When does disordered eating turns into an eating disorder?
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When the eating takes control and interfers with heath, social life, emotional wellbeing etc
when you start sneaking and hiding food.
If you stop eating normally all of a sudden and it keeps on happening your body gets used to not having food in your system so everytime you want to eat, you really can't because your stomach is used to not getting anythin in the system.
If someones not eating right they usually take vitamins soo it would help them get healthy and get hungry.
First of all what do you mean by disordered eating - erratic habits like eating at odd hours or grabbing the odd sand which instead of a good meal? That's not the healthiest lifestyle but it can't be termed an eating disorder nor is it likely to turn into one. A lot of people are under the misconception that eating disorders sprout from a desire to be thin and fashionable. this is not the case...people who suffer from bulimia, anorexia etc are people who have a whole set of other problems. Eating disorders are the result of such problems. This is a complex subject but if you think you are on the verge of an eating disorder (obsessed with what you eat, weighing yourself all the time, inducing vomiting, binging than taking laxative or vomiting, distorted body image - seeing yourself fat when you are the right weight) please seek counseling.
For me, the line between disordered eating and (in my case) bulimia came when I wasn't choosing to do food-related things of my own accord. It became the choice of my disorder.
There is no sudden transition whereby you have an eating disorder. If we purge once after a huge fish and chip meal, do we have bulimia? I would feel angry if anybody thought that such a person has an ED- that's just disordered eating. The main distinguishing feature of an ED is the fact that it is not a diet- it's a mental illness. The Ana/Mia will be obsessed with food and weight, will hide their methods very artfully and will often buy or make food for other people to fatten them up. Nowadays, going online before or after eating (to check calories in food) can be an indicator, as can visiting pro-ana websites.
Disordered eating, while unhealthy, is a fairly common part of most young (and someties older) womens' lives. In many cases it is merely a flirtation- throwing lunches away to save calories, fasting for a few days. Because it is such an ambiguous term, it is hard to really define it, but I think it is a blanket term for eating patterns that are not healthy continually. This may be the start of an eating disorder but can also relate to clinical depression or physical illness.
The main difference is that disordered eating gets better by itself. Eating disorders cannot, and if left untreated will often lead to death.
Eating disorders are extremely painful for sufferers and their loved ones. If you are concerned about someone's eating habits, a good website to cisit is www.something-fishy.org/
which has support for all kinds of disorders and lists of symptoms so you can evaluate whether to seek further help.
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