Eating disorder

These personality characteristics are typically found among individuals who have eating disordersdisorders, the most common of which are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.

These personality characteristics are typically found among individuals who have eating disordersdisorders, the most common of which are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.

If their weight drops to life-threatening levels, anorexics may be hospitalized, and even then they may go to the extreme of tearing out feeding tubes or secretly exercising to burn off what little food they have been forced to eat.

In their book The AdonisAdonis Complex: The Secret Crisis off Male Body Obsession, physicians Harrison G. Pope Jr. and Katharine A. Phillips and clinical psychologist Roberto Olivardia note that until recently, much of the research focused on women because conventional wisdom held that eating disorders rarely occurred among men.

Nevertheless, anorexics "insist they feel fine, or they minimize their discomforts and continue to work hard, get good grades in school, perform athletically; or exercise compulsively," states physician Diane W. Mickley, founder of the Wilkins Center for Eating Disorders in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Anorexia and bulimia have long been recognized as diagnosable medical conditions; binge-eating disorder, on the other hand, was not formally categorized until 1992.

If their weight drops to life-threatening levels, anorexics may be hospitalized, and even then they may go to the extreme of tearing out feeding tubes or secretly exercising to burn off what little food they have been forced to eat.

Bulimics consume abnormally large quantities of food in a short period of time and then try to rid their bodies of the excess calories through the use of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, rigorous exercise, or some combination of the three.

The typical anorexic is a perfectionist, an overachiever, a people pleaser who craves approval and strives to avoid conflict.

Bulimics consume abnormally large quantities of food in a short period of time and then try to rid their bodies of the excess calories through the use of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, rigorous exercise, or some combination of the three.

In addition, bulimics often have difficulties with impulse control; a high percentage not only binge on food but also exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as sexual promiscuity, shoplifting, or alcohol and substance abuse.