Do you know that around 70 million people globally are surviving with an eating disorder? Yes! You heard that right, and the good news is that eating disorders are highly treatable. Eating disorders, which include the common and the lesser-known eating disorders, are becoming prevalent globally, affecting people regardless of their race or the ethnic group they belong to. People are likely to get an eating disorder during their adolescence and early adulthood years. Eating disorders are commonly understood as disorders affecting women, but recent studies indicate that they affect men as well. Eating disorders usually begin with having unhelpful thoughts related to food, physical appearance, and body weight.
Many people don’t seek help because of the fear of judgement and less accessibility to mental health care. This article sheds light on what an eating disorder is, the causal factors, and the 8 lesser-known eating disorders and ways to thrive. Let’s first gain a basic understanding of eating disorders before we learn ways to manage them.
What Is an Eating Disorder?
Eating disorders involve disturbances in one’s eating behaviours that lead to altered food consumption and absorption, significantly impairing one’s physical, mental, and social functioning. Example: A person focusing too much on their eating behaviours, body weight, and physique is likely to have an eating disorder.
What Are the Causes of Eating Disorders?
A combination of genetic, environmental, and sociocultural factors primarily causes eating disorders. There are a few significant factors that contribute to the development of eating disorders, and they are as follows:
- History of past trauma (mental, physical or sexual)
- Low self-esteem
- Psychological conditions like depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Difficulty in emotional regulation
- Conflicts in interpersonal relationships
- Family history of mental health conditions associated with addiction, eating, and mood disorders such as depression
- Desire to meet societal beauty standards
- Activities that emphasise desirable physical appearance include modelling, gymming, swimming, running, and wrestling
- People with type 1 diabetes develop an eating disorder since they follow strict dietary habits
- Possessing perfectionistic attitudes and tendencies
- Desire to attain a particular type of physique and dissatisfaction with the present body shape
- Exposed to bullying because of being underweight or overweight
- Stressful life events include losing a loved one, unemployment, becoming a new parent, and the like
What Are the Symptoms of Having an Eating Disorder?
We can’t identify the presence of an eating disorder based on looking at a person’s existing body weight or body shape. It majorly affects the way people think and relate to food. People who are navigating the common and the 8 lesser-known eating disorders are likely to exhibit the following symptoms:
- Experiencing mood swings and irritability
- Depression and anxiety
- Denial of the problem
- Low self-esteem and body confidence
- Preoccupation with food, calorie intake, burning calories, and weight loss
- Concentration difficulties
- Abnormal food rituals such as eating secretly or chewing food longer than necessary
- Substance Abuse
- Suicidal thoughts or behaviour
- Keeping food hidden or discarding it
- Prefer eating alone
- Being socially inactive
- Inability to perform well at school or work
- Hair loss or hair thinning
- Sweating abnormally and experiencing hot flashes
- Drastically losing or gaining weight
- Dizziness and fatigue
- Frequent trips to the bathroom after eating a meal
What Are the Most Common Types of Eating Disorders?
The most common types of eating disorders that most people are aware of and deal with, which have devastating effects on the mind and body, are as follows:
Anorexia Nervosa: People diagnosed with anorexia nervosa will be engaged in the constant pursuit of thinness despite losing a lot of body weight and looking skinny. They engage in restricting their food and calorie intake, work out excessively, starve, and may also indulge in purging behaviours (expel food through induced vomiting or frequent bowel movements). They also possess a poor body image.
Bulimia Nervosa: People with bulimia nervosa eat large portions of food, and after a while, they will experience a sense of guilt and shame. The resulting feelings will push them to engage in compensatory behaviours like vomiting, using laxatives, and engaging in rigorous forms of physical activity to flush out the food and calories from their bodies.
Binge Eating: In binge eating, people consume larger quantities of food in a short time. Here, they have a loss of control over their eating habits. Interestingly, people with this disorder are aware that they overeat but will never try to purge what they have eaten or find ways to burn calories through exercise. However, they will feel a sense of fullness, and most of them will struggle with depression, regret, shame, and guilt.
The 8 Lesser-Known Eating Disorders
Gaining a solid understanding of the lesser known eating disorders will help understand different unusual eating behaviours better. The 8 lesser-known eating disorders are as follows:
1. Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
People navigating avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) eat in limited quantities or avoid eating a particular type of food, causing them to be nutritionally deficient. ARFID takes a toll on one’s daily functioning, and it also affects one’s growth and development.
