Eating disorders

Overview

An eating disorder is a mental health condition where a person has developed an unhealthy preoccupation with food or their body weight or shape. This preoccupation is causing them to go to extremes with their eating behaviours, at times to the point of starvation and overexercising to lose weight or prevent weight gain. If left untreated, the eating disorder will harm their mental, emotional and physical well-being. It can also put them at risk of death.

Keep in mind, though, that only a medical professional can diagnose an eating disorder and not everyone who’s unhappy with their body appearance will develop an eating disorder.

In Australia alone, there are approximately 4 in every 100 people with eating disorders at any given time. That’s about 1 million people.

Here’s a quick break down by type:

• 3% have anorexia nervosa
• 12% have bulimia nervosa
• 47% have binge eating disorder
• 38% have other eating disorders

Plus, 63% are female and 37% male, with females more likely to experience all types of eating disorders than males, with the exception of binge eating disorder where the prevalence is almost equal. It’s suspected the actual number of males with eating disorders may be much higher as males are more likely to be overlooked or misdiagnosed.

Research suggests transgender people are more likely than cisgender people to be diagnosed with an eating disorder or to engage in disordered eating.

Overall, it’s estimated that 9% of the Australian population will experience disordered eating during their lifetime.

Eating disorders are treatable, so the best step is to talk to a GP or a mental health professional who will help determine whether the person has an eating disorder.

What’s it like having an eating disorder?

While it’s natural for all of us to worry a little about our body appearance and eating habits, a person with an eating disorder might judge their self-worth largely on their body appearance, shape and weight. They usually feel ashamed and guilty about this preoccupation, but they’re doing it because they feel and see themselves as overweight and physically unattractive.

Once they’ve developed this mental health condition, it can be very hard for them to recover without professional support. They often try their hardest to stop on their own, refuse to talk about what’s happening out of fear their family and friends will judge them, and often don’t seek help because they don’t know how to find people who will genuinely understand and support them without judgement. It can be a huge battle for them.

While in some people the disorder doesn’t last long, it can become a long-term problem in others and cause them to experience other mental, emotional and physical health issues that put them at risk of death. It usually affects their relationships and everything they do in life. So the sooner they seek help, the sooner they can recover.

Video: Talking about eating disorders helps; Butterfly Foundation

The three most common eating disorders

The three most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. They can occur at any age, race, gender, sexual orientation and social status. Looking in, it can be hard to tell whether someone has an eating disorder because their weight and appearance might fluctuate close to ‘normal’ or ‘average’.

Anorexia nervosa

A person with anorexia nervosa is obsessed with being thin. They use their body shape and weight as their main criteria for self-worth. They refuse to eat because they think they’re ‘fat’, even when they’re already at a healthy weight.

Something has caused them to develop an intense fear of gaining or regaining weight, and they’re using extreme compensatory behaviours to lose weight and control their body weight. These behaviours typically include fasting, dieting, vomiting, using diet pills, taking laxatives, exercising excessively, and constantly worrying about calories, fats and carbs.

Bulimia nervosa

A person with bulimia nervosa goes through periods where they don’t eat, followed by binge eating (eating an unusual amount of food), followed by compensating behaviours such as purging or exercising. They fast, binge eat, purge, fast, binge eat, purge.

The binge eating happens because they feel unable to stop eating. They purge by throwing up or by misusing laxatives, and it’s also common for them to exercise excessively to avoid gaining weight. They might also use water pills, laxatives and diet pills to control their weight.

Binge eating disorder

A person with binge eating disorder eats past the point of feeling full (often painfully full). This might sound like overeating, but it’s not the same thing. Overeating is eating more than your body needs (e.g., miscalculating your portions). Binge eating disorder typically occurs in response to psychological distress, and the person might feel temporarily comforted by the food. They too feel unable to stop eating once full. They’re binging at least once a week, even when not hungry, and have been doing it for three months or more.

Unlike people with bulimia nervosa, those with binge eating disorder don’t use compensatory behaviours such as purging and exercising, which is why many tend to be overweight or obese. Still, they often feel guilty, upset, disgusted or ashamed for having binged. Hence, they might mask their symptoms.