Food can be an exciting thing for most people, but for some, it is the cause of their anxiety. Eating when you suffer from food anxiety can be quite the ordeal. Even what may seem to be a typical meal can become an overwhelming experience that involves intrusive thoughts and distress flooding into their minds. That’s what happens when anxiety about food suddenly attacks.
Men and women around the globe suffer from this type of anxiety, and if you’re one of those who feel anxious whenever it’s mealtime, here’s an overview of why it’s happening and what you can do to overcome it.
Why It Happens
Food anxiety occurs when a person experiences any of these situations:
- Reading negative messages about food and eating
- Experiencing negativity when it comes to food
- Hearing negative comments about being fat
- Struggling with perfectionism
- Dealing with a culture that promotes slim figures and thinness as the more favorable size
- Experiencing bullying due to weight would grow a person’s dislike for food or use it as an escape
- Sharing the genes with people who also have anxiety about food
Effects of Food Anxiety: Different Kinds of Disorder
Too much anxiety can also cause mental health conditions. It can affect a person’s daily life, drive them to make unhealthy choices, consume their thoughts, and ruin their relationships with others. Here are some mental health conditions related to food anxiety:
- Anorexia Nervosa – People who are thin but think they are overweight have this mental disorder. This condition discourages them from eating in order to look slimmer than they do. They have developed rituals about food intake, exercise excessively, or take laxatives to lose weight. They often end up being severely underweight.
- Bulimia Nervosa – People with this disorder often eat a lot. When they notice this, they will get rid of the food by forcing themselves to vomit, or by drinking laxatives or injecting enemas. When they are not eating, they tend to compensate by excessively exercising or fasting.
- Binge-Eating Disorder – This disorder is similar to Bulimia. People with this condition eat more food. However, they don’t purge. They obsess over their food intake, gain weight, and suffer from nutritional imbalances.
- Generalized Anxiety Disorders – When people feel more anxious than they usually do and channel their anxiety towards food, they often have this disorder. It can lead to other eating disorders.
Possible Treatments
The different disorders may showcase various symptoms and there’s a range of treatments that anxiety sufferers may undergo:
- Consult a Therapist – Since most of the disorders that food anxiety sufferers have is based on their thoughts and emotions, one of the best methods to improve their condition is to consult therapists who specialize in eating disorders. This will help them find the safest way to understand what’s happening, manage their emotions, and find strategies to divert their minds from these thoughts.
- Get Proper Medication – Sometimes, consulting with therapists is not enough. They need to take medicines to help manage their emotions and anxiety better.
- Undergo Nutritional Counselling – Some people, especially those who are severely underweight, need to be given intravenous (IV) fluids or treatments to prevent them from suffering more severe health issues. They need counseling to reach a safe weight.
- Change in Lifestyle – Some changes need to take place in a person’s life to further improve their fight against these disorders. For example, people suffering from eating disorders are often advised to limit their access to fashion magazines, social media, and other anxiety triggers.
- Get Into a Support Group – The healing would be faster if the person knows that they’re not alone. With a support system, they’d be more patient with themselves. They’d understand their condition and feelings better because they have other people with the same experience to talk with. They can also get practical advice from reliable people who are facing the same struggles.
Conclusion
If you find yourself in any of the conditions mentioned above, remember that you are not alone, and there are ways to treat these conditions successfully. The most important thing to do is to acknowledge your problem and seek help. Call your friends and a professional, and you’ll surely survive and get better.
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