There are many different types of eating disorders, but they are all characterized by an inability or unwillingness to maintain a healthy relationship with food. Usually, all types of eating disorders will leave the victim either underweight or overweight, and eating disorders often have inherent psychological factors as well. The main three types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and addictive eating disorder.

First, there’s anorexia, probably the most common and well known of all the eating disorders. In this eating disorder, the victim purposely avoids eating an adequate amount so that she can either lose more weight or avoid gaining additional weight. While not eating does make you thin, it also prevents you from getting vital nutrients and energy to support your body. There’s a reason people eat, and that’s to maintain all of their bodily functions.

The reason anorexic people look so thin and frail is because their bodies are not able to sustain them on next to no calories. Their bodies actually eat up their own muscles and organs to keep them alive. Anorexia is not only a serious physical disorder, but a serious mental one as well. On the mental side, anorexic victims often cite a need for control as a motivation for their anorexia. Basically, they feel in control of at least one aspect of their lives when they deny themselves something that their bodies desperately need.