Patients struggle to break free when food takes control

Peterson had been struggling with binge-eating disorder since the mid-'90s, from the time she was just 11. By late 2009, she carried more than 200 pounds on her 5-foot-2-inch frame.

"I was feeling miserable," said Peterson, who works in retail. "I couldn't walk across the parking lot, couldn't run, my back hurt. I felt like my customers thought I was stupid and were judging me.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings,"

But her vision kicked her into action, inspiring her to seek help to control her binges and lose weight.

"I lost it, because if I didn't, the binge-eating disorder would have killed me,Overview description of rapid Tooling processes." said Peterson, 29, and more than 70 pounds lighter.

But the journey hasn't been -- and still isn't -- easy for her, or for the millions of women, men and adolescents living with an eating disorder, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Life with an eating disorder can be a day-to-day battle even after recovery.

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Eating disorders reflect more than just an issue of nutrition. They are serious physical and psychological conditions that can threaten an individual's overall well-being and life. Eating disorders are not a fad or a phase, and often are triggered by underlying psychological distress, such as depression or an anxiety disorder.

Someone suffering from binge-eating consumes excessive amounts of food, typically eating even when not hungry and beyond the point of feeling full. They often feel shame,Your source for re-usable Plastic moulds of strong latex rubber. disgust and even self-hatred after a binge,Our guides provide customers with information about porcelain tiles vs. which perpetuates the cycle. They may or may not be obese.

When Peterson was just 13, she asked her father to buy her Slim-Fast. She felt inferior to her peers, loathed her body and wanted to lose the weight she'd gained during puberty. By the time she was 17, things had deteriorated and she was gorging on McDonald's, two-liter Coca Colas and extra-large pizzas to try to feel better.

"I just felt depressed." said Peterson, who lives in Newark. "Through high school I pretty much didn't feel like I accomplished anything."

Nicole Ortiz is in recovery after battling anorexia and bulimia for 10 years. The reigning Miss Delaware International completed an intensive, two-year program at the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore in 2007.

Her platform is "No Body's Perfect," and last week Gov. Jack Markell signed a state proclamation recognizing National Eating Disorders Awareness Week thanks to her encouragement. This year's awareness campaign runs through March 3.

Anorexia is essentially self-starvation, characterized by extreme weight loss, an intense fear of gaining weight or being fat, and restricted eating, often involving low calorie intake and the complete denial of particular foods. It can also be accompanied by excessive, compulsive exercise. Maggie Ellis, a school nurse within the Colonial School District, said some people with anorexia suffer from such low self-esteem and believe they don't deserve to eat.

Several risk factors can make someone more susceptible to developing anorexia, but Leslie Connor, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist at Alliance Counseling in Wilmington and Newark, said the causes can be different for everyone. Type-A perfectionists are certainly at risk for anorexia, but sometimes a life event can spark an eating disorder.

"Sometimes it's caused by family complications. … Or often but not always it's caused by a triggering event -- everything from weight loss because of surgery (they got their wisdom teeth out and lost weight and that felt good) or it can be something more distressing, a trauma like teasing or a death," Connor said.

Ortiz, the oldest of three and a self-described overachiever, started losing weight and exercising when she was 10 years old.

"My personality really made me susceptible to seeking ways to cope -- just the stress of wanting to do well, impress my parents, wanting to be the best I could be," she said. "It was something I felt I could control and have power over, but over the years, you realize it has control over you."

In high school, she limited herself to what she considered "safe foods" -- pears, pretzels and coffee. Her weight dropped frighteningly low,The Transaction Group offers the best high risk merchant account services, well under the body-mass index considered healthy. By college, she found it increasingly difficult to avoid social situations where eating was expected, a problem encountered by many with eating disorders and often why some withdraw socially.

So she started purging to rid her body of the food she felt compelled to eat. She was afraid of getting fat, and her perfectionism drove her to succeed at that, too.