 1 week. And in most cases these things can take up to a month or more. however, there is a way for you to get rid of eating disorders and food addictions in 10 days or less.

Eating disorder treatment will look into many different areas of an eating disorder. When an individual receives eating disorder treatment that individual will find out what caused or triggered their eating disorder to start. This is one of the most important phases of eating disorder treatment. For a person to recover from an eating disorder one has to know the underlying causes.

Among the known eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating rise as the most adamant cases particularly in western countries. Research sums up that over a span of one lifetime there are at least 50, 000 people who will die because of eating disorders. If untreated, a total of 20% of individuals inflicted with eating disorders will die. But if applied with treatment, it is trimmed down to between 2-3%.

Eating disorders do not discriminate on the basis of age, either. While eating disorders seem to be more common in young females, the fact is eating disorders can affect those in their elderly years, as well. More treatment centers are beginning to see women in the fifties and beyond and the unfortunate issue with eating disorders in the elderly is they become more deadly.

When treating eating disorders, many experts recommend that both the psychological and physical issues be treated at the same time. Experts also recommend that sufferers of anorexia or bulimia start eating small amounts of fruits and vegetables along with adding a small amount of protein to their diet. Food that is high in zinc is also a good idea as it can help to stimulate the individual's appetite.

It is essential to be vigilant about these disorders. The family support system can be of great help. It is not unusual for young girls and boys to be worried about their appearance and unhappy with their weight. This worry and unhappiness sometimes results in eating disorders. It is important to treat them as soon as possible, as left unchecked, eating disorders can prove fatal.