10 Facts You Probably Don't Know About Eating Disorders

There are lots of stereotypes and myths about eating disorders out there. I've gathered some important facts about eating disorders that you probably did not know. All of these facts are crucial for the understanding, detection, and treatment of eating disorders, as well as for breaking many of the stereotypes that our society holds about these illnesses.

1. Eight out of ten people with an eating disorder do not seek treatment.¹ There are various reasons people do not seek treatment, including the stigma associated with eating disorders, lack of access to treatment, not realizing that they have an eating disorder, and lack of insurance coverage.

2. Most people with an eating disorder have a diagnosis of other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED).² OSFED (what a mouthful!) means any type of eating disorder that does not fall into one of the ‘primary’ eating disorder categories. While the media usually portrays eating disorder diagnoses of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, it is much more common to have a diagnosis that does not fall into one of these categories. This means that most eating disorders do not look how we might imagine, which can make it difficult to even identify a problem. For example, restriction (a key characteristic of most eating disorders) may often be thought of as going long amounts of time without eating, but there are lots of other ways to restrict, such as only eating certain foods, eating only very small meals regularly, or refusing to eat before or after certain times of the day.

3. Eating disorders are a 65-billion-dollar problem.³ This estimated cost is per year and in the US alone. These costs are the economic costs alone, meaning they come from things like a loss of productivity and costs from treatment. In addition, there is a 327 billion cost from loss of well-being per year.

4. Extreme picky eating is an eating disorder.⁴ Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID- another mouthful!) was recently recognized as an official illness. It’s very typical for kids to be picky eaters, but if they remain extremely picky and it starts to impair their health and well-being, it may be ARFID.

5. Younger and younger kids are developing eating disorders.⁵ Researchers used to think the typical age of onset for eating disorders was 13 to 19. However, we are starting to see more and more kids develop eating disorders as young as 9 and 10.

6. Atypical anorexia nervosa is one of the most common eating disorders. ⁶ Atypical anorexia nervosa is identical to anorexia nervosa, except for the person’s starting weight. Persons with atypical anorexia nervosa are very afraid of gaining weight and restrict their food intake often to the point of losing large amounts weight; however; they may not fall below a body mass index of 18.5. Research shows that psychological and medical characteristics do not differ between these two illnesses.

7. Someone dies from an eating disorder every 52 minutes.³ Yes, you read that right. Eating disorders are one of the most lethal psychiatric illnesses.

8. Eating disorder behaviors are typically used to reduce uncomfortable emotions.⁷ Eating disorders are not just about food, weight, and shape. They are much more about emotion regulation. This function is why many psychological treatments focus on helping teach how to regulate and experience uncomfortable emotions.

9. Most people with an eating disorder have at least one other psychiatric illness.⁸ Research shows that about 95% of people with an eating disorder also have anxiety, depression, or another psychiatric illness. This overlap means we need to treat both the eating disorder and additional illnesses.

10. Restrictive diets are among the strongest risk factors for developing an eating disorder AND diets don’t work.⁹ Don’t let advertisements for intermittent fasting or other fad diets fool you. Losing weight is not the key to happiness. Learn more about how to break up with diet culture here.