Emotional Effects Of Eating Disorders: How An Eating Disorder Impacts You
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Eating disorders can impact more than eating habits and behaviors. These mental health conditions can significantly impact someone’s emotional well-being, as well. Understanding the emotional impacts of an eating disorder may help you notice the mental signs of these conditions and receive early intervention before physical impacts are noticed.
What are eating disorders?
A number of factors may cause eating disorders. Diet culture, unrealistic beauty standards, the presence of other mental health conditions, and experiencing childhood trauma like physical or sexual abuse can all heighten the risk of a person developing an eating disorder. Eating disorders can often be treated with the intervention of a mental health professional.
Common eating disorders: Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder
The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder (BED). However, other conditions may also be diagnosed, such as rarer eating disorders like pica and avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa, often referred to as anorexia, is a mental health condition in which a person has an intense fear of gaining weight. They may severely restrict their food intake and engage in excessive exercise or other unhealthy behaviors to promote weight loss. People with anorexia typically have a warped sense of body image in which they believe they are overweight no matter how much weight they lose. This belief causes some people with anorexia to maintain weight levels significantly lower than what would be considered a medically normal weight for their age, height, and gender.
Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa, typically abbreviated to bulimia, is another eating disorder that is usually driven by body image concerns. However, the distortion in perceived weight may not be as extreme as with anorexia. As opposed to food restriction, bulimia involves binging, eating large amounts of food in a short period, and purging, engaging in compensatory behaviors like forcing oneself to vomit or using laxatives. Bulimia can have severe physical health impacts from the constant disruption of a person’s digestive cycle.
Binge eating disorder
Binge eating disorder may not be associated with body image concerns in the same way that anorexia and bulimia are. Binge eating disorders often develop as maladaptive coping mechanisms for processing negative emotions. Binge eating disorder involves the same binging patterns as bulimia but no compensatory purging. People with binge eating disorder may believe they are out of control during their binges and experience extreme shame or guilt.
What are the emotional effects of eating disorders?
Eating disorders can have a range of emotional impacts on people experiencing them, including:
- High levels of shame, guilt, and embarrassment
- A sense of hopelessness
- A sense of being constantly “on edge” and anticipating future catastrophes
- Low self-esteem
- Loneliness, often resulting from intentional isolation from friends, family members, and other loved ones to hide one’s disordered eating behavior and worsening emotional state
- Self-loathing
- High levels of stress and anxiety and a sense that one is under a lot of pressure and constantly overwhelmed
- Thoughts of perpetual inadequacy
- Intense fear of weight gain
- Mood swings
- Irritability
Other impacts of eating disorders
Eating disorders can have many physical, emotional, and mental impacts. Below are a few of these.
Physical effects of eating disorders
The most common physical signs or symptoms of eating disorders include the following:
- Extreme, life-threatening levels of weight loss
- Malnutrition
- A compromised immune system
- Brittle nails and hair
- Dry skin
- Lanugo, or a fine coating of hair all over the body to promote warmth due to unhealthy depletion of fat stores
- Osteoporosis
- Muscle loss
- Heart irregularities and palpitations
- Cardiovascular concerns
- Electrolyte imbalances from excessive binging and purging
- Tooth decay from high levels of exposure to stomach acid in vomit
- Diabetes
- Joint pain
- Sleep apnea
- Mobility issues
- Dehydration
- Loss of libido
- Persistent sore throat and difficulty swallowing
- Organ failure (in severe cases)
Mental effects of eating disorders
Common mental impacts of eating disorders include the following:
- Believing one is “worthless”
- A preoccupation with food consumption, dieting, exercise schedules, fasting, body image and shape, weighing oneself, weight loss trends, etc.
- Loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities or any activity that does not involve monitoring one’s food intake or planning binges and purges
- Difficulties with concentrating, paying attention, focusing, and remembering
- Higher levels of impulsivity
- Brain fog
- A distorted sense of body image
- Development of other mental disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, anxiety, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorders
Mental health support for addressing an eating disorder
The unhealthy thought patterns and disordered eating behaviors associated with eating disorders are typically beyond the ability of a client to address on their own. Working with a licensed mental health professional on eating disorder symptoms may be helpful.
