A Guide to Eating Disorders

Orthorexia Nervosa

A/N; This is the ED that I have struggled with, so this chapter may be a little short and impersonal, as not to trigger myself.

Orthorexia is an ED that very many people compare with Hypochondria; abnormal anxiety about one's health, especially with an unwarranted fear that one has a serious disease. Orthorexia is,

an obsession with eating foods that one considers healthy.

or

a medical condition in which the sufferer systematically avoids specific foods in the belief that they are harmful.

~~~

Orthorexia Nervosa is basically an obsessive focus on "healthy" eating, as defined by a dietary theory or set of beliefs whose specific details may vary. Due to the exaggerated emotional distress in relationship to food choices perceived as unhealthy; weight loss may ensue, but this is conceptualized as an aspect of ideal health rather than as the primary goal.

The disorder is believed to become "clinically impairing" should any of the following occur;

•Malnutrition, severe weight loss or other medical complications from restricted diet

•Intrapersonal distress or impairment of social, academic or vocational functioning secondary to beliefs or behaviors about healthy diet.

•Positive body image, self-worth, identity and/or satisfaction excessively dependent on compliance with self-defined "healthy" eating behavior.

~~~

Please remember that the "healthy eating" that is mentioned will often not be at all healthy. A person may only eat foods from a certain magazine or cookbook, and believe scams online that claim to help you be "healthier".

This disorder often originates from a need of control surrounding food, diet fads, previous unhealthy eating, diagnosed medical problems due to food, and OCD.

This disorder commonly grows worse over time, and the dietary restrictions can be reduced to one-digit number like that. It is common for an individual to stop eating food altogether, and substitute it with so called "nutritional supplements". Even if they are actaually nutritional supplements, living solely off of them is very unhealthy.

~~~

An excerpt about Orthorexia from www.orthorexia.com

Traits that are commonly associated with ON in the literature. While the authors feel that these are not essential to making the diagnosis, they may help confirm it.

These include obsessive focus on

•food choice, planning, purchase, preparation, and consumption;

•food regarded primarily as source of health rather than pleasure;

•distress or disgust when in proximity to prohibited foods;

•exaggerated faith that inclusion or elimination of particular kinds of food can prevent or cure disease or affect daily well-being;

•periodic shifts in dietary beliefs while other processes persist unchanged;

•moral judgment of others based on dietary choices;

•body image distortion around sense of physical "impurity" rather than weight;

•persistent belief that dietary practices are health-promoting despite evidence of malnutrition.