Eating disorders are serious, biologically influenced illnesses. If left untreated, eating disorders have a devastating impact on affected individuals and their loved ones. Full recovery from an eating disorder is possible.

Learning more about the causes of eating disorders, different types of disordered eating, and recognising the damage caused by common myths and misconceptions regarding eating disorders will help you start to understand what’s going on with your loved one and put you in a position to help them recover.

Many people believe eating disorders are simply a case of a diet taken too far. It is now known that although cultural and environmental factors have an impact, genetics play a significant role. Studies have shown that 50-80% of the risk for developing an eating disorder comes from genetics.

Specialists now recognise that in vulnerable individuals an eating disorder is usually triggered by a period of the body receiving inadequate nutrition. This nutritional deficit may be deliberate, or unintentional – for example dieting, illness, certain medications, sports training as well as trauma can be enough to trigger a disorder in a person with a genetic predisposition.

Most people can restrict their diet for a time without risk, but for those predisposed, a period of restriction can trigger physiological, neurobiological and emotional alterations that cascade into a life-threatening eating disorder.

The high value that our society places on appearance, the vilification of weight, and admiration of extreme thinness has resulted in dieting being a normalised behavior. For vulnerable individuals dieting is the “gateway drug” to an eating disorder.

Currently, eating and feeding disorders specified in the DSM include: