What Are Some Recovery Poems On Eating Disorders?

In this blog, we will cover various kinds of eating disorders, what are their symptoms and what causes them, their treatment, recovery poems on eating disorders, and answer frequently asked questions. 

What Are Some Recovery Poems On Eating Disorders?

There are some recovery poems related to eating disorders like the thicket of pins, Pinnochio on fire, Darkness, etc. 

Poems are often based on a variety of topics, sometimes they are written about complex topics like mental health struggles, people’s battle with various issues including an eating disorder, and one’s recovery from these disorders. 

Let us explore the recovery of eating disorders through poetry in further sections.  

What Are the Different Types of Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders are a range of complicated mental health diseases that can substantially affect health and social functioning. They are officially classed as “feeding and eating disorders” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Eating disorders are associated with major mental discomfort and serious medical issues given the physical aspect of their distinguishing symptoms. In addition, they have the greatest mortality risk of any mental illness.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

It’s marked by recurrent binge-eating episodes which are described as consuming a lot more food while feeling out of control. People with bigger bodies are more likely to have it. In the development and management of BED, weight stigma is frequently a confusing factor.

Bulimia Nervosa (BN)

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by recurring binge overeating episodes that are accompanied by corrective behaviors, or actions that are meant to make up for the kcal ingested. Puking, fasting, extreme exercise, and the use of laxatives are examples of these behaviors.

Nervosa Anorexia (AN)

Anorexia nervosa is defined by limited food consumption, resulting in reduced body weight, the anxiety of weight growth, and body image dissatisfaction. 

Food Intake Restrictive/Avoidant Disorder (ARFID)

ARFID formerly known as a selective eating disorder is an eating disorder characterized by constrained eating habits in the utter lack of the negative body image seen among patients of anorexia nervosa. It is characterized by a chronic inability to satisfy dietary and/or energy demands.

Nervosa Orthorexia

Although orthorexia is not an established eating disorder in the DSM-5, it has received a lot of emphasis recently as a potential classification for future iterations. 

It is distinct from other eating disorders in that excessive fixation is rarely motivated by a want to lose weight. Furthermore, the emphasis is on dietary quality rather than quantity.

Eating Disorder Signs and Symptoms

But even though the indications of various eating disorders varied widely, some may signal a need for further investigation. 

Furthermore, if your diet, weight, or body image-related thoughts and/or habits are causing you discomfort and affecting your well-being, it’s best to find treatment.

  • Restriction of food intake
  • Weight fluctuations on a regular basis or being substantially underweight
  • Body image issues
  • Binge eating is present.
  • Excessive exercise is present.
  • Purging, laxative, or diuretic usage is present.
  • Excessive eating, body image, and weight-related thoughts
  • It’s usual for persons with eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, to deny they’re sick. This is referred to as anosognosia.
  • Effects on Mind
  • Eating disorders are often associated with various mental illnesses, the most common of which are anxiety disorders.

Triggers and Risk Factors of Eating Disorders

  • Body Dysmorphic disorder is a condition in which a person’s body (BDD)
  • Anxiety disorder (GAD)
  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness that affects millions of people worldwide (OCD)
  • Anxiety in social situations (GAD)

Anxiety issues often occur before an eating disorder. People who suffer from eating disorders are often depressed and have high perfectionism scores.

Effects on the Body

Eating disorders may have a substantial impact on physical and mental operations since enough intake of nutritionally balanced meals is required for normal functioning. 

The medical repercussions of an eating problem do not need a person to be underweight. Eating disorders have an impact on every system in the body and may result in physical health issues such as:

  • Loss of brain mass
  • Heart and blood vessel issues
  • Problems with the digestive tract (e.g., chronic constipation, gastroesophageal reflux)
  • Dental issues
  • Sleep patterns that have been disrupted
  • Spells that cause you to faint
  • Hair loss or downy hair all over the body is a common occurrence (called lanugo)
  • Post-puberty menstrual period loss (or delayed the first period)
  • Injuries to the musculoskeletal system and pain
  • Bones that have weakened

Eating Disorders Diagnosis

Eating disorders can be diagnosed by medical doctors or mental health professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists. Often, an eating disorder is diagnosed after a pediatrician or primary care doctor notices symptoms during a routine check-up or after a parent or family member expresses concern about their child’s behavior.

Although there is no single laboratory test for eating disorders, your doctor can diagnose you using a combination of physical and psychological evaluations as well as lab tests, such as:

Your practitioner will check your height, weight, and organ function during your physical exam.

A red blood cell count, liver, kidney, and thyroid function tests, urinalysis, X-ray, and an electrocardiogram are among the lab tests that may be performed.

Probing questions regarding your eating habits, bingeing, purging, exercise habits, and body image are included in the psych assessment.

A person’s symptoms can also be assessed using a variety of questionnaires and assessment tools, such as:

Inventory of Eating Problems

Questionnaire for SCOFF participants

The Eating Attitudes Test is a questionnaire that asks participants about their eating habits

Questionnaire to Assess Eating Disorders (EDE-Q)

Who Gets a Psychiatric Evaluation?

Eating disorders need not influence only teenage girls, despite popular opinion. They affect adults, women and men, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to have them.

Men are underreported in eating disorder facts and figures because the stereotype of having a diagnosis that is commonly linked with women discourages them from seeking assistance and receiving a diagnosis. Men may also present with eating disorders in different ways.

