Anxiety and eating disorders are closely linked for many reasons. One of the most common reasons is that both often stem from a need for control in response to overwhelming emotions or stress.
People with anxiety may experience intense worry, fear, or self-doubt, leading them to use food or fixate on or disconnect from their body as a way to manage these feelings. Restricting food, binge eating, or purging can provide a temporary sense of control or relief from anxiety, even though it ultimately exacerbates emotional distress.
Additionally, anxiety symptoms can fuel perfectionism, negative body image, and obsessive thoughts about weight, which are common drivers of disordered eating behaviors. This cyclical relationship makes it challenging to address one condition without also treating the other.
If you’re experiencing both disordered eating and anxiety, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s what you need to know about this connection and how to start your healing journey.
First; Anxiety is VERY Common
Anxiety is a normal human emotion, just like any other, and we all feel anxious from time to time. For some, however, anxiety can be chronic—or even debilitating—which then interferes with many aspects of life. Recent projections show that more than 300 million folks across the globe suffer from anxiety, making it the world’s most common mental illness. In addition, nearly 45 percent of U.S. adults report their anxiety has escalated in 2024.
The Difference Between Anxiety and Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety typically causes feelings of worry, nervousness, or restlessness, but these sensations fade once the stressor is resolved. Anxiety in this context is a normal part of life and doesn’t last long.
On the other hand, an anxiety disorder is a chronic mental health condition where excessive, persistent worry occurs even without a clear stressor. This can have an adverse effect on daily life, with negative consequences to someone’s work, relationships, and overall well-being.
Unlike temporary feelings of anxiety, anxiety disorders often require treatment through therapy, medication, or lifestyle changes to manage the overwhelming and long-lasting effects.
The Link Between Anxiety and Eating Disorders
Clinical anxiety can make a person four times more susceptible to an eating disorder during their lifetime. That’s because anxiety can contribute to behaviors like caloric restriction, binge and purge cycles, compulsive exercise, or body image dissatisfaction. So, why do these issues so often overlap? Below are a few reasons why these disorders often co-occur with each other.
Anxiety and Eating Disorders Have Similar Risk Factors
Those with anorexia and bulimia are often prone to self-criticism, impulsivity, negative rumination, perfectionism, emotional instability, neuroticism, and extreme goal orientation, suggests the Journal of Eating Disorders. Many of these traits can fuel anxiety, too.
Both mental health issues frequently manifest as tools for coping with—or numbing out from—situations that feel chaotic and uncontrollable. Here are some risk factors they have in common:
- Genetic history of mental illness
- Childhood trauma, abuse, or neglect
- Unstable family attachments
- Sexual harassment or assault
- Financial or food insecurity
- Low self-esteem or feelings of inadequacy
- Frequent interpersonal conflicts
- High performance-based expectations
- Childhood bullying or social disconnection
- Tendency to compare oneself to others
Anxiety and Eating Disorders Both Feed into Each Other
It’s not uncommon for anxious ruminations to provoke body image fixations or weight-control behaviors. That’s because anxiety can make a person more insecure and critical of their body shape or size, fueling a compulsive desire to change their own appearance, the Journal of Eating Disorders reports. Likewise, the Brain and Behavior Journal found that when anxiety levels increase, eating disorders also worsen in severity.
For instance, let’s assume you feel self-conscious about a certain body part. This can lead to an intense fear that others constantly scrutinize and evaluate you based on this “problem area.” So, you start exercising compulsively in a frenzied effort to silence the anxious narrative that your appearance is flawed. It’s a vicious cycle—but freedom is possible.
Let’s discuss how to release yourself from the influence of anxious thoughts and eating disorder behaviors.
How to Start Healing from Both Anxiety and an Eating Disorder
If you’re reeling from the emotional distress of anxiety, combined with the painful torment of an eating disorder, you’re not alone. Almost 40 percent of anxiety sufferers also exhibit at least one tendency that meets the criteria to be diagnosed with an eating disorder.
Most importantly, we want you to know that you can heal. These behaviors don’t need to dominate your life. Here are a few strategies you can use to start easing that anxiety.
Confront and Reframe Negative Ruminations
Eating disorder behaviors often feed on a constant loop of false narratives and negative beliefs. To break this pattern, identify which circumstances cause your negative ruminations to surface, then question the validity of those thoughts, and replace them with evidence of your intrinsic worth.
Here are a few examples:
- “I’m a failure because I was too lazy to work out,” can be reframed to: “I do not have to earn a break—I can move or rest whenever I choose without this impacting my value as a human.”
- “I was so out of control with my food last night at that party,” can be reframed to: “My eating behavior doesn’t define who I am and I am allowed to enjoy my food.”
Focus on Self