Article Contents

What Are Eating disorders?

Eating is the most favourite part of the day for everyone one of us, isn’t it? But it does become a problem for some of us sometimes.

Some people tend to eat more or less when they are stressed or is not in a proper mental state or having some other issues.

So that’s a kind of eating disorder, so let’s discuss what actually is eating disorder? An eating disorder is a mental disorder determined by abnormal eating habits that affect negatively on person physical state or mental state.

These disorders are characterized by harmful and abnormal eating patterns which are encouraged or motivated by unhealthy beliefs, social perception and expectations regarding the size, shape weight of the body.

Most common cases with regards to an eating disorder are the people who struggle to accept themselves in their own body.

What is Body image

Body image is a particular kind of image people have of their own body, which is different from how their actual body is.

Body image is a complex build and is a made up of beliefs, thoughts, behaviour, feelings, etc. The way we see our body affects our physical health, mental health, and our relationships with other people.

Negative body image is determined by the dissatisfaction of one’s own body appearance and putting oneself to strict diet and workouts.

Negative body image is one potential contributor to an eating disorder. Body image distress is one of the symptoms of an eating disorder.

The symptoms of some eating disorder, but not all the is over-evaluation of shape of the body and the weight of the body.

Not being satisfied with one’s own body is not only the risk factor or symptom of an eating disorder but also a factor or symptom of anxiety, depression, questioning one owns self-worth.

One should focus on the good aspects and start voiding the bad. Developing a more positive image of our own body image often involves keeping back the self-defeating practices, like weighing, looking in the mirror frequently, wearing revealing clothes, exercising too much, which only provides short- term relief, but becomes a habit that only gives encouragement to anxiety, depression, discontentment, eating disorders.

Psychological perspective

From years now people have been struggling between their appearance, their diet, their weight, their emotions, they think that with each kilo lost, they would be more acceptable or fitted in the society.

Eating disorder is often mentioned within media and society, but scarcely spoken with great details which have led to misconceptions and stereotypes.

Stereotypes are not only towards fat people but also towards skinny people.

However, it is being recognized that eating disorder can be developed in anyone and are often coping strategies to deal with difficult emotions.

What is Pica Disorder

History of Pica

The condition currently known as Pica was determined by Hippocrates.

Pica means “pathological craving for substance unfit for food” (such as chalk) the 1560s, from Medieval Latin pica “magpie”, probably translating Great Kissa, kitta “magpie, jay” also “false appetite”.

It’s about magpie’s appetite who can eat anything.

In the southern United States in the 1800s, geophagia was a very common practice among the slave population.

Geophagia is a form of pica disorder in which a person consumes earthly substance like clay, sand, dirt, etc and is prevalent particularly to get rid of the mineral deficiency diet.

Also, the fact that kaolin rocks were consumed by the West-Africans slaves in the part of the Southern United States, due to the anti-diarrheal qualities in the treatment of dysentery and other types of abdominal ailments.

Thereafter, kaolin became the active ingredient in drugs such as Kaopectate and Pepto-Bismol, although the formulation of the drugs has found additional ingredients to replace kaolinite.
From the 16th to 20th centuries, the research and studies on pica disorder were regarded more as a symptom of other disorders than its own specific disorder.

Even today what could be determined as pica pattern and behaviour is a normative practice in some region and cultures as a part of their beliefs or religious ceremonies or healing methods for some disease.

Introduction of Pica

Pica refers to a person who craves or eats all the non-food items like chalk, paint, sand or chips. People with pica disorder generally got no nutritional values. Most of the times people with pica disorder eat harmless items like ice, chalk, etc.

But many a times, they might eat dangerous items like paint, glue, dirt, the unused remainder of cigarette, etc. The individual with pica disorder consumes the following items regularly like ice, soaps, buttons, clay, sand, dirt, the cigarette ashes, glue, paint, chalk, faeces, etc. People with pica eat these stuff almost regularly.

Causes

1. Cravings for unusual items: The best way to know if you have pica disorder, is to keep track of the items a person is craving to eat. Dirt and clay are the most common cravings you may find in a person suffering from pica. Laundry starch is a common craving among pregnant woman. Some cravings are toothpaste or soap.

2. Iron deficiency, Usually in pregnant women: if you are pregnant or anaemic, you definitely might get cravings for iron. If notice some unusual cravings for iron, you should immediately get your iron level check. An individual could get some healthy way of gaining back the iron if he/she has an iron deficiency.

3. Zinc, Magnesium and Copper Deficiency: Not only iron, medical professionals and scientist also proves that nutrients like zinc, copper, magnesium cravings also are a cause of pica disorder.

4. Developmental disorder, especially in kids: if a child is suffering from autism disorder, there are chances they might have pica disorder, so it would be better if the parent keeps a regular track of the time of what their child is constantly craving to eat for.

Symptoms

The symptoms of pica disorder are mostly on what the patient is most probably consuming. If the patient is consuming, toxic or infectious substance, they might be the subject to poisoning and needs to be hospitalized immediately until they are out of danger.

Some surgeries are being conducted with the patient to remove the sharp objects from the digestive system to void internal bleeding.

Some patients also suffer from lead poisoning because the lead object has a very high volume of lead present in it. Also, there is a risk of gastrointestinal obstruction or tearing in the stomach.

Other sufferings of pica patient could be due to consuming dirt, insects, etc. the problem of mechanical bowel is very common among pica patients.

They also go through constipation and ulcers. They can also have dental problems like severe teeth abrasion and gum related issues.

Assessment

The assessment of pica is really difficult for professionals to conduct as people is not always true related to pica disorder about their eating behaviour and patterns.

As pica disorder is difficult to diagnose, the professionals must be careful regarding the assessment, when assigning pica diagnosis to a patient, the health professionals may look into the history of the individual like how many a times he/she is engaged on pica if there are more than one or more situation or if it is a life-threatening situation.

Williams and McAdam also tell that the professionals must identify any sort of triggers the individual permits to continue pica eating behaviour and patterns.

Additional information

It is not clearly reported how many people are affected by pica, but it is most likely to be prevalent in developing countries.
Pica often can be associated with intellectual disability, trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder), excoriation (skin pulling) disorder.
Pica is not diagnosed in children below two years of age.
Pica does not only affect human beings but also animals suffer from pica disorder, it can be seen in chimpanzees, dogs and cats.