Anxiety Disorders are some of the common things that co-occur with eating disorders. From studies and statistics we have got to know that along with some particular eating disorders, general anxiety disorders also can be witnessed. Here are some of the statistics.
- Anorexia Nervosa: 47.9%.
- Bulimia Nervosa: 80.6%.
- BED or Binge Eating Disorder: 65.1%.
Apart from anxiety disorder, people with eating disorders also suffer from Separation Anxiety, Phobias, Panic, Disorder.
Things You Should Know How Anxiety Lead To Eating Disorder
In reality, there is a thin relation between anxiety and eating disorders and we believe you should know about that. Here is offering you complete information about anxiety and eating disorders. Along with eating disorders treatment, you also should consider treatment of anxiety disorders.
What Is Anxiety Disorder?
Anxiety disorder is a mental health condition, which includes excessive fear and anxiety and also related to behavioral disturbance. Anxiety disorder is indeed a larger category. Around 2.9% of adults suffer from GAD or Generalized Anxiety Disorder and 9% adolescents.
The Signs And Symptoms Of Anxiety Disorder
Here are some of the signs of anxiety disorder.
- Sleep disturbance.
- Irritability.
- Feeling easily fatigued.
- Finding it difficult to control worry.
- Restlessness, feeling on edge, or keyed up.
- Difficulty concentrating.
- Muscle tension.
- Excessive worry or anxiety occurs for more days, like at least 6 months.
What Are Eating Disorders?
An eating disorder is also a serious mental health condition that is characterized by exercise, eating, and body shape or weight becoming an unhealthy preoccupation of the life of an individual. Here, whether the individual eats a lot or excessively eats less, however, she or he is dangerously underweight.
Types Of Eating Disorders
Here are the most common types of eating disorders.
- Anorexia nervosa.
- Bulimia nervosa.
- BED or Binge Eating Disorder.
- Pica.
- Rumination disorder.
- ARFID or avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder.
- Purging disorder.
- OSFED or other specified feeding or eating disorder.
- Night eating syndrome.
Anxiety And Anorexia Nervosa
Due to having the same clinical factors, anxiety and anorexia mostly co-occur. Here are the factors that come into action here.
- Meticulousness.
- Rigidity in daily living.
- Hyperfixation on perfectionism.
Anxiety is all about excessive worrying, and anorexia nervosa also surrounds worry about food, body weight, and shape, or exercise. So, it is really common to develop this particular eating habit due to anxiety.
Anxiety And Bulimia Nervosa
Among all types of eating disorders, GAD symptoms mostly co-occur with bulimia nervosa. Around 80.6% of individuals are suffering from both at the same time. The relationship between these two is really complicated.
Anxiety leads to bulimia, and bulimia also leads to anxiety disorder. People who have anxiety over food, calories, worth, the body, etc., might engage in bulimic symptoms as a part of the particular method of controlling all these aspects.
Anxiety And Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
In relation to maladaptive coping through using excessive food consultation to cope or eating past fullness, binge eating disorder is mostly associated with anxiety. Here are the traits that often increase the risk of both binge eating disorder and anxiety.
- Interpersonal difficulties.
- Low self-esteem.
- Mood intolerance.
- Avoidance.
- Emotions dysregulation.
- Perfectionism.
Anxiety Statistics
Esports and studies say that if not treated at the right time, anxiety can impact an individual’s daily life massively. Here are some of the statistics which will help you to understand the long-term effects of anxiety.
- Compared to men, women are twice as likely to get affected by anxiety.
- GAD or general anxiety disorder affects 3.1% of the entire US population or 6.8 billion adults of the United States, but only 43.2% are getting the necessary treatment.
- Only 16.9% of people among all who are suffering from anxiety are actually receiving the treatment.
- Individuals who have anxiety disorders are 3 to 5 times more likely to go to the doctor and eventually get hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than those individuals who are not suffering from that.
- In the United States, anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness. It is practically affecting approximately 40 million adults in the United States who are 18 years old or more than that. Every year 18.1% of the population is shuddering from an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety and Eating Disorders Treatment
When it comes to treating anxiety and eating disorders, there are several treatments available. The treatment includes both therapy, medication, or any one of them. However, as per the experts taking psychiatric medicines and undergoing therapies is the most effective.
Medication And Therapy
When it comes to treating anxiety and eating disorders both, taking some psychiatric medications and also undergoing therapies is the most effective way to combat both issues. Those medications can be long-term or short-term.
Along with that, therapy sessions are usually needed for a particular period of time. Even after the individual is feeling totally okay, therapies have to be continued for a specific time. Otherwise, the individual will start experiencing issues.
Relapse Prevention And Aftercare Support
As we have mentioned, there is always a chance of relapse. After the recovery treatment is over or completed, the individual might end up going to the same disordered eating habits and also can develop anxiety.
This is why in order to prevent relapse, aftercare support is also mandatory where. The individual will be taught some tricks to combat the relapse. The close family, friends, relatives, and colleagues also need to be a little more caring and concerned for the complete recovery of the patient.
To Conclude
Anxiety disorder is all about worrying a lot more than usual. When this massive worrying characteristic of someone is imposed on food, body weight, shape, and exercise, the individual develops an eating disorder. They both are interrelated, actually.
If an individual is suffering from anxiety issues, they are more likely to get eating disorders. On the other hand, if an individual already has an eating disorder, there is a high chance of developing anxiety disorder as well.
