Bethany Brings Us Top Five New Body Dysmorphic Disorders of which you may be Unaware

by Ernie on 21/08/09 at 9:34 am

By this point, we’ve all heard of anorexia and bulimia. But there are a lot of other terms, most portmanteau words that incorporate parts of those two words:

5. Bigorexia: mostly a condition of males, it’s an obsession with becoming muscular. At first it was used in a jokey way by weightlifters and body builders. But now it’s a recognized disorder, and afflicts primarily young men. Usually involves steroid use.

4. Drunkorexia: starving all day so you can drink all night without gaining any weight; most common among young, binge-drinking, college-age women. Alcoholics have been doing this kind of thing for all long time, restricting food in order to make their alcoholic high higher; but now it has a weight control component, and practitioners might not be alcoholics.

4. Diabulimia (also called diarexia): the very dangerous practice of people with diabetes who deliberately keep their blood sugar high by not giving themselves enough insulin in order to lose weight.

5. Orthorexia: an obsession with eating the right things. Basically, an obsessive-compulsive disorder focused on food.

Extras:

Permarexia: A state of constantly dieting to keep very thin. Seems to differ from anorexia in that there’s not so much of a problem with perceiving oneself as fat. Rather, the diet is to keep oneself fashionably thin.

Exercise bulimia: compulsive exercising.

Wannarexia: wanting to be anorexic in order to gain the attention and sympathy accorded to anorexics sometimes.

Opsophagos: A disease in ancient Greece, it was an obsession with eating fish. Sounds basically like gluttony, Ancient Greek style. This is what people were driven to when they didn’t have chocolate.