WHAT ARE EATING DISORDERS?

Eating disorders are behavioral conditions that include severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and distressing thoughts and emotions around food/eating. Eating disorders are often associated with preoccupations with food, weight or body shape, or with anxiety about eating or the consequences of eating certain foods.

Behaviors associated with eating disorders including:

  • restrictive eating (not eating enough to sustain active living)

  • avoidance of certain foods

  • binge eating

  • purging by vomiting, laxative misuse, or compulsive exercise

These behaviors can become driven in ways that appear similar to an addiction (1).

Eating disorders are about more than food. Because food is such a central part of our daily lives, a person's disordered relationship with food can affect every aspect of life, including relationships, social life, professional life, and individuals’ medical condition. Eating disorders often drive sufferers to isolate and hide their eating disorder behaviors, which can distance them from primary support systems. Often the eating disorder comes with some varying degree of shame and proves to be time-consuming mentally, so relationships can suffer because many social opportunities center around food.

Find out more about the causes and impacts of eating disorders.

Eating Disorders Frequently Co-Occur with other Mental Illnesses

Eating disorders often co-occur with other psychiatric disorders most commonly mood and anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and alcohol and drug abuse problems. Evidence suggests that genes and heritability play a part in why some people are at higher risk for an eating disorder, but these disorders can also afflict those with no family history of the condition. With proper care, those with eating disorders can find healing through adapted eating habits and find balance in their emotional and psychological health.