Children as young as six years old have been diagnosed with eating disorders, as have older adults and seniors. Even professionals may find it difficult to recognize eating disorders in these populations because of the various ways they manifest.

Eating disorders affect individuals of all racial backgrounds, but because of generalizations, they are easily ignored in non-white communities. 

The irrational belief that eating disorders just impact advantaged white females had also led to the decrease of public healthcare for others, which is often the only choice offered to many underprivileged and marginalized people.

It is also hypothesized that transgender people’s experiences of violence and prejudice lead to higher percentages of eating and other disorders, despite the fact that this has not been thoroughly researched.

Eating Disorders and Their Causes

Eating disorders are difficult to diagnose and treat. While we don’t know for sure what provokes them, there are some speculations.

Although it would seem that genes play a role in 50 percent to 80 percent of the risk for getting a disorder, genes do not anticipate who will advance an eating disorder. 

“Genes load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger,” as the saying goes.

In those who are biologically susceptible to eating disorders, definite circumstances referred to as “instigating factors”—contribute to or trigger the advancement of eating disorders.

The following are some of the environmental factors that have been implicated as precipitants:

  • Abuse/Bullying
  • Dieting
  • Transitions in life
  • Illness of the mind

Weight Stigma During Puberty

It’s also become fashionable to blame media for eating disorders. Whereas media influence is acknowledged as a mitigating factor, it is not regarded as an underpinning cause of the development of eating disorders in individual people. In order for eating disorders to develop, an individual must have a genetic risk.

Poems about Eating Disorder and Recovery from EDs

“Thicket of Pins” by Nina Puro

We are all

so thirsty in the village

of what we once wanted. Don’t

you know where to hang

god’s eye, blueeyes? Don’t

you know language is useless? That

I stitched the blanket I wrapped

the wreck in?

“Diagnosis” by Cynthia Cruz

Burn the body down

And, with it, out goes the pilot

“Pinnochia on Fire” by Lo Kwa Mei-En

There is a line that could make you love me really,

but reeling, I spend the words like virgin coin for

a real girl on the line.

“Fat” by Caroline Rothstein

I used to daydream about appreciating the abundance of food around me;

I used to daydream about eating dinner without wanting to kill myself;

and that like the society I wish to heal and explain I too someday would change.

“Horoscope” by Michelle Chan Brown

We will miss being flesh.

It’s kitsch,

says the press, pushing away

bowls dark with Jell-O, tray

after tray. Whatever

it is, I want to starve

or feed it. Optimistic,

this thirst.

From “Please Bury Me In This” by Allison Benis White

Or is this what it means to be empty: to make no sound?

I pressed my mouth to the wall until I’d made a small gray ring.

Or maybe emptiness is a form of listening.

Maybe I am just listening.

“Darkness” by Lord Byron

And War, which for a moment was no more,

Did glut himself again: a meal was bought

With blood, and each sate sullenly apart

Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left

“Sylvan Instance” by Louise Mathias

Come over.

Help me bury that

where-do-I-bury-the body look.

And the bullshit tree I was born in.

Since you’re the parent of a child who suffers from an eating problem, you should receive therapy on their behalf. It’s difficult to support a youngster with an eating problem, but there are options available. 

Even if your significant one has an eating problem and is an adult, you may still play a vital part in their recovery. Because many individuals with eating problems are unaware that they have a concern. 

Members of the family and important people play an important role in obtaining assistance for them. Recovering from an overeating problem may be difficult and time-consuming, but it is attainable.

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

Conclusion

We explored what eating disorders are, symptoms of eating disorders, triggers/risk factors of eating disorders and eating disorder recovery poems. 

Frequently Asked  Questions (FAQs): What Are Some Recovery Poems On Eating Disorders?

What does it mean to have an eating disorder?

The DSM-5 requires that a person must participate in persistent energy intake restriction, have an extreme fear of gaining weight or becoming obese, or be participating in a persistent activity that hinders weight growth in order to be diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa.

Which eating disorder is the most serious?

Because of the negative effects anorexia may have on physical health, it has a high death rate. Furthermore, although all eating disorders may be hazardous to one’s mental and physical health, anorexia is often considered to be the worst.

Who are the people most prone to suffer from an eating disorder?

Anorexia and bulimia are more common in adolescent girls and young women than in teenage boys and young men, although eating disorders may affect men as well. While eating disorders may affect people of all ages, they are most common in teenagers and early twenties.

How to Stop Fretting About Food and Weight?

Recognize that there is no such thing as excellent or terrible food. 

Do you consider some meals to be healthy or unhealthy? …

  • Concentrate on eating a well-balanced diet.
  • Check-in on your psychological well-being on a regular basis.
  • Find some small-serving sweets and nibbles to satiate your sweet need.

.

What exactly is a Picca?

Pica is a type of eating disorder in which a person eats items that are not generally perceived as food. Because they are fascinated by the world around them, young children often put non-food things (such as grass or toys) in their mouths. Pica (PIE-Kuh) children, on the other hand, go further than that.

What does the term Diabulimia imply?

Diabulimia is a type of eating disorder that affects only people who have Type 1 diabetes. It occurs when a person reduces or discontinues the use of insulin in order to lose weight. Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, necessitates the use of insulin.

References

https://www.bustle.com/p/9-poems-to-read-during-national-eating-disorder-awareness-week-39532
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/blog/do-whatever-it-takes-eating-disorder-recovery-poem
https://www.verywellmind.com/eating-disorders-4157252

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