What is an eating disorder?

An eating disorder is a serious mental illness marked by a persistent disturbance in eating, and in the thoughts and feelings around food, weight, and body, that harms a person's physical health, emotional wellbeing, or ability to function. Eating disorders are not choices, phases, vanity, or a lack of willpower. They are real illnesses with biological, psychological, and social roots, and they are treatable, often fully, especially when help comes early.

This page is an overview: what eating disorders are, the main types, who they affect, the warning signs, and how to find help. Each type links to a fuller page.

What counts as an eating disorder?

Eating disorders are defined in the DSM-5, the manual clinicians use for diagnosis. What unites them is that eating and the thoughts around it become disordered enough to cause real harm or distress, not that a person eats "too much" or "too little" by some outside standard.¹² They frequently occur alongside anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive traits, or trauma, and they have genuine biological underpinnings, including genetics and differences in brain systems that govern appetite, reward, and mood. For the factors behind them, see what causes eating disorders.

A crucial point: body weight does not define whether someone has an eating disorder. People at every body size can be seriously ill, which is one reason eating disorders are so often missed.

The main types

Who eating disorders affect

Eating disorders do not discriminate. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, they affect people of every gender, age, body size, race, and socioeconomic background. The common image of a young, thin, white woman is inaccurate and harmful, because it causes clinicians and families to overlook the condition in everyone else: men and boys, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, middle-aged and older adults, athletes, and people in larger bodies whose illness is often missed entirely.⁴

Eating disorders also commonly travel with other conditions, anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, autism, and trauma histories, which both contribute to them and complicate recovery if left unaddressed.

Warning signs

Signs vary by type, but several cut across most eating disorders. Any combination of these is reason to look closer.

• Preoccupation with food, weight, calories, or body shape
• Changes in eating: restriction, secrecy, rituals, skipped meals, or evidence of bingeing or purging
• Distress, anxiety, or withdrawal around meals and eating with others
• Physical changes: weight shifts, fatigue, dizziness, GI problems, dental erosion, or loss of menstrual periods
• Mood changes, perfectionism, or rigidity that centers on food and body

A worry that something is wrong is itself a good enough reason to act. You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to wait for the situation to get "bad enough." For the full set of behavioral, physical, and emotional signs, see signs of an eating disorder.

Are eating disorders treatable?

Yes. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, eating disorders are highly treatable, and recovery is possible at any age and any stage, though it is usually faster and more complete the earlier treatment begins.¹ Treatment is typically a team effort, combining therapy (such as CBT-E or family-based treatment), nutritional support, and medical care, delivered at the level of care the person's situation calls for, from weekly outpatient sessions to 24-hour residential care.

How to get help

A good first step is an assessment from an eating disorder program or a clinician with specific eating disorder training, which determines the right level of care. If you are not sure where to start:

• Take our private self-assessment (a screen, not a diagnosis)
• Read about the specific conditions and levels of care
• Learn how to help someone with an eating disorder
• Search for licensed programs near you