Resiliency: Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are biologically influenced medical illnesses that can affect a person's physical and mental health (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2024). Eating disorders can affect anyone, no matter their racial and ethnic backgrounds, ages, body weights, or genders (NIMH, 2024). Additionally, individuals with eating disorders may not look like they have one. Research suggests that the risk of developing an eating disorder increases due to a combination of genetic, biological, behavioral, psychological, and social factors (NIMH, 2024).

There are different types of eating disorders, including (NIMH, 2024):

• Anorexia Nervosa - There are 2 subtypes:
  • Restrictive - where people avoid or severely restrict foods
  • Binge-Purge - in addition to severely restricting foods, people with this subtype may have binge-eating and purging episodes where they eat large amounts of food in a short time followed by vomiting or using laxatives to get rid of what they consumed
• Bulimia Nervosa - a condition where people have recurrent episodes of eating unusually large amounts of foods and feeling a lack of control over their eating. This behavior is followed by behaviors that compensate for the overeating to prevent wright gain (i.e. forced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviors)
• Binge-eating disorder - a condition where people lose control of their eating and have recurring episodes of eating large amounts of food that is not followed by compensatory behaviors
• Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder - a condition where people limit the amount or type of food eaten but do not have a distorted body image or extreme fear of gaining weight