Many people assume eating disorders are solely about food and body image, and while those are important aspects, eating disorders are also serious mental health conditions closely tied to emotional struggles and psychological challenges. They rarely occur in isolation and often coexist with other mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and OCD, which can intensify the symptoms and complicate recovery.
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ll cover the relationship between eating disorders and mental health.
Anxiety
One of the most common mental challenges that comes with eating disorders is increased anxiety. Anxiety means feeling really worried or stressed out, sometimes so much that it makes everyday things hard to do. People with eating disorders often try to avoid things that make them uncomfortable, like certain foods, tough emotions, or stressful social situations. Sometimes anxiety comes before the eating disorder, and sometimes it shows up after, but either way, they tend to make each other worse. There are different kinds of anxiety that someone with an eating disorder might face, such as:
- Social anxiety: Feeling worried about being judged, embarrassed, or humiliated around others. This can make eating with people or in public really stressful, often leading to avoiding those situations and feeling more isolated.
- Panic Disorder: Sudden, intense episodes of fear called panic attacks, which might include things like increased heart rate or trouble breathing. These attacks can happen anytime, but are often triggered by food or eating-related situations.
- Health Anxiety: Worrying a lot about getting sick or having serious health problems. This is common in disorders like orthorexia, where fears about food safety or body health lead to very strict or avoidant eating habits.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Involves unwanted, repetitive thoughts and actions, like strict food rules, constant calorie counting, or overexercising as a way to cope.
Depression
The American Psychiatric Association defines depression as a common and serious mental health condition that affects how you feel, think, and act. For those struggling with an eating disorder, it’s not unusual to feel alone, overwhelmed, or even frustrated if they don’t meet certain body goals or stick to strict food rules. These feelings can deepen over time and lead to depression. At the same time, someone who’s already feeling down or dealing with depression might start to develop negative thoughts about their body or eating habits, which can sometimes lead to disordered eating. As we can see, just like anxiety, depression can either come before an eating disorder or develop because of it, and the two often affect each other.
Trauma-related disorders
These mental health challenges often include PTSD, especially among individuals who have experienced abuse, sexual violence, or neglect. For many, disordered eating becomes a way to cope with the overwhelming emotions tied to these traumatic experiences. Behaviors such as binge eating or purging can temporarily numb emotional pain or provide a distraction from difficult memories and feelings that feel too heavy to face. Unfortunately, while these behaviors might offer short-term relief, they can also reinforce the cycle of trauma and make recovery more complicated.
Why This Matters for Recovery:
Understanding the connection between eating disorders and mental health helps ensure treatment is holistic. Focusing only on eating behaviors without looking at the emotional side of things can make recovery harder and less sustainable. A more effective approach usually includes things like:
- Nutritional support to help bring stability to eating patterns, support brain health, and make sure the body is getting all the essential nutrients it needs, since imbalances can make mental health symptoms worse.
- Therapy (such as CBT or FBT) to address thoughts and behaviors.
- Psychiatric care when needed for co-occurring conditions.
