What is an Eating Disorder?
“You can see the person suffering with an eating disorder has the same relationship with people as with food. Anorexia — very restrictive in relationships. Bulimia — they take in a lot, then vomit everything away, chew up people, stop abruptly. Overeating — lots of relationships, but nothing feeds.” — Philippe Jacquet
An eating disorder is a complex psychological condition in which a person’s relationship with food becomes a primary mechanism for managing emotional pain. The behaviour is not the problem. It is the solution the person found.
Types of eating disorder
Anorexia nervosa — A refusal to take in: food, nourishment, sometimes intimacy. As BMI falls, neurochemistry deteriorates and the brain becomes rigid, locked onto weight loss. The disorder creates the neurological conditions for its own continuation.
Bulimia nervosa — Bingeing followed by compensatory behaviour: vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise.
Orthorexia — A variant organised around purity rather than quantity.
Binge eating disorder — Large quantities consumed in a single sitting, without purging.
Muscle dysmorphia (bigorexia) — The male equivalent. Same preoccupation, inverted goal. Clinically classified as a form of body dysmorphic disorder.
OSFED — Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (formerly EDNOS).
The relationship mirror
“You can see the person suffering with an eating disorder has the same relationship with people as with food. Anorexia — very restrictive in relationships. Bulimia — they take in a lot, then vomit everything away, chew up people, stop abruptly. Overeating — lots of relationships, but nothing feeds.” — Philippe Jacquet
A creative mechanism to avoid feeling
Life becomes overwhelming. The eating disorder offers a solution: collapse everything into one obsession. It works — which is what makes it so difficult to relinquish.
Book a consultation with Philippe Jacquet — psychotherapist and Jungian analyst, London.