An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by deviant eating behaviors. These habits affect negatively the health of a person mentally and physically.

Types of eating disorders include;

Binge eating disorder This is mostly characterized by the patient eating enormous quantities of food in a short period. It's a chronic disorder, particularly among adolescents and unlike bulimia nervosa, they do not impede their calorie intake or use purge techniques such as vomiting. The food intake most times than is not a healthy choice.

Anorexia Nervosa This is an extreme fear of gaining weight by the victim. The victim ends up exercising too much and restricts the food intake to critical amounts. It's the most known and mostly affects teens and young adults, especially women.

These victims generally deem themselves overweight even if they're virtually underweight. General symptoms of anorexia nervosa are very limited eating patterns and the outrageous quest for thinness.

Rumination disorder It's a condition in which an individual regurgitates food they have already chewed and swallowed. They either resume chewing or spit out. It mostly takes place 30 minutes after eating. Rumination disorder leads to weight loss and mental disorders due to the humiliation that comes with it and particularly in public places.

Bulimia nervosa Individual eats a large amount of food and then rid themselves of the food. Every episode of binge eating ends only when the individual is bitterly full. These bouts are usually followed by purging behavior to rid themselves ie through forced vomiting, fasting, or excessive exercise.

The causes of eating disorders are unknown but biological, behavioral, and environmental factors play a role in their prominence.

Genetics Individuals with inherited genes for eating disorders are at high risk of acquiring eating disorders. If your parents or relatives have had eating disorders, you should be more cautious.

Personality According to a 2015 research review, some personality traits show an elevated preponderance of eating disorders. In particular perfectionist and impulsivity are personality traits correlated to eating disorders.

Social pressures Contemporary society applauds thin people and it puts a lot of tension on the general population to lose weight at all costs. Even those that are already thin, strive to maintain it. Social media, magazines, and journals publicize only a distinctive type of body.

Mental health This can be induced by various things in one's life including change of environment and problematizing relationships. They manifest as stress and may increase the risk of developing eating disorders.

Risk factors for developing eating disorders are;

• Low self-esteem.

• Peer pressure.

• Poor personal body image.

• Perfectionist syndrome (striving to have a perfect body).

• Bullying ( at work or school).

• Abused (physically, mentally, or emotionally).

• Trauma (from earlier years).

• Navigating complicated relationships.

• Poor mental health.

Effects of eating disorders

1. In severe cases, eating disorders can even cause death if it goes untreated. Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illness. It is the second after an opioid overdose.

2. Eating disorders like bulimia in extreme cases may cause complicated medical conditions like stroke or heart attack because of imbalances in electrolyte levels such as sodium, potassium, and calcium.

3. Excessive weight loss. This is mostly rendered by restricted food intake and other factors like vomiting and extensive exercises that might be too harsh and detrimental to their health.

4. Extreme mental health problems can arise because of these disorders. The preoccupation to be ideal can take a toll on the individual's mental health. The fear to add weight is stressful.

Prevention Although there is no particular way to approach this issue, there are strategies you can use to catch sight of it early enough and prevent it, at least to some degree.

• Create a healthy eating environment. Most of these intricacies arise around the teenage and young adult years which mostly are at home. Family eating habits may form the relationship children will have with food. Encourage and provide a safe space around healthy eating.

• Address mental health. The root cause of these situations in some cases is mental. If you address the health of your children then they will be more equipped to handle it.

Psychologists can be able to detect early, the onset of these disorders by asking questions, and scrutinizing their behaviors. Doctors also check the physical response of the kids ie height, weight, and mass index and this alerts them if the kid has substantial changes.

• Reassure them of their body image. Talk to your children and your family members and reassure them of their body type and image. Reaffirm with them that it's okay to have any body shape whether it's a thin or plus size. Having a positive body will not lead them to push themselves into extreme measures trying to conform to societal expectations.

Treatment of eating disorders can range from psychological counseling and dietary to medication. The approach also depends on the kind of disorder the patient is suffering from. The psychopathology of eating disorders rotates around the body image desired and what others think.