Eating disorders are one of the most common psychosomatic illnesses in the western world.
People with Eating Disorders experience severe disturbance in their eating behavior and often disturbance in their body image. In many cases, it’s also related to problems of self-worth and identity.
Symptoms of Eating Disorders can be that the people eat too much or too little for a long time, experience vomiting attacks or repeatedly stuff themselves with so much food that they suffer massively physically and mentally.
There are different Eating Disorders. The most common ones are Anorexia Nervosa, which occurs in 0.9% of the population and Bulimia Nervosa und Binge Eating Disorder, which both occur in 0.2% of the population.
Often, people with Eating Disorders do not fall into any of these categories, but show combined or mixed forms, which is why the unspecified eating disorders occur most frequently with 2-5% of the population.
Therapists treating male patients should know the common ground and the differences between male and female sufferers. It’s important to remember that both – men and women – profit from a holistic treatment considering all sides of a human being.
