What is an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that can also result in extreme physical consequences. Those with an eating disorder have an unhealthy relationship with food and will often have a pre-occupation with shape, weight and weight controlling behaviours.
Someone with an eating disorder may eat too little or too much. Anyone can be affected by an eating disorder (of any age, race and gender) – they are not the fault of the person suffering the eating disorder and nobody chooses to have one.
How do they develop?
While there may not be a definitive cause of an eating disorder for some people, it is thought that there are biological, psychological and social risk factors associated with the development of an eating disorder.
Biological risk factors include: someone in your family having an eating disorder and/or another mental health condition. Psychological risk factors include certain personality traits such as perfectionism, obsessional and inflexible thinking. Social risk factors include the influence of the media, family/friends views of the ‘ideal’, as well as behaviours of others out of our control e.g. bullying from others.
Functions of an eating disorder
An eating disorder serves a function to the sufferer and in many cases, the eating disorder is multi-factorial. Some common functions include:
- A sense of achievement.
- A feeling of being in control.
- Providing something ‘consistent’.
- Gives a sense of comfort.
- ‘Acts’ as a friend.
- A means of controlling emotions.
- Provides a way of avoiding or not having to address challenging or
difficult issues e.g. difficult emotions
- Maintaining an element of dependency.
- Having an identity and something that is your own.
Types of eating disorders
There are different types of eating disorders and the information provided below is intended to give you a brief overview of the most common types of eating disorders and the symptoms and behaviours linked to these.