Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that affect how a person relates to food, and often, to their body.
‘Disordered eating’ is a similar concept, that refers to eating-disorder type behaviours that do not (yet) meet the strict criteria of an eating disorder. Disordered eating increases the risk of developing an eating disorder and should not be ignored.
Eating disorders affect people of all shapes, sizes, genders, ethnicities, social classes and religions – including Christians.
Eating disorders are on the rise. In Australia alone, in 2023:²
(4.45% of the population)
were living with an eating disorder
An estimated
died early due to an eating disorder
The financial cost of eating disorders was estimated to be
There are different types of eating disorders. Their main features are outlined below.
It is also common for people with eating disorders to experience other mental health conditions (like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other conditions). This can add further complexity to their symptoms.
People with anorexia nervosa are intensely afraid of gaining weight or becoming fat. They limit their food intake resulting in significant weight loss (and/or growth failure in children). Some also have episodes when they eat a very large amount of food and feel out of control of their eating. They may do other things to try stop themselves from gaining weight (like exercising a lot, making themselves vomit or misusing medications). People with anorexia nervosa may link their self-worth to their weight or shape. They may have disturbances in the way that they experience their body. Or they may not recognise the seriousness of their low weight.
About 14 in 1000 females and 2 in 1000 males experience anorexia nervosa in their lifetime.² People with anorexia nervosa are around 5 times more likely than others to die early.³ This is due to medical complications of the disorder and an increased rate of suicide. ‘Atypical’ anorexia nervosa has all the same characteristics as ‘typical’ anorexia nervosa, except that despite significant weight loss, the person remains at or above what would usually be considered a ‘normal’ weight. Even though people with ‘atypical’ anorexia nervosa do not look dangerously thin, this condition is just as dangerous as ‘typical’ anorexia nervosa.
People with bulimia nervosa have episodes when they eat a very large amount of food and feel out of control of this eating. They then do things to try to prevent weight gain (like exercising a lot, making themselves vomit, or misusing medications). They often feel deeply ashamed of these behaviours. People with bulimia nervosa link their self-worth to their shape and weight. About 19 in 1000 females and 6 in 1000 males experience bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.² People with bulimia nervosa are about twice as likely as others to die early.³
People with binge eating disorder have episodes when they eat a very large amount of food and feel out of control of this eating. Unlike in bulimia nervosa, however, these are not followed by attempts to prevent weight gain.
People with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), limit their food intake, but unlike in anorexia nervosa, they don’t do this because they’re worried about their shape or weight. Instead, they might be uninterested in food, worried about what will happen if they eat (for example, worried that they will choke, vomit or experience abdominal pain), or avoid certain food tastes, textures and appearances. This causes them significant problems, like weight loss, nutritional deficiency or difficulty functioning.
ARFID is more common in children and in males than other eating disorders, and is often associated with anxiety or autism.⁴ Because it is a relatively new diagnosis (introduced in 2013), there is limited information available about ARFID at the time of writing. However, recent data suggests that it affects around 28 in 1000 people.
People with rumination disorder repeatedly regurgitate food, for reasons unrelated to another medical condition (for example, food regurgitation can be a symptom of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease; this is not rumination disorder). Regurgitation might be used to self-sooth or self-stimulate.
People with pica eat things that aren’t food (like paper, soap, hair etc.). Pica is more common in children, pregnant women, and adults with intellectual developmental disorder or other mental health conditions.
People with other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) or unspecified feeding or eating disorder (UFED) have similar symptoms to people with other types of eating disorders. Their symptoms don’t meet the full diagnostic criteria for other eating disorders, but still cause them significant distress or impact their ability to function.
In OSFED, the healthcare professional indicates the reason that the symptoms do not meet the full criteria for another eating disorder (examples include ‘atypical anorexia nervosa’, ‘bulimia-nervosa-like disorder’ and ‘binge-eating-like disorder’). In UFED, the healthcare professional does not indicate the reason that the symptoms do not meet the criteria (for example, they might not have enough information to make a more specific diagnosis).
Together, OSFED and UFED are the most common types of eating disorder. They can be just as serious as other eating disorders, and shouldn’t be ignored.
