4 Things You Need To Know About Why You Have An Eating Disorder (And How It Relates To Anxiety)

Is anxiety a secret symptom of eating disorders?

By Sandra E. Cohen, PhD — Written on Aug 21, 2019

Photo: unsplash / taylor smith

Causes Of Eating Disorders And How They Affect Your Body Image & Anxiety

You might be wondering: Why is anxiety so often a part of an eating disorder and a negative body image?

What is the anxiety in eating disorders really all about? What are the underlying causes of eating disorders — and can they actually be considered anxiety disorders?

Those are all good questions. And the simple answer is no, eating disorders aren’t specifically anxiety disorders. But anxiety symptoms often co-exist with problems in eating.

The more complicated questions are "why" and "what’s anxiety all about?" The answers are very individual and best explored in therapy with an expert.

But, there is some general information you might relate to and find helpful when your body image issues are making you anxious.

Here are 4 things you need to know about eating disorders and your body image and how they relate to anxiety.

1. There are various reasons for developing an eating disorder.

Eating disorders have unconscious psychological roots. They develop because of unmanageable feelings, fears, anxieties, and early experiences that you’ve pushed aside.

Most often, eating problems come out of a traumatic childhood. A childhood that at least involved neglect and emotional deprivation, if not overt physical or sexual abuse.

Is this you? If so, you had parents who were unreachable, neglectful, hurtful, abusive, and unable to give you the basics of what every child needs. That more than hurts.

Your feelings felt overwhelming and out of control, especially if they were rejected, and no one listened or wanted to hear. You felt no control as a child over getting what you needed or over the feelings that are inevitably stirred up when you don’t. And, this creates anxiety.

You needed to feel control. Eating rituals are one way to do that.

The obvious is that you control what, when, or how much you put into your body. But, the not so obvious is that you’re the one controlling how you satisfy your hunger. You aren’t waiting endlessly for someone else to give something to you.

Yes, your hunger seems to be physical. But, really, the roots are emotional.

As a child, you had no control over being loved, held, valued, or given the affection and warmth you needed — emotional food. Every child needs emotional food to grow and feel safe and good.

When you don’t get it or can’t count on it, your self-esteem suffers. You feel anxious and overwhelmed. There is nowhere to turn.

You learned early that you had to take care of yourself. So, either, you unconsciously decided not to need much at all or felt you needed too much. And, you grew to hate yourself for your very normal emotional needs.

2. You hate your emotional needs.

When you’ve been traumatized as a child and unable to get what you need, you feel there’s something wrong with you — that it must be your fault that you aren’t provided for or loved. What did you do wrong, you asked yourself?

You were certain it had to be you. You needing too much. Not being good. Certain that your needs were annoying. Feeling you were better off quiet or disappearing into the woodwork.

And, when you couldn’t do that (no child easily can), a voice in your mind mercilessly beat you up.

One of the worst things every traumatized child lives with is self-hate, feeling that it’s all your fault because you're just not lovable enough. You’ve tried very hard to make your needs and wants go away and not exist.

This self-hatred can manifest in these 2 types of eating disorders:

Anorexia

If you have anorexia, you imagine you’ve been successful at that (sort of). You’ve gained some kind of ultimate control. At least, that’s what you think. You don’t need anything, you tell yourself. See? Your starvation is proof. A victory.

But, a victory over what? Over your hunger for love. Over needing anyone or anything. Starvation is to make any need (and your feelings) disappear. Starving gives you a high.

If you slip up (and how could you not?), you hate yourself. You’re not supposed to be hungry. Hunger is bad. But, really, you need food. Mostly, you need love.

Bulimia

Bulimia means you’re on a see-saw of extreme hunger and attempts to control it through purging or episodic starvation. You hate yourself when you can’t.

You get rid of that seemingly terrible (emotional) need and hunger with whatever type of purging you do — vomiting, exercising, or taking laxatives.

But, your hunger doesn’t go away.

The reality is, when you have anorexia or bulimia, you are hungry. Always have been. You were starved as a child of love, attention, respect, and emotional care. Now you try to starve yourself.

If you can’t become or aren’t skinny enough, your self-hate rears its terrible head. And, that self-hate is focused on how you see your body — too often, fat or ugly. This is what your mirror seems to say.

But, your mirror image is distorted because, really, it’s reflecting back the ways you hate how much you need.

3. Your body image worries create distortions.

You don’t see yourself clearly even though you’re convinced that you do.

What you don’t realize is that the way you see yourself in the mirror is the way you thought you were seen as a child. It’s your hungry child self that you hate.

A child self you thought was too hungry for love and attention, wanted too much. That hunger has turned into "fat" in your mind.

To you, your child self is ugly. Hunger makes you ugly. Needing anything from anyone makes you ugly. You feel ugly if your hunger is "out of control." And ugly equals your self-hate.

That’s what you see in the mirror. When your stomach isn’t flat or empty enough, you want to get rid of the too-muchness of it all. Of who you think you are, of your emotional hunger for love and attention, of all the feelings you have no idea what to do with. Feelings that overwhelm you and are too much to handle.

So, you’re caught in a vicious cycle of eating preoccupations and behaviors, trying to have some kind of control. And, this creates a lot of anxiety.

4. You develop eating preoccupations and behaviors that cause anxiety.

Over the years, beginning as a teenager or in college, you developed certain eating behaviors to feel some control. The roots go back much further.

We’ve talked about your need to control your emotional hunger and your feelings. Both have given you a lot of anxiety for a long time.

If you feel your needs are "wrong" or "bad" and you shouldn’t show them, that creates anxiety. Now, having to be so careful to control your eating makes you anxious too.

You’re preoccupied with doing this perfectly and not slipping up, not letting any need show. And, you keep your eating behaviors just as hidden as your feelings and needs. Being careful and secretive makes you more anxious.

Eating disorders aren’t first and foremost anxiety disorders. Your anxiety is about your needs, your overwhelming feelings coming out, and how bad you feel.

And, the fact that all of this is now bundled into your eating, your self-image and self-hate make your anxiety sometimes unbearable.

It’s hard to live this way. Eating disorders take up too much time and energy, all to try to manage how much you hate feelings and your needs.