Accessible therapy for eating disorders
Because one of the emotional effects of an eating disorder is intense feelings of shame and guilt about disordered eating behaviors, authentically engaging in therapy can be challenging. Online therapy through a platform like BetterHelp could be one method of mitigating this situation, as people may find the distance provided by an online conversation could encourage them to open up. In addition, online platforms allow greater control over how one receives support, allowing them to choose between phone, video, or live chat sessions.
Research has found that online therapeutic intervention may be as effective as traditional in-person therapy at addressing symptoms of several mental health conditions, including eating disorders. One group of researchers conducted a study examining the efficacy of online therapy in treating bulimia and found that clients who participated in online therapy had similar positive outcomes to those who participated in therapy sessions in person.
Takeaway
Can eating disorders cause personality changes?
Eating disorders can lead to mood changes and even mood disorders like depression, which can seem to change a person’s personality. In addition, the behavioral changes associated with eating disorders may seem to affect a person’s personality as well. For example, people with eating disorders tend to isolate themselves and withdraw from their social circles. They often spend most of their time thinking about food, eating, and body weight, which can leave less time for hobbies and other interests.
How do emotional triggers and eating disorders interact?
Emotional triggers may contribute to the development and exacerbation of eating disorder symptoms. For example, poorly managed stress can be a risk factor for eating disorder development. In addition, emotional triggers can worsen eating disorder symptoms. For instance, those with binge eating disorder often binge in response to emotional stress. Meanwhile, those with anorexia nervosa may restrict their food intake to experience a sense of control over their lives when faced with situations that are out of their control.
How do eating disorders affect a person’s relationships with other people?
Eating disorders typically have a negative impact on a person’s relationships. Many people with eating disorders withdraw socially in order to hide their disordered eating behaviors.
How do eating disorders affect you emotionally?
Eating disorders can contribute to a sense of isolation and helplessness and may lead to depression in some cases. A person may put too much focus on changing their body shape and size, even if they are of a healthy weight or average weight. They may misuse water pills, make a habit of skipping meals, and eat only certain foods or food groups in an attempt to prevent weight gain. They may also be at higher risk of substance misuse (formerly called substance abuse), which can contribute to other serious problems with emotions.
What are the effects of eating disorders?
Eating disorders can negatively impact mental, physical, and social health. Depending on the particular disorder, the physical health impacts can vary, but eating disorders usually worsen mental health and lead people to isolate themselves from their social circles. Getting eating disorders treated is often vital to improve mental health and overall quality of life.
How does eating affect emotional health?
What a person eats can directly impact their brain function. In most cases, eating a balanced and nutrient-rich mix of foods promotes fewer mood swings, enhanced emotion regulation, and better mental health. Eating disorders awareness efforts often promote nutritious eating habits and self-care in an attempt to prevent eating disorders.
What are the emotional effects of under-eating?
Under-eating, especially over a long period of time, can contribute to the development of depression and anxiety. In the short term, it can make it more challenging to regulate emotions. In addition, under-eating can lead a person to lose weight, which may lead to medical complications.
Those who have undergone extreme weight loss, have a low body weight, or are experiencing a medical problem due to a restrictive eating disorder may need to gain weight under the guidance of health care providers. Medical care can address any health problems associated with the person’s low weight.
Nutrition counseling and individual or family-based treatment may also be part of the treatment plan. In some cases, a dentist may need to address tooth enamel issues, which can be related to bulimia nervosa. A person’s physical health and mental health, particularly their distorted body image, can be addressed through proper treatment.
What is the emotional impact of a poor diet?
Poor eating habits can negatively affect a person’s mental and emotional health. Eating inflammatory foods may exacerbate mental health concerns and make it harder to focus. While poor eating habits may not be the exact cause of mental health disorders, they often contribute to them.
What are the emotional responses to eating?
Eating may temporarily soothe emotions like stress, anxiety, and depression. However, in the long run, emotional eating isn’t considered a healthy coping mechanism.
What is emotional eating disorder?
While “emotional eating disorder” isn’t an official diagnosis, it may refer to binge eating disorder or other eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. Often, those with binge eating disorder engage in binges when they are stressed or upset. It can be common to eat in response to difficult emotions, but in general, this isn’t the best way to manage your feelings.
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