What is the difference between eating disorders versus disordered eating?
- Carly Mount, Psy.D., CEDS
- Jul 1
- 6 min read
Food is an essential part of our everyday lives, which can make it difficult to recognize when concerns about eating become something more serious. Our eating habits exist on a spectrum, from healthy to disordered eating to diagnosable eating disorders. Many of us engage in disordered eating and have dieted or manipulated food at some point in our lives, for many reasons. Many people struggle with their relationship with food long before they meet criteria for an eating disorder. It can be confusing to discern where your own habits exist on that spectrum and when it's time to seek therapeutic support.
In this post, we'll explore the differences between disordered eating and a diagnosable eating disorder to help you make sense of your experience and determine what kind of support will be most helpful to you.
First: What is a Disorder?
What can start as a desire to eat healthy or lose weight can spiral into harmful, persistent thought patterns, feeling anxious about meals, and following increasingly rigid rules about what you should or should not eat, followed by guilt and anxiety after eating. Perhaps this sounds familiar and you're noticing that these patterns are affecting your mood, relationships, and ability to enjoy life, but you're also not sure whether this experience is "serious enough" to warrant support. How do you know if what you're experiencing constitutes having an eating disorder?
A disorder of any kind must impact daily functioning for a sustained amount of time, and eating disorders are no different. Eating disorders are characterized not only by patterns of eating and thoughts about food, but by the significant impact those patterns have on a person's ability to function in everyday life. The emotional and behavioral patterns associated with an eating disorder can interfere with school, work, relationships, physical health, and ability to fully participate in daily activities. Eating disorders are very difficult to stop and causes intense emotional distress; even if the person wants to stop, they often cannot do so without support.
The Difference Between Disordered Eating vs Eating Disorders
Many people’s behavior may fall in the category of disordered eating, e.g., patterns or attitudes around food that may feel stressful or complicated, but don't consistently disrupt a person's ability to function day-to-day. Disordered eating may range in nature, type and frequency, but don’t have the same impact on daily living as having an eating disorder. The person may go on to function normally despite the behaviors, even though the behaviors they engage in are disordered.
Examples of disordered eating behaviors can include dieting and restricting calories consumed, avoiding certain food groups or ingredients, engaging in compensatory behaviors after eating such as exercise, etc. These disordered eating behaviors are often accepted by the general public and our culture under the guise of “being healthy” or “trying to lose weight” -- concepts that are widely promoted and encouraged, even within the medical community. These behaviors less frequently raise red flags because they are normalized. A person with disordered eating has less difficulty changing the behavior, especially if the behavior is unwanted. They may diet often, feel guilt after eating certain foods, or have unpredictable eating habits, yet still maintain their routines and relationships.
For someone living with a diagnosable eating disorder, their attitudes and behavior toward food has a distinct and profound impact on their daily life, often as a result of an intense fear of how food will affect their body. The intensity of their distress may lead them to avoid social situations that involve food, or they feel so worried about food or body image that their relationships, work or school life begin to suffer.
Disordered eating behaviors may not match the severity of diagnosable eating disorders, yet they should still be taken seriously because they can still cause physical and mental damage. Malnutrition, dehydration, low energy levels, anxiety, depression -- these are all risks of disordered eating that can become life-threatening if left untreated.
What Causes Eating Disorders?
An eating disorder is often expressed through food and movement but is deeply rooted in issues of low self-worth. Here's how the cycle of disordered eating works: a person uses the eating disorder to cope with self-worth issues. While maladaptive, the coping typically “works” in the short term, providing a sense of control and relief from difficult emotions, as well as some potential outward aesthetic changes, while the underlying issues remain unresolved. The perceived "benefits" encourage the person to keep engaging in disordered eating behaviors, and their dependency on the disorder deepens and compounds over time, becoming intertwined with emotion, thought processes, relational dynamics, belief systems, and values. This cycle is why people with eating disorders often claim they don’t know who they are without the disorder.
Several risk factors can increase a person's likelihood of developing an eating disorder. Family history and dynamics play a significant role; the biological component in particular predisposes people to developing an eating disorder. Other risk factors include environmental and societal pressure, frequent dieting, stress in the form of big life changes, trauma, and other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
Signs of Disordered Eating
Discerning whether you have an eating disorder can be difficult, especially if it feels like a way of coping with stress. However, there are several signs that may indicate that you’re struggling with an eating disorder:
Behavioral signs such as binging, purging, restrictive eating, over-exercising or otherwise compensating for food consumed
Social signs such as isolating yourself from social situations that involve food to avoid the discomfort of eating in the presence of others or in situations where you are not able to “control” how food is prepared
Physical signs such as noticeable changes in bodily function including energy levels, feeling faint or dizzy, low blood pressure, irregular heart rate, electrolyte imbalance, dehydration, GI disruption, changes in skin, hair or teeth, disrupted sleep patterns, hormonal changes
Emotional signs such as feeling overwhelming shame and guilt around eating, feeling disconnected from your body or who you are, overthinking and obsessing about food, significant distress when attempting to stop using behaviors
What is the Treatment for Disordered Eating?
Catching disordered eating early is often a goal in the field of eating disorder treatment, because the longer a person engages in disordered eating, the more deeply it can become engrained and the harder it is to recover from. Yet wherever you are on your journey, and whenever you decide you're ready to change, it is never too late to seek support.
Therapy is a space where you can safely explore both the behaviors that disrupt your daily life and the deeper feelings that often accompany eating concerns. In treatment, you'll discover practical tools for navigating everyday challenges as well as support to help you comprehend and heal the emotional experiences that shape your relationship with your body and with food.
Evidence-based approaches for eating disorders such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help you identify unhelpful thought patterns, build emotional regulation skills, and develop more flexible and compassionate ways of relating to food and your body.
Trauma-Informed Care for Eating Disorders Near You
At White Oak Counseling, we offer compassionate, trauma-informed, and evidence-based treatment for individuals experiencing disordered eating and eating disorders. We work collaboratively with a network of trusted professionals, including dietitians, physicians, and other specialists to ensure you receive comprehensive, coordinated care that supports your physical and emotional well-being.
Our goal is to help you build a sense of safety, confidence, and self-compassion as you move toward healing. We'll work together to move beyond addressing the behaviors to explore the emotional and psychological issues beneath so that you can reclaim your relationship with yourself. Recovery is possible, and you don't have to navigate it alone. We're here to walk with you every step of the way. If you’re ready to seek support, contact us today to get started.
About White Oak Counseling
White Oak Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing evidence-based mental health treatment for individual adults in Central Virginia. Founded in 2017, White Oak Counseling exists to bring a proven approach to the art of therapy, using research-backed methods to provide practical, compassionate care that honors each person’s unique mental health journey.
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