2. Purging Disorder
People diagnosed with purging disorders will use laxatives or induce vomiting even after eating the correct quantity of food to exercise control over their body weight and shape. However, such individuals will not engage in binge eating or follow restrictive dietary habits.
3. Night Eating Syndrome
In the case of this disorder, individuals eat a lot of food just before retiring to bed or soon after waking up from sleep. People with night eating syndrome tend to show either one of the two symptoms despite having their evening meal.
4. Rumination Disorder
Rumination disorder involves bringing up the swallowed food over and over again to the mouth. It is done involuntarily and painlessly exceeding a month without an actual medical cause. Also, rumination disorders are likely to coexist with other eating disorders, such as bulimia, anorexia, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, and binge eating.
5. Pica Eating
Consumption of non-edible substances such as paper, pebbles, ash, chalk, coffee grounds, dirt/soil, faeces, hair, laundry starch, soap, ice, and the like that have zero nutritional value. Eating non-edible substances must continue beyond a month to qualify for the diagnosis of pica eating.
6. Chewing and Spitting (CHSP)
It is a disorder marked by chewing food but failing to consume it. This problematic form of eating is not well-researched or popular. People who suffer from this disorder hesitate to seek help due to a sense of shame and guilt.
7. Emotional Eating
Eating food to achieve a sense of comfort and relief from certain emotions associated with anxiety, boredom, sadness, stress, etc., is called emotional eating. Here, satisfying one’s hunger is not the goal.
8. Orthorexia
It is a disorder characterised by an obsession with eating food that is healthy, organic and clean. Individuals with this disorder also ensure that the food that they consume is free from additives, seasonings and preservatives. Most of the individuals diagnosed with orthorexia are underweight.
Psychological Interventions for the 8 Lesser-Known Eating Disorders and Ways to Cope
People navigating eating disorders need to consider getting themselves treated by a team of health care experts, which includes a psychiatrist, general physician, psychologist, and a nutritionist. The most effective evidence-based psychological therapies to treat eating disorders are as follows:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most effective forms of psychological therapy for remediating eating disorders. The therapist helps the client understand the unhelpful thought patterns they have about the food they eat, their physical appearance, body weight, and shape. Then, the therapist attempts to change such unhealthy thought patterns to help the client develop newer and healthier beliefs that will positively impact their behaviours.
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
Most people with eating disorders find it hard to deal with difficult emotions and will end up engaging in abnormal eating behaviours; such individuals are the right fit for DBT. DBT teaches clients essential life skills, such as distress tolerance skills, emotional regulation, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
People who have developed an eating disorder due to past trauma or due to rigid, unhelpful thought patterns are ideal candidates for ACT. ACT helps clients deal with emotional pain and release them so that they can channel their attention and focus on building a healthy lifestyle that aligns with their life values.
Psychodynamic Therapy
If eating disorders are caused by unpleasant early childhood experiences or unconscious psychological conflicts, psychodynamic therapy is the way forward. In psychodynamic therapy, the therapist will help the client gain a proper understanding of the root cause of their presenting concerns, after which the existing psychological challenges will be addressed.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
ERP is effective in treating individuals with common eating disorders and all the eight lesser-known ones, too. ERP helps clients gradually get comfortable with the feared food (exposure) and works on preventing the clients from engaging in compensatory behaviour (response prevention), such as inducing vomiting or engaging in rigorous workouts.
Family Therapy
The primary focus of family therapy is to ensure that the client with an eating disorder is provided a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment at home so that they can recover soon and enjoy good mental health. It also aims at resolving conflicts within the family members that are likely to increase the chance of developing eating disorders.
Summing Up!
Eating disorders are prevalent in recent times, and it affects people of all ages. A person dealing with an eating disorder has to seek professional help. When proper treatment is given based on the symptoms and their severity, the chances of recovery are very high. We believe that this article has helped you gain insights into the 8 lesser-known eating disorders and ways to thrive. Furthermore, promoting healthy dietary habits, body positivity, and enhancing mental wellness can help prevent eating disorders and possible relapse. Thanks a lot for spending time to give this article a read. Please feel free to get in touch with me here if you need any psychological support or if you need help with overcoming an eating disorder.