7 Types of Disordered Eating

An eating disorder is a mental health disorder which affects people’s behaviours, attitudes and thoughts around food and exercise.Eating disorders are a way of managing feelings and coping with difficult situations through the micromanagement of food intake. Eating disorders can change and develop new symptoms and behaviours over time.

Beat (2020) believe ‘approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder. Around 25% of those affected are male’

‘0.4% of 5-19 year olds experience symptoms of an eating disorder’ (Digital NHS UK, 2019)

Eating disorders do not discriminate, both males and females can be diagnosed with eating disorders. Eating disorders do not discriminate between age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or socio-economics.

Types of Eating Disorder include:

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder
• AFRID
• OSFED
• PICA
• Orthorexia

Anorexia

Beat UK (2021) define Anorexia Nervosa as: “Anorexia (or anorexia nervosa) is a serious mental illness where people are of a low weight due to limiting how much they eat and drink. They may develop “rules” around what they can and cannot eat, as well as things like when and where they’ll eat. Anorexia can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background”

Bulimia

Beat UK (2021) define bulimia as: “Bulimia (or bulimia nervosa) is a serious mental illness. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. People with bulimia are caught in a cycle of eating large quantities of food (called binges), and then trying to compensate for that overeating by vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, fasting or exercising excessively (called purging)”

Binge Eating Disorder

Beat UK (2021) define BED as: “Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a serious mental illness where people eat very large quantities of food without feeling like they are in control of what they’re doing. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background, and evidence suggests it is more common than other eating disorders”

AFRID

Beat UK (2021) define AFRID as: “Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, more commonly known as AFRID, is a condition characterised by the person avoiding certain foods or types of food, having restricted intake in terms of the overall amount eaten, or both”

OSFED

Beat UK (2021) define OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder) as: “Anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder are diagnosed using a list of expected behavioural, psychological and physical symptoms. Sometimes, a person’s symptoms don’t exactly fit the expected symptoms for any of these three specific eating disorders. In that case, they might be diagnosed with other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED)”

PICA

Pica refers to a condition where an individual eats non-food substances which have no nutritional benefit. This includes items such as, paper, hair, soap, paint, laundry detergent, wool, pebbles and grass etc.

Orthorexia

Orthorexia is not a clinically recognised eating disorder, but occurs when an individual has an unhealthy obsession with ‘pure’ or clean’ food. An individual with orthorexia may have an obsessive focus on healthy eating, this may lead to them restricting entire food groups as they label them as ‘unhealthy’.

Disclaimer

Where there is a concern about a child’s eating behaviours, a referral to their GP should be the first priority. Early intervention is paramount.

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