Eating Disorders and Body Dysmorphic Disorder: How Are They Connected?

Body image is a concern for all ages. The dangers of body dysmorphia are shared with many different types of eating disorders. To find out their true connection, you have to do some research on eating habits.

Confidence

Confidence is something that can be taken away with a single sentence. Many types of eating disorders start with an individual that has low confidence. Once your mental focus hits rock bottom, everything else seems to spiral out of control. Small things become life-changing catastrophes, and every change you make for the better seems like a misstep.

There is no such thing as perfection, so trying to reach for the impossible will always lead to a confidence hit. Body image issues force a person to view their body in an unrealistic light and, in turn, reach for goals that are out of the realm of possibility. Once your confidence becomes balanced, the things that keep you down will become a lot less common.

Eating Disorders

Dramatic weight changes are a sign of a health issue that needs to be addressed. The body is not equipped to deal with weight loss or gains in short succession. With eating disorders, a distorted body image forces an individual to exercise excessively, change their eating habits and even become obsessed with dieting. A combination of physical and mental signs leads to social problems that become impossible to ignore.

There are also breakdowns in communication that turn normal conversations with others into a giant hurdle. You are either worried about how others see you or constantly on the defensive due to paranoia. This turns every social encounter into a mental drain, with the most common relief leading to bad eating habits.

Body Dysmorphia

When looking at body dysmorphia, you have to consider the biological, genetic, psychological and environmental factors. It is a combination of these things that can lead a person to be preoccupied with perceived flaws. Body dysmorphia is all about your appearance or the associated obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. The impact on your daily life changes, especially within social circles. This can turn from manageable to tragic as body dysmorphia is common with other mental health disorders.

Connections

The main connections between these two disorders are body image distortion and psychological factors. Since co-occurrence is common, you will often see individuals who also suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar, and even other common eating disorders.

The two disorders are similar, but their treatments can be different. Both benefit from psychotherapy, as the mind is the link that brings all of these negative body thoughts together. By understanding the connections between body dysmorphia and eating disorders, professionals are able to uniquely evaluate individual cases.

Body and Mind Are Always Connected

There is no magic fix to reigning in the stress associated with eating or body disorders. It all starts with confidence in yourself and the help of a professional to guide you to the finish line. As long as you believe in the process, time will heal the most painful wounds of your health concerns.