What Are Eating Disorders?
Published November 16th, 2023
4.5 min read
Learn the signs and symptoms of eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Written by Simon Spichak
One in eight kids and teenagers develop an eating disorder before the age of 20. An eating disorder involves unhealthy or disordered eating habits and excessive concerns over weight and body image. Eating disorders have a huge impact on your physical and mental health and are still attached to a lot of stigma and misconceptions.
What Causes Eating Disorders?
Many different factors can cause someone to develop an eating disorder, including biological factors and psychological factors. In addition, these disorders are more common in women, though men can also develop them.
Here are some of the major contributing causes of eating disorders:
Dieting. Since many diets reinforce unhealthy eating habits, dieting is one of the largest risks for developing an eating disorder.
Genetics. Some genes may make you more likely to develop one of these disorders.
Personality traits. People with certain personality traits like perfectionism, impulsivity, novelty-seeking, obsessive-compulsiveness, harm avoidance, and neuroticism may be more likely to develop these disorders.
Social media and body image concerns. Media depictions of what is “normal” weight can lead to an unhealthy self-image and lead to disordered eating. When someone becomes overly picky about their appearance and flaws, they can also develop a condition called body dysmorphia.
Trauma and mental health. Experiencing traumatic events early in life or other common disorders like anxiety or depression may make you more likely to develop an eating disorder.
Types of Eating Disorders
There are many types of common eating disorders, each with its own concerns, symptoms, and treatments. One thing these disorders have in common is that people will try to compensate for eating, either through exercise or by throwing up what they just ate, a pattern called binging and purging.
Importantly, note that you don’t need to be underweight or overweight to develop an eating disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is one of the most well-known eating disorders. It is most common in women and leads to restrictive eating patterns, which cause nutritional deficits. In some cases, anorexia also involves eating small amounts of food and then throwing it back up.
The characteristic symptoms include:
Being extremely underweight and having an irrational fear of gaining weight
A distorted body image and denial of being underweight
Constantly thinking about food and weight
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa is another eating disorder that is more common in women than men. It involves a disordered cycle of eating where someone might eat a lot of food and then throw it up afterward.
Some common symptoms include:
Self-induced vomiting
Use of drugs like laxatives and diuretics
Extreme physical activity
Long periods of fasting
Binge Eating Disorder
Binge eating disorder most often develops during adolescence and affects boys more often than anorexia or bulimia. This causes a pattern of disordered eating where someone eats a very large amount of food in one sitting, accompanied by a loss of self-control.
Some of the other common symptoms include:
Weight gain
Behaviours like extreme exercise to compensate for eating
Emotional triggers that lead to binging
How Are Eating Disorders Treated?
Treating eating disorders involves a combination of therapy, medications to address mental health issues, nutritional counseling, and other social supports. When possible, including family members in the treatment plan is a recipe for success.
The goals of treatment include:
Helping you to start eating healthy
Reducing binging and purging behaviours, and excessive exercise
Working on improving self-confidence, self-control, or body image
If you have concerns about your eating habits, you can learn more about eating disorders at the National Eating Disorder Information Centre and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
You can also schedule a time to speak with one of Resolvve’s therapists. The first 15-minute consultation is always free.
Please note that this post is written for educational purposes; it is not therapy. If you need to talk to a professional, please book a consultation with a psychotherapist through Resolvve.
