Trigger warning: This post includes content related to eating disorders. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please reach out to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Helpline: (800) 931-2237.
Many people seem to relate to food and their bodies in a very “normal,” healthful, intuitive way. In fact, almost all babies and toddlers do. Why then do some people develop eating disorders? The answer is complicated and multi-faceted. If you, or someone you know, are among those that struggle, please know that eating disorders are not a character flaw, they are not the result of too much or too little willpower, and they do not indicate moral inadequacy. They are not about vanity. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, they develop when certain biological, psychological, and environmental experiences combine.
Biology
If you have a close relative with an eating disorder or other mental health condition, you are biologically at a higher risk of developing an eating disorder. This correlation is genetic. (Chances are, you have also had eating disorder behaviors modeled for you, but that is an environmental cause.)
You are at a higher risk of developing an eating disorder if you have a personal history of dieting. In particular, dieting is associated with developing a binge-eating disorder. If you are trying to control your weight, your body likely perceives that it is experiencing a famine. This changes how your body biologically responds to food. Your body craves a lot of food at once because it fears it may not have access to that food again in the future. (There will be much more on this in futures posts.) Don’t blame yourself for trying to control your weight; that is what society tells us we have to do to be accepted.
Other risk factors identified by the National Eating Disorders Association include negative energy balance (i.e., any time you are using more energy than calories you are consuming, such as if you do not eat enough while you are growing, participating in sports, or are sick) and Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes (more on this later, too). People with Type 1 Diabetes often develop diabulimia, the restriction of insulin to lose weight; this behavior can be deadly.
Psychology
People who develop eating disorders often share common psychological traits. One of these traits is perfectionism. In particular, most people with eating disorders direct our perfectionism towards ourselves. We try to perfect ourselves, which, in today’s society, may include attempting to control our weights.
We also like to stick to common behavior patterns and follow the rules. Although this may have helped us earn praise as children who followed the rules of our teachers and parents, it can lead to eating disorders if we are strictly following diet or eating disorder rules.
Many of us also have a personal history of an anxiety disorder, such as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These disorders are an especially strong risk factor for anorexia.
Many people with eating disorders feel emotions very intensely. Thus, we may use our eating habits to attempt to cope with our emotions. This is especially common in response to trauma. We attempt to numb our emotions by stuffing or starving them.
Finally, most of us struggle with really poor body image. We have internalized the culturally ideal thin body, and we judge ourselves negatively against it.
Environment
As members of society, this is an area we really need to work on whether we struggle personally or not. We can help prevent others from struggling with food and body issues by not contributing to the environmental factors that put people at risk and by actively fighting against these factors.
Home
A family’s relationship with food and bodies can lead to the development of eating disorders. A person may develop an eating disorder if family members criticize their food choices, the amount they eat, or the shape or size of their body. Likewise, this can happen if family members model disordered eating, dieting, or body-shaming. It can also happen if there is not abundant access to a variety of food at home. If food is scarce, people often overeat when food is present in fear that they will be deprived later.
Sexualization
In a society that sexualizes and objectifies women’s bodies, women often consciously or subconsciously use food to manipulate their bodies – to become too thin to have noticeable feminine curves or too fat to fit the mold of the “ideal” feminine body that attracts the male gaze. Similarly, transgender men may restrict to lose breast fat.
The Thin Ideal: Beauty and Health
In the United States today, our society places extreme value on thinness. At a societal level, we equate thinness with beauty, health, moral adequacy, and success. We become exposed to this as children; children in larger bodies routinely get bullied for their size. This is reinforced throughout life by what we see on television, in movies, in magazines, and in advertisements, which inundate us with Photoshopped images of skinny actresses and models, as well as weight-loss advice. Weight stigma is even reinforced by many doctors, who recommend weight loss, and the federal government, which declared a war on “obesity.” Weight stigma is also present in less obvious ways. For example, people in larger bodies are often silently discriminated against for employment opportunities, or there is not adequate space to accommodate them in public places.
Over time, being exposed to this pervasive cultural ideal, we internalize weight stigma and the idea that we need to be thin to be healthy or acceptable or successful or loved. We restrict our food to attempt to conform. For most people, this leads to weight-cycling (i.e., yo-yo dieting) or binge eating disorder (and weight gain) in our bodies’ attempts to keep us alive in response to our self-imposed deprivation. For others, if your body (like mine) is less intent on keeping you alive, you may develop anorexia.
Control
Finally, eating disorders can develop in an attempt to gain control. If we perceive that we lack control over other aspects of our lives that we believe are inadequate, we focus our energy on something that we can control – our eating and movement behaviors.
Recovery
People who struggle with dieting, disordered eating, eating disorders, or poor body image did not choose this battle. An unfortunate intersection of biological, psychological, and environmental factors put us at risk. Luckily, our bodies are remarkable and can relearn to eat and move intuitively.
To recover from an eating disorder, we need to stop restricting our food and give ourselves unconditional permission to eat whatever we want when we want to! We need to learn to direct our psychological tendencies in more healthful directions. For example, we can direct our energy toward self-compassion, not self-control. We need to set boundaries at home, prioritize food availability, reject the patriarchy and the thin ideal, advocate against weight stigma, and give up trying to control our bodies.
We can recover.
Let me know if I missed the reason you or someone you know developed disordered eating or an eating disorder!
For more information about the risk factors for developing anorexia, bulimia, or binge-eating disorder, see the National Eating Disorder Association’s website.
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