Why Eating Disorders?
Although eating disorders manifest themselves in different behavioral ways, the underlying psychological issues are the same. In other words, people turn to different behavioral strategies to deal with similar emotional struggles.
Adaptive Functions (the purpose the ED serves)
Attention, cry for help:
EDs can be a wordless way for someone to announce to those around them that they are in pain and need help. If someone is unable or unwilling to communicate how badly they feel, the ED is a way to expose their need for help without them having to ask for it.
Self-punishment:
EDs can be a form of self-punishment. People with EDs generally have very high expectations of themselves. These expectations can be set so high that they are not possible to reach. This makes the person feel like they are always falling short. They may also feel like they are to blame for things completely beyond their doing. The ED serves as punishment for whatever they feel they did wrong or for not measuring up to what they think they should be.
Distraction, numbing, sedation:
EDs can be used as a distraction from other life issues that are hard to face. While binging, the person feels disconnected from him/herself. Binging is a way to escape and it provides a safe place to go. Purging is a way to release all the feelings that have been bottled up. Purging can also cause the person to feel euphoric, numb, and sedated. Restricting can have similar results.
Avoidance of feelings & release of intense emotion:
Putting all your thinking and being into an ED can be a distraction from difficult emotions. Vomiting is a way to avoid dealing with and "purge" these emotions.
Self-soothing:
Binge eating is used as a way to comfort, nurture or soothe oneself. It allows the individual to relax and "take a break." Because food will never reject her, it becomes the one thing she can always rely on. Food is her best friend.
Control, structure, predictability:
Being able to limit food intake and manipulate the body gives a great sense of power and control to someone with an ED. It may in fact be the only area she feels she has full control of. Structuring one's living around an ED allows the individual to have a familiar and predictable life. The thought of life without an ED can be frightening. What if she fails in her new position? It's easier to have the ED than face unfamiliar life challenges.
Self-concept, identity:
Staying sick or maintaining a thin body can be a way for someone to feel special or unique. The disorder becomes a part, or all, of her identity. If she doesn't have an ED, then what's left? Recovery would mean disintegration of her very self.
Avoidance of sexuality:
Food restriction and underweight often results in a decrease or cessation of sexual interest and activity. Creating an underweight or overweight body is a way to protect oneself from intimacy, sexual contact, and vulnerability to harm.
Safeguard against failure:
As an ED consumes more and more time, energy and health, the individual may feel like the ED is her life and that everything else has been put on hold. The roles and responsibilities she would have to take on after recovery can seem daunting. Staying ill then becomes a way for her to avoid facing the possibility that she will fail at meeting others' expectations of her.
EDs can be a wordless way for someone to announce to those around them that they are in pain and need help. If someone is unable or unwilling to communicate how badly they feel, the ED is a way to expose their need for help without them having to ask for it.
Self-punishment:
EDs can be a form of self-punishment. People with EDs generally have very high expectations of themselves. These expectations can be set so high that they are not possible to reach. This makes the person feel like they are always falling short. They may also feel like they are to blame for things completely beyond their doing. The ED serves as punishment for whatever they feel they did wrong or for not measuring up to what they think they should be.
Distraction, numbing, sedation:
EDs can be used as a distraction from other life issues that are hard to face. While binging, the person feels disconnected from him/herself. Binging is a way to escape and it provides a safe place to go. Purging is a way to release all the feelings that have been bottled up. Purging can also cause the person to feel euphoric, numb, and sedated. Restricting can have similar results.
Avoidance of feelings & release of intense emotion:
Putting all your thinking and being into an ED can be a distraction from difficult emotions. Vomiting is a way to avoid dealing with and "purge" these emotions.
Self-soothing:
Binge eating is used as a way to comfort, nurture or soothe oneself. It allows the individual to relax and "take a break." Because food will never reject her, it becomes the one thing she can always rely on. Food is her best friend.
Control, structure, predictability:
Being able to limit food intake and manipulate the body gives a great sense of power and control to someone with an ED. It may in fact be the only area she feels she has full control of. Structuring one's living around an ED allows the individual to have a familiar and predictable life. The thought of life without an ED can be frightening. What if she fails in her new position? It's easier to have the ED than face unfamiliar life challenges.
Self-concept, identity:
Staying sick or maintaining a thin body can be a way for someone to feel special or unique. The disorder becomes a part, or all, of her identity. If she doesn't have an ED, then what's left? Recovery would mean disintegration of her very self.
Avoidance of sexuality:
Food restriction and underweight often results in a decrease or cessation of sexual interest and activity. Creating an underweight or overweight body is a way to protect oneself from intimacy, sexual contact, and vulnerability to harm.
Safeguard against failure:
As an ED consumes more and more time, energy and health, the individual may feel like the ED is her life and that everything else has been put on hold. The roles and responsibilities she would have to take on after recovery can seem daunting. Staying ill then becomes a way for her to avoid facing the possibility that she will fail at meeting others' expectations of her.
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