Are Eating Disorders On The Rise?
In recent years, there have been major shifts in our social lives, how we work and connect with others due to events such as the covid pandemic and multiple lockdowns. Along with greater isolation, the rise in social media influence entering our daily lives has only increased.
This impact has been shown in the increased prevalence of eating disorders which is cause for concern as eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, have severe mental and physical consequences.
What Is An Eating Disorder?
“Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses affecting people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and backgrounds. People with eating disorders use disordered eating behaviour as a way to cope with difficult situations or feelings. This behaviour can include limiting the amount of food eaten, eating very large quantities of food at once, getting rid of the food eaten through unhealthy means (e.g. making themselves sick, misusing laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise), or a combination of these behaviours.” - Beat, the UKs Eating Disorder Charity.
For more information on each specific type of eating disorder visit Beat
The Rise Of Eating Disorder Diagnoses
Eating disorders have been rising among children and young people for a number of years but "increased substantially" between 2020 and 2022, a study by University of Manchester, Keele University and University of Exeter has found.
The study analysis looked at nine million records belonging to patients aged 10-24 years, from nearly 2,000 GP practices across the UK.
In the two years since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, around 2,700 diagnoses of eating disorders were anticipated among 13-16-year-olds, but 3,862 were actually observed - 42% more than the expected figure.
Over multiple lock-downs due to the pandemic, prolonged access to social media, more focus on body image and less face-to-face contact may have led to feelings of low self-esteem and psychological distress, particularly among adolescent girls, the study says (Trafford et al., 2023).
Eating Disorders In Males
Although there has been a significant rise in adolescent females getting diagnosed with eating disorders, undiagnosed eating disorders in men are also a cause for concern.
“Contrary to stereotypes, eating disorders affect people of all backgrounds and genders. We need to remove the barriers that can prevent men and boys from accessing treatment, by raising awareness and ensuring services are accessible and have enough resources to provide help.” - Beat’s Chief Executive, Andrew Radford
James Downs, MQ Mental Health Research ambassador comments on his experience with anorexia:
“It wasn’t a lifestyle choice. Perhaps it wasn’t really a choice at all. It was a solution that presented itself to me when I didn’t really have any others, and I really needed help.’ - James Downs, MQ ambassador, yoga instructor and lived-experience patient representative.
Signs To Look Out For If You Think Yourself Or Someone You Know Are Struggling With An Eating Disorder
Signs and symptoms for the three most common eating disorders, according to Your Mental Health:
Anorexia Nervosa:
- Food fixation: constantly thinking about food, counting calories
- Low self-esteem: constantly feeling you are never good enough
- Food avoidance: due to a need for control, reducing food intake
- Secretive: hiding food or lying about how much you have eaten
- Anxious: increase in anxiety around mealtimes
Bulimia Nervosa:
- A repeated cycle: binge eating or eating large amounts of food in a short period of time, then purging
- Loss of control: over how much you eat, then feeling ashamed for overcompensating Low self- esteem: based on body shape and weight
Binge-eating Disorder:
- Low self-esteem: emptiness, shame or feeling that you’re never good enough
- Poor self-regulation: you can’t stop eating and may eat large amounts all at once Comfort eating: eating as a coping mechanism
- Secretive: hiding, or lying about, how much you have eaten
- Weight gain: as a result of binge eating
- Poor health: including breathlessness and fatigue
If you are finding yourself struggling with any of these signs, Beat have support and guidance which you can find here.
Or discover Beat ambassador Kel O'Neill’s online service Recovery Champion:
The Eating Disorder Recovery Companion was created as a way of providing resources for people with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder, who are stuck on a waiting list for specialist help and/or therapy. However, you might also find the resources helpful if you have an eating disorder but are struggling to get a referral, for example, if you do not meet referral criteria, or if you are currently accessing treatment or therapy but feel some additional resources would be useful for you.
Supporting Someone Else
If you’re worried about someone, it’s important to encourage them to seek treatment as quickly as possible to ensure the best chance of recovery.
You can also help in a number of other ways. This can range from being a listening ear, to going to the supermarket with them and supporting them after mealtimes. Each person is different and will need different things, but this will give you some ideas about what you can do to help.
Beat’s tips on supporting someone else:
- Recognise that you are not to blame.
- Acknowledge to your loved one that they are not to blame.
- Recognise how distressing the illness is for your loved one.
- Educate yourself about eating disorders where you can.
- Ask your loved one how they are feeling and what they are thinking, rather than making assumptions.
- Avoid discussing weight, shape, food, and diets in front of your loved one, and model a balanced relationship with your own food and exercise.
- Remind yourself that things can change and reassure your loved one that recovery is possible.
- Ask your loved one what you can do to help – for example, helping them to stick to regular eating, putting in boundaries following mealtimes, having a space to talk about how they are feeling. Your loved one may respond that you can just “leave them alone” or that you can’t do anything to help, so here it can be helpful to remind them you can hear their distress and how difficult things are, and you are there if they need you.
- Recognise any ‘accommodating or enabling behaviours’ – behaviours that you do to help reduce your loved one’s distress from the eating disorder, for example, cleaning up vomit or cooking different meals for them, but that collude with the disorder and cover up the negative consequences of the behaviours.
The rise in eating disorders shows the importance of joining together as a community to ensure that anyone struggling with eating disorder symptoms can get access to the support and treatment that they need.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said they recognised "the devastating impact eating disorders can have on an individual and [their] family's life". The government says it will invest an additional £2.3 billion a year in NHS mental health services by March 2024, alongside £54m a year to increase capacity at children and young people's community eating disorder services (Source: BBC).
References
Trafford et al., (2023) Temporal trends in eating disorder and self-harm incidence rates among adolescents and young adults in the UK in the 2 years since onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based study. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
Davenport, F., edited by Brady C., and Westbrook, T., (2023) Your Mental Health. London, Penguin Random House UK.
