An eating disorder is a serious mental health condition contributed to both by environmental and genetic factors. It effects around 4% of the population and symptoms among Australians are on the rise. 

Eating disorders include:

  • Anorexia Nervosa 
  • Bulimia Nervosa
  • Binge eating disorder
  • Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
  • Other specified feeding or eating disorders (OSFED)
  • Pica
  • Rumination disorder

The most common eating disorder in Australia is binge eating disorder.

There is no one size or shape for someone to be with an eating disorder, saying ‘you don’t look like you have an eating disorder’ can be extremely invalidating to a sufferer, whether you are a family member, friend or health care provider.

People who suffer from eating disorders appear in different shapes and sizes, different ages, genders and sexualities. They have varied backgrounds in terms of education, socioeconomic status and culture – eating disorders do not discriminate. 

It’s not all about the food – when you have an eating disorder, food and mental health status (including mood/coping/regulation) can become entwined – for a sufferer this might be experienced as a mood drop triggering their food going off track, whether its in the form of a binge or restriction of intake. The eating disorder is a maladaptive coping strategy.

It’s like two big balls of yarn entwined in a big mess, they are hard to separate, when one goes the other one follows. 

Treatment aims to untangle the two – focusing on rebuilding and strengthening both sides. Regular eating on the food side, and doing the psychological work on the mood side. When mood drops, a toolkit of skills developed alongside a psychologist can come into play to help regulate self, instead of turning to eating disordered behaviours.

Recovery requires a multidisciplinary team – both nutrition and mental health supports need to be on board to help build up that strong toolkit for recovery.

For more information about eating disorders we recommend checking out the Butterfly Foundation’s page Eating Disorders Explained. Butterfly also have a practitioner database where you can find someone skilled in treating eating disorders in your area.

To learn more about what to say and what not to say to a loved one with an eating disorder, check out our free resource here.

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash.

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