Intersection of Eating Disorders and Self Harm

by Iqra Waheed

WHAT IS AN EATING DISORDER? Eating disorders are behavioural conditions characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviours and associated distressing thoughts and emotions. 

(Guarda, A., 2023). 

WHAT IS SELF HARM? Self-harm is when you hurt yourself as a way of dealing with very difficult feelings, painful memories, or overwhelming situations and experiences. (Mind Organization, 2024). 

WAYS PEOPLE SELF-HARM: 

● Cutting yourself 

● Poisoning yourself 

● Overeating or undereating 

● Biting yourself 

● Picking or scratching your skin 

● Misusing alcohol, prescription or recreational drugs 

● Self-neglect 

● Burning your skin 

● Hitting yourself or walls 

(Mind Organization, 2024). 

INTERSECTION OF EATING DISORDERS AND SELF-HARM: Eating disorders and self-harm are serious health problems in young people and are associated with significant functional impairment and mortality. They are phenotypically distinct - eating disorders involve weight-control behaviors, abnormal eating, and over-evaluation of weight and shape, whereas self-harm involves intentionally harming oneself, with or without suicidal intent. However, they commonly co-occur in clinical populations: 14-68% of patients with eating disorders report self-harm and 54-61% of patients who self-harm also have an eating disorder. 

More recently, a meta-analysis found that 21.8% of patients with anorexia nervosa and 32.7% of bulimia nervosa had a lifetime history of self-harm without suicidal intent. Studies using non-clinical samples to assess the co-occurrence of disordered eating and self-harm have predominantly focused on university students. For instance, 50.8% of female university students who self-harmed reported a possible eating disorder, and 20.1% with a possible eating disorder reported self-harm. Furthermore, university students who self-harm more than once are more likely to have disordered eating (45.2%) than students who have only self-harmed once (24.8%) and students who have not self-harmed (19.6%). 

(Warne, N., Heron, J., Mars, B., Moran, P., Stewart, A., Munafò, M., Biddle, L., Skinner, A., Gunnell, D., & Bould, H., 2021).

REFERENCES 

● Guarda, A. (2023, February). What are Eating Disorders? American Psychiatric Association. Retrieved from 

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/eating-disorders/what-are-eating-disorders ● Mind Organization. (2024, August). About self-harm. Mind Organization UK. Retrieved from 

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/self-harm/about-s elf-harm/ 

● Warne, N., Heron, J., Mars, B., Moran, P., Stewart, A., Munafò, M., Biddle, L., Skinner, A., Gunnell, D., & Bould, H. (2021). Comorbidity of self-harm and disordered eating in young people: Evidence from a UK population-based cohort. Journal of Affective Disorders, 282, 386–390. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.053