Challenges Faced by Support Persons of Individuals with Eating Disorders

Running head: SUPPORT PERSONS DURING EATING DISORDERS
KEY CHALLENGES FACED BY SUPPORT PERSONS OF AN INDIVIDUAL LIVING
WITH AN EATING DISORDER
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1SUPPORT PERSONS DURING EATING DISORDERS
Introduction
Eating disorders are characterized by mental health conditions where individuals’ habits
associated with eating undergo distortions from normal behaviours due to constant preoccupation
with misperceptions, negative emotions and thoughts regarding one’s image and physical
appearance. Eating disorders can be classified into a number of types, such as: anorexia nervosa,
bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders (Keski-Rahkonen and Mustelin 2016). If left
uncontrolled for prolonged time periods, eating disorders can result in a number of mental as
well as physical challenges. Additional, lack of treatment can also result in the emergence of a
number of psychological co-morbidities such as: social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety
disorder, depression, substance abuse disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder (Fichter and
Quadflieg 2016).
While eating disorders administer a number of physiological and psychological
complications on the concerned individual, support individuals such as caregivers, families and
friends are equally impacted as a result of their loved one’s condition. Often a number of social
situations, statements, misperceptions and lack of awareness from families, friends and
caregivers act as psychological triggers and may negatively impact the mental, social and
emotional wellbeing of individual’s with eating disorders (Golden, Schneider and Wood 2016).
Hence, there is a need to social supports persons of persons with eating disorder to be empathetic
and undertake certain precautions while caring for their near and dear ones who are encountering
such critical mental health conditions (Val-Laillet et al. 2015). The following academic paper
will hence discuss on the various challenges faced by individuals with eating disorders, the

2SUPPORT PERSONS DURING EATING DISORDERS
challenges encountered by the support persons caring for such individuals and possible solutions
and recommendations to combat the same for improved health outcomes.
Discussion
Challenges for Individuals with Eating Disorders
As discussed previously, eating disorders are characterized by an individual engaging in
constant and uncontrollable distorted behaviours of eating due to frequent preoccupation with
negative perceptions pertaining to one’s physical appearance and body image. While the long
term physiological health implications are evident, the adverse psychological consequences in
individuals as a result of having eating disorders often go unnoticed and are often the major
reasons which cause miscommunication across families and support persons (Jewel et al. 2016).
Prior to understanding the possible challenges which may emerge in the future during treatment
and intervention implementations, support persons such as families and friends must firstly
understand the mental, physical and emotional upheavals which prevalently occur during eating
disorders in order to prevent miscommunication due to lack of awareness and inadequate health
literacy (Robinson, Dolhanty and Greenberg 2015).
A number of underlying incidents and familial experiences contribute to eating disorders
in individuals, of which social pressure to achieve a culturally acceptable body type or
appearance acts a strong determinant. Individuals with an eating disorders are constantly under
the perception that a failure to fulfil such unrealistic body standards will result in them being
perceived as unacceptable and unfit for social engagement (Marzola et al. 2015). It is for this
reason that eating disorders are more than just frequent engagement in unhealthy dietary and
food consumption patterns. Such damaging and unhealthy behaviours of food consumption,

3SUPPORT PERSONS DURING EATING DISORDERS
restrictions and starvation are more often than not, coping strategies to combat the constant stress
and anxiety accompanied with the constant emotional distortions and self-critical pressures
individuals with eating disorders have to encounter for not fulfilling the socially acceptable
standards of physical appearance and body image (Lafrance Robinson et al. 2016). Often the act
of restriction one’s consumption of food or completely starving oneself administer a sense of
positive self-esteem and control within the person. Such challenging and harmful behaviours are
prevalently observed in eating disorders like anorexia nervosa which is largely characterized by
individuals frequently avoid the consumption of food in order to achieve a desired
anthropometric shape and size (Nishimura 2018).
Such distorted and damaging coping strategies are major challenges faced across eating
disorder patients which are of major concern during interventions and treatment. The result is a
vicious cycle of damaging dietary habits being used to combat adverse emotional outcomes
associated with food consumption and weight gain - which again result in the re-emergence of an
obsessive-compulsive behaviour towards continuous preoccupation with emotional distortions
and associated dietary coping strategies (Mitchison et al. 2017). Such a vicious repletion of self-
damaging thoughts and attitudes are primarily prevalent in eating disorders like bulimia nervosa
and binge eating disorders which are characterized by individuals excessively overeating and
then purging the consumed food. Overeating or bingeing on large quantities of food are
constantly used as a common coping strategy by individuals to counter feeling and negative
emotions of loneliness, anger and sadness due to constantly starving oneself from one’s favourite
foods. This is then followed by purging as coping strategies to encounter the negative emotions
of self-hatred, self-loathing and a sense of failure for consuming ‘forbidden’ foods in limitless
amounts (Arbuthnott, Lewis and Bailey 2015).