Eating disorder
An eating disorder is a mental health condition where you use food to control and cope with feelings and other situations.
Unhealthy eating behaviours may include eating too much or too little or worrying about your weight or body shape.
Anyone can get an eating disorder, but teenagers between 13 and 17 are mostly affected, then will continued until late age.
Eating disorders are a group of related conditions including anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.
Symptoms of an eating disorder include worrying about your weight, eating too little or making yourself sick after eating.
Treatment for an eating disorder depends on the type of condition you have. It usually involves talking therapy.
Anorexia is an eating disorder where you feel a need to keep your weight as low as possible.
Symptoms of anorexia include believing you're fat when you're a healthy weight or underweight, eating very little or missing meals.
General symptoms:
Isolating yourself from others
Preoccupation with food and eating
Low confidence, low self-esteem and anxiety – particularly when eating in front of others
Fear of gaining weight or pursuit of thinness and excessive focus on body weight
Distorted perception of body shape or weight
Inability to eat intuitively or reluctance to respond to hunger cues
Other mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder
With treatment, most people can recover from an eating disorder.
Types of eating disorders
Anorexia
Bulimia
Binge Eating Disorder
Avoidant/ Restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
What are the factors behind Eating Disorder
Biopsychosocial factors
Genetics
Brain chemistry
Personality traits
Environment – media, family on diets, peer pressure
Early Experiences
Early experiences are very much at the core of the issue. Consider these questions. Spend 5 minutes thinking about these.
How did you learn about how to relate to food?
What were the early messages given to you about food and body image?
How were mealtimes managed in your childhood?
Exercise
Let’s explore your relationship with food and your body. Spend 5 minutes thinking about these questions:
What do you use food for?
Do you ever eat to manage emotions?
How much control do you have over your eating? (scale of 1-10)
What foods are allowed / not allowed either now or in your past?
Do you ever go on a diet? How do you feel when you do?
How does the media affect your view of your body?
Don’t suffer alone – reach out for support
The term “early intervention” means getting help and support as soon as possible, when you need it. The sooner you get help, the better your chances are of full and sustained recovery.
Research tells us that people should be treated within the first three years of their illness, yet it takes on average almost three years for people to recognise their symptoms and seek help.
Talking therapies will help you look at your emotional connection to your past and present experiences.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help you with:
show you how to plan your food intake every day
work out the triggers that make you binge
help you to change negative beliefs about your body
help you stick to your new eating habits (this is called relapse prevention)
Despite how it presents, eating disorders are not all about food.
Rather, food is a symptom of other complex and often deep-rooted issues. Eating disorders develop to block out or control overwhelming emotions.
Food can be an indicator of someone’s emotional experience of their life.
Eating disorders disrupt a person’s thoughts and mood
Sufferers are often unable to function in key areas of life, including school, work, personal relationships and social environments.
Treating individuals suffering with co-occurring conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can help them reconnect with the joys of day-to-day life.
The isolation and secrecy that often comes with eating disorders can keep a person trapped within their illness.
I hope this has helped you start to explore your relationship with food and understand where this comes from. If you need more support, don’t hesitate to contact me.