For more information on how to support your loved one struggling with an eating disorder, you may contact Maria Ortiz, LMHC, CEDS regarding her virtual Loved Ones Psychoeducation Group at mortiz@breakfreetherapyservices.com for September 18th, 2025 at 6pm. 

Eating disorders impact pregnancy prior to conception. Instances of amenorrhea and anovulation, the loss of menstrual period and loss of ovulatory egg release, are physical consequences associated with eating disorder pathology that have direct correlations to fertility (Letranchant et al., 2022). One study found that up to 48% of women seeking fertility assistance endorsed symptoms associated with disordered eating pathology (Hecht et al., 2021).

While eating disorders are prevalent across all communities, eating disorders in athletes have an even higher occurrence rate than the general population. Approximately 19% of athletes endorse eating disorder pathology, while it occurs in about 9% of the general population (Ghazzawi, et al., 2024; Pike, 2024).  Some research indicates these numbers are even higher, with 19% of male athletes and 45% of female athletes struggling with disordered eating (The Emily Program, 2023). Considering symptomology globally, Eastern countries had higher rates when compared to Western countries. Additionally, indoor sports were more likely to engage in eating disorder behaviors like restriction, binge eating, and purging, while outdoor sports were less likely (Ghazzawi, et al., 2024).

Diet culture can easily fuel an eating disorder, as they share many similarities. For instance, they both idealize thinness and fear weight gain, and emphasize and encourage fat-phobic thoughts or perceptions. Diet culture promotes disordered eating behaviors such as, restricting, fasting, excessive exercise, preoccupation with body image, and assuming a “whatever it takes” mentality. Both diet culture and eating disorders often present the outcomes of these behaviors as only positive; often leaving out the potential harmful or even catastrophic side effects. Diet culture not only normalizes disordered behaviors around food and body image, but also reinforces and supports them, often under the guise of “health” or “wellness.” Diet culture doesn’t just shape the way we view food and our bodies — it actually creates an environment where eating disorders can hide in plain site, or even be depathologized and praised. 

If you take one thing away from this week’s post, let it be this: diet culture is built on misinformation — it feeds us lies, just like eating disorders do.

Common Eating Disorder Stigmas  

·       “All people with EDs will present as obviously thin”

Only 6% of individuals with an ED will be deemed as medically underweight. EDs occur across all body shapes and sizes.·     

  “Having an eating disorder is a choice”

EDs are not a choice: They are a diagnosable disorder affecting all systems of the human body.

·       “Eating disorders affect only girls”

 EDs impact all. Boys are more likely to not be as forthcoming about their symptoms, and are less likely to be screened.

·       “Eating disorders are a highschool thing”

EDs impact folks at all ages. They do not discriminate against age.

BreakFree Therapy Services offers support and resources available in the community in person or virtually for the state of Florida if you or anyone you know is struggling with an eating disorder. This blog is an extension of our efforts toward prevention, education, and therapeutic treatment. The blog will also provide information on different types of treatment approaches, interventions, and modalities that are found to be helpful with disordered eating and eating disorders (EDs). We provide outpatient therapy, which differs from higher levels of care including Intensive Outpatient (IOP), Partial Hospitalization (PHP), Residential  (RTC), or Inpatient (IP). We will assess the fit of level of care consistently throughout your work with us, to ensure you are receiving the care that is most appropriate to fit your needs.

On paper, Thanksgiving provides a time for families to come together, give thanks, and enjoy a meal together. There are no written rules anywhere that dictate time outside of dinner time, yet our culture has found some unwritten ones. For example, I’m sure many know or are part of a family that embarks in a 5K run the morning of Thanksgiving. Inherently, this is not a bad thing at all. The concern here is if the undertone is to run enough to “earn” the meal later, or preemptively start to “work off” tonight’s meal.

This means the "innocent" and cliché question of, "Does this outfit make me look fat?" indeed does harm for your child. They just learned to question themselves in this manner. When they just looked in a mirror with an outfit on before, they may have noticed the colors, the texture, or the style. Now, they may wonder, "Do I look fat in this?" This question also instills an important component of EDs: fatphobia.

"How many calories are in this? I can't believe I let mom cook without me watching what she put in it. I'll bet you she used oil. There's no way I should allow myself to eat all of this. How fast are the others eating? How much are they going to eat? Hopefully, they don't notice I'm stressed. I'll push the food around on my plate so they don't think I'm not eating. I definitely ate too much food already today to be able to deserve dinner too. Will I be able to purge without them noticing later? Maybe I'll say I'm going on a walk. Okay, I'll just make up for this tomorrow. I'll restrict tomorrow. What if they make a family dinner again tomorrow though?

- Your body did not change over night

- Your body shape and weight are supposed to fluctuate

- These feelings will pass

- Your body allowed you to make new memories

- You do not need to make up for changes in diet/exercise on your vacation

- Your body needs rest

- It's normal to feel different emotions as you arrive home

- It's okay to feel discomfort if you challenged behaviors/symptoms recently

- Someday a vacation will just be a vacation. A barbeque will just be a barbeque. And food and body won't hijack these experiences. Hold on for that day. It is coming!

The bottom line is that the "bad thing" with anorexia can't exactly be avoided. The addiction at hand may be to an empty belly or a long run, or the combination of both. This means that the scary item of food cannot be avoided, but rather used in an appropriate manner. The exercise can't just be taken out, as it may be vital for health. This begs the question of, how to incorporate just enough food, or just enough exercise, without tipping the iceberg into too much or too little. Staying invested in eating disorder recovery is tough enough, now the client's have to have a little taste of it every day?

Research across the board has shown that only this small percentage of individuals will be deemed as clinically underweight when they are diagnosed. Doesn't this almost sound, atypical? Better yet, what if there wasn't a classification system based off of weight loss that told our clients whether they were typical or not? This new diagnosis inherently created another severity system.

Here's where things get a little more complicated. Not only do judges want to see those "long pretty lines," but gymnastics may actually be easier the lighter that you are. However, this only lasts for so long. When a gymnast begins to lose weight, by altering their intake, increasing their exercise, or by engaging in other compensatory behaviors, their performance may actually improve. Skills may feel easier, their coach may compliment their shapes, and their scores may go up.

Many people who experience sexual trauma may experience flashbacks, intense memories, or nightmares. There are a few seemingly viable options when this is the case: continue on without change, seek counseling, use prescribed medication, use illegal substances, or use food (to name a few). For the purpose of this post, using food will be of focus here. Manipulating intake can be used as a way of self-medication. For some, food may feel like a safety net, or as a comfort