Eating Disorder Awareness Starts With Understanding
There is so much about this condition that many people don’t know, which is why eating disorder awareness starts with learning and understanding. When you have a better understanding of the causes, impacts, and experiences, you can begin to support and advocate for yourself or others who are struggling. With your eyes open, you may be able to help yourself or someone else in a way you couldn’t before.
Use this resource to start your learning journey, but we ask that you don’t stop there. Continue developing your eating disorder awareness by following organizations like Project HEAL on social media, reading content like what we share on our blog, and encouraging conversation among your peer group.
Causes of Eating Disorders
Why do people have eating disorders?
There are many factors that impact the development of eating disorders. Develop your eating disorder awareness by learning some of the reasons why people develop this condition:
Genetics
Parent or guardian’s relationship with food
Dieting/chronic dieting
Bullying or teasing
Abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child
Trauma or loss
Hormones
Relationships
Identities (sexual orientation, gender, body size, race, ethnicity, immigration status, etc) and marginalization based on those identities (Fatphobia, Racism, and other forms of systemic oppression)
Temperament (e.g. perfectionism)
what are the root causes of eating disorders?
While eating disorders can occur in anyone, they are most often experienced in people who are internally responding to stress or trauma. Eating disorders most often develop at a young age and persist into adulthood when untreated or treated inadequately, but they can also onset during adulthood.
For many individuals, dieting is the beginning of their eating disorder. Research shows that 35% of “normal dieters” progress to pathological dieting, and 20-25% of those individuals develop eating disorders (source).
Eating disorders also often serve a purpose (or function) in an individual’s life. Eating disorders can be a form of a coping mechanism which, though harmful over the long term and short term, often help individuals survive moments that they otherwise might not have been able to survive.
Are eating disorder preventable?
The unfortunate reality is that there is currently no known way to completely prevent an eating disorder from developing. However, researchers are conducting studies that hope to find more information on which individuals are the most at-risk for developing eating disorders.
With advancements in research, prevention could become a possibility in the future. Some current research on this topic is on how much genetics, neurological makeup, and other non-environmental factors may impact a person’s likelihood of getting an eating disorder.
In the meantime, Project HEAL is focused on early detection and intervention which can help close the gap between diagnosis and treatment. Our free Clinical Assessment Program was launched in April 2022 to address the specific needs of our community to have accessible diagnosis. The Program is run through an anti-oppression lens and provides comprehensive treatment recommendations through a harm reduction lens.
impacts of eating disorders
Eating disorder awareness is so important because they’re more common than you might think in the United States. At least one in ten people in the U.S. is diagnosed with an eating disorder in their lifetime.
It is widely asserted that the incidence rate is actually much higher than that due to underdiagnosis and lack of eating disorder screening in primary care settings. Here’s how this impacts the population.
Impacts on the General Population
Eating disorders are the second most fatal mental illness, second only to Opioid Use Disorder.
One person dies as a direct result of their eating disorder every 52 minutes, whether through medical complications or by suicide. Due to a lack of diagnosis and research, it is believed that the fatality rate is even more devastating than we know.
physical Impacts on individuals
Eating disorders also have significant medical consequences to a person's physical wellbeing. There are dozens of symptoms related to eating disorders that affect every organ system in the body, including:
damage to the heart, kidneys, liver teeth, skin, hormones, and the endocrine, reproductive, urinary, and skeletal systems.
headaches
dizziness
gastrointestinal issues
disruption or loss of menstrual cycle
delayed growth or stunted growth due to malnutrition
weakened immune system
icy hands and feet
excess hair on face, arms and body (body’s attempt to be warm)
These together can lead to serious physical complications, including cardiac arrest and death.
PSYchological impacts ON INDIVIDUALS
feeling out-of-control and helpless
experiencing anxiety and/or self-doubt
feeling guilt, shame, and/or feelings of failure
being hypervigilant
having obsessive thoughts and preoccupations
being compulsive
feeling alienated and lonely
SOCIAL impacts on individuals
disruption of relationships (family, friends, partners, etc)
being withdrawn and/or excessively irritable
feeling minimally or not at all interested in sex
tending to be secretive and controlling
In reality, there’s really not a single aspect of someone’s life that is not at risk of being negatively impacted by an eating disorder, especially if it’s left untreated.
Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik