Eating Disorder Treatment Centers Temecula California
Temecula, California Seeks Screening for Eating Disorders
As ground zero for the entertainment industry, Hollywood acts a beacon to up and coming actors and models from surrounding California communities like Temecula. The obsessive focus by those seeking a show business career on body image however has led to eating disorders. The severity has reached a point at which California has proposed a state bill 2539 to regulate the modeling industry by requiring regular health screenings for eating disorders. With an emphasis on awareness, the goal is to identify anyone suffering from an eating disorder before they become a statistic. For a list of the best eating disorder treatment centers in Temecula California please contact our helpline and speak with a representative.
Understanding Eating Disorders
Because food is a part of life, it is difficult to understand how anyone could develop an unhealthy relationship with eating. Yet, as young girls especially seek to match fashion magazine cover model physiques, they turn to drastic diet and exercise routines that rapidly become health issues. Currently thirty million people of all ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S., and every sixty-two minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder. Knowing how to identify eating disorders is the first step toward getting someone help.
Battling Bulimia
Bulimia nervosa is a psychological disorder that involves eating large amounts of food in a short period of time and then attempting to purge the food by vomiting, the use of laxatives, or prolonged periods of intense exercise. Someone suffering from bulimia may experience:
- Dramatic changes in weight, both gaining and losing weight
- The breaking of blood vessels around the eyes resulting in black eyes
- The esophagus becoming inflamed due to frequent vomiting
- Heartbeat irregularities caused by electrolyte imbalance-this is what most often kills someone with bulimia, as they experience sudden cardiac arrest
Identifying Anorexia
Others with poor body image may turn to extreme fasting to lose weight. Someone suffering from this condition may also be purging as well. But with an intense focus on minimal calorie intake, symptoms of severe weight loss become evident.
- Extremely thin underweight appearance that an anorexic may insist is their “body type”
- An unhealthy obsession with calories and fat in food
- Strange, often obsessive ritualistic eating patterns such as cutting food into very small pieces, hiding food or choosing to always eat alone
- Hair loss or thinning hair
- Depression and frequent lethargy
- Personal isolation and withdrawal
Binge Eating Drives Weight Gain Disorders
While many bulimics will binge eat and then take extreme measures to compensate for food consumption, other binge eating sufferers may swing in the opposite direction. Often a distorted body image will lead to giving up completely when it comes to healthy diet and exercise. For many binge eating may lead to excessive overeating and obesity. The most common characteristics of binge eating include:
- Eating well past the point of fullness
- Rapidly eating large amounts of food in one sitting
- Gorging alone, while eating normally in the company of others
- Stockpiling and hiding food
- Eating continuously throughout the day, disregarding specific mealtimes
Exercise Addiction: When Fitness Becomes Unhealthy
Though exercise is considered an important part of a healthy lifestyle, obsession with fitness can lead to both physical and emotional disorders. As a behavioral disorder, exercise addiction turns a daily exercise routine into a dependency that removes someone suffering from the disorder from normal social and personal engagement. Research studies determine that approximately three percent of people who exercise regularly are addicted to it. The condition is much more common in people in their late teens or early twenties. Other estimates have found that upward of forty-two percent of regular attendees at the gym meet the criteria for exercise addiction. When exercise becomes an addiction some of the symptoms may include:
- An inability to stop exercising after a period to the point that injury or complete exhaustion is experienced
- Most of the time is spent at the gym, disregarding social occasions and sometimes even work
- Intention effects-when set fitness goals are exceeded unknowingly and on a regular basis
- Continuing to exercise even with injuries or other physical problems that are a direct result from excessive exercising
The Complexity of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are complex and many suffering from them may be experiencing a compound of many disorders. For example, an individual may present some of the symptoms of bulimia with occasional purging, but not enough to be identified as a bulimic. Fasting may occur, but not enough for that person to be identified as suffering from anorexia. This configuration of symptoms allows many with eating disorders to slip through the cracks of treatment. That is why those researching the field have established Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified or EDNOS. In fact, forty to sixty percent of people who seek treatment for an eating disorder have EDNOS. Because eating disorders can become very personalized, an aggregate of symptoms indicating one disorder or the other may never appear. In other words, treatment must focus on the individual person.
Signs that a friend or loved one is experiencing this more complex eating disorder may show symptoms that are physical, psychological or emotional.
- A constant expression of poor body image
- Feeling out of control around food
- Using food as a source of comfort, especially eating heavily during periods of depression or anxiety
- Using food as personal punishment, refusing to eat for emotional reasons
- Rigid perceptions of food as being either good or bad
Getting to the Psychological Roots of Eating Disorders
Just like so many other addictions or obsessions, an underlying psychological issue is usually the root cause of eating disorders. Before an eating disorder begins, there may be emotional red flags that can be identified. If a loved one is suffering from depression, stress or anxiety, they may be on the path to not only eating disorders, but other addictions including drugs, gambling or sex addiction. Helping someone when they first exhibit these issues, means getting them treatment more quickly.
Identifying Depression
Though being blue is common for everyone, when sadness extends into days and weeks, then it may be an indication of clinical depression. True depression can impact work, school and relationships, as well as normal, every day activities such as eating and sleeping. It is estimated that there three-hundred and fifty million people worldwide suffering from depression. There are two specific types of depression that are commonly diagnosed.
Major depression occurs when feelings of chronic sadness persist nearly every day for up to two weeks. An episode may only occur once in a person’s lifetime or there may be several episodes.
Persistent depressive disorder is diagnosed when depression lasts for up to two years or more. This type of depression is defined when a person experiences numerous depressive episodes, off and on, throughout the days and weeks. Unlike major depression, which may be linked to a personal experience such as a death in the family or a divorce, persistent depressive disorder clings to a person on a regular basis. To know depression is to see the signs.
- A constant sadness, anxiousness or feeling of emptiness
- Pessimistic feelings and hopelessness
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness or helplessness
- Loss of interest in work, hobbies, relationships
- A loss of energy
- Difficulty thinking clearly
- Difficulty sleeping, which may appear as insomnia or oversleeping
- Changes in appetite or weight
- Thoughts of suicide
- Restlessness and irritability
- Aches and pains that do not seem to have a physical cause
When Stress Becomes a Problem
Stress is a normal part of life, which makes it difficult to define as a problem. There is a breaking point for many when stress, especially from work, becomes the threshold to behavioral disorders. More than sixty percent of Americans identify money and work as the most stressful issues in their lives. When a normal degree of stress leads to problems is when some of the following indicators occur.
- Work and family life become more difficult to handle
- There is an increased likelihood of fighting with people close to them
- Isolation from others, especially family and friends
There are also physical symptoms of stress that are often misdiagnosed as medical disorders
- Constant fatigue
- Stomach and digestive problems
- Headaches
- Changes in sex drive
Naturally, stress occurs in three distinct stages. The alarm stage, the stage of resistance and the exhaustion stage. Short periods of stress are normal and can contribute to positive results at work and in home life. However, when these short periods extend over longer durations, stress becomes a significant problem that can lead to other disorders. Identifying when these stress stages are recurring constantly can lead to getting help sooner.
The Alarm Stage-When hormones trigger the fight tor flight response, increasing heart rate and blood pressure. When a challenge is presented to an individual, the alarm stage kicks in.
The Stage of Resistance- When the individual digs in to contend with the challenge. Stored energy is used as the individual engages to overcome obstacles.
The Exhaustion Stage- When the challenge is overcome, the body sinks into fatigue seeking an extended period of rest from the ordeal.
During an occasional stressful event, an individual will experience these stages normally and recover. If these stressful events are continuous, then the body begins to break down and the mind grows weary. At some point, behavioral disorders became the self-medicating antidote to a stressful life.
Anxiety and Emotional Disorders
Anxiety disorders may include feelings of panic, nervousness and irrational dread. Anxiety may also be linked with depression and is one of the most common emotional problems that lead to behavioral disorders, including eating disorders and substance abuse.
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting forty million adults in the United States age eighteen and older, which is about eighteen percent of the population every year. Anxiety disorders are one of the easiest emotional disorders to treat, yet only thirty-six percent of those suffering receive treatment.
Because everyone gets anxious from time to time, it is difficult to personally diagnose a true disorder. However, patterns of anxiety, especially irrational fears that disable daily life, can be diagnosed by a physician and treated. Here are symptoms to look for.
Excessive worry
Though there many legitimate concerns in life, when worry becomes obsessive to the point of derailing normal activities, it may be a problem. Many behavioral disorders start to develop to cope with everyday worry. By changing the focus of the worry into a controllable problem like eating is not uncommon.
Difficulty Sleeping
Not being able to fall asleep or staying asleep is often a result of the excessive worrying. Often turning to drugs and alcohol or overuse of sleeping medications is a common response.
Irrational fears
When fears over something that is harmless haunt a person to the point of avoidance, then it may be a symptom of anxiety disorder.
Constant muscle tension
Tense muscles due to stress may linger long after a day at the office. When physical pain is persistent even in a state of rest then anxiety may be causing the tension.
Chronic stomach problems
If digestive disorders cannot be diagnosed by a medical doctor, anxiety may be the cause for a constant upset stomach or cramps.
Flashbacks
When a past traumatic event continually intrudes into the present, it may be causing anxiety. Trying to avoid the past event through drugs an alcohol or obsessing over other aspects of the present such as weight loss are common.
Obsessive self-consciousness
Focusing on self to the point of obsession can lead to moments of panic. Feeling that everyone is looking at you or watching you and concerns about appearance or behavior can be stunting. Under these circumstances, many suffering from severe anxiety may choose isolation rather than risking engaging with others.
Whether eating disorders appear to be an issue or emotional disorders are interrupting normal life, therapy, medication and specialized treatment is available. Getting treatment sooner rather than later is critical to solving personal issues that can rapidly become physical or medical concerns. Overcoming the obstacles of behavioral and emotional disorders leads to a more positive and more meaningful life.