Eating Disorder Facts and Myths
If you or someone you know is struggling with eating disorders, please reach out for support from the list of organisations Emergency Support
What are Eating Disorders?
Eating disorders can be a way of coping with feelings or situations that are making the person unhappy, angry, depressed, stressed, or anxious. They are not the fault of the person suffering, and no one chooses to have an eating disorder. They are complex psychological issues and have surprisingly little to do with food with you dig really deep into them.
What causes eating disorders?
Contributing factors may be combination of influences, such as:
Physical, emotional or sexual trauma
Cultural emphasis on body image ideals
Peer influences
Loss and grief
Brain chemistry
Physiological effects of dieting, starvation or purging behaviours
Relationship issues
Stress
Maladaptive coping skills
Who is at risk of Eating Disorders?
Disordered eating and eating disorders can affect anyone of any social demographic and of any weight and BMI. A common misconception is that ED's only affect women. Up to 25% of people diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia are male and 40% for binge eating disorder.
Disordered Eating and OSFED
Many people are diagnosed with “other specified feeding or eating disorder” (OSFED). This means that their symptoms don’t exactly match the diagnostic criteria (DSM5 and ICD11) used by doctors to diagnose binge eating disorder, anorexia, or bulimia. This doesn’t mean that it’s not serious!
Barriers to Getting Help for Eating Disorders
Stereotypes about who gets eating disorders might make them even harder to spot among older people, men and boys, and ethnic and cultural minority groups.
The real number of sufferers overall could be much higher than we think, but particularly among groups like these.
On average it takes 27 weeks for eating disorder treatment to start after the first visit to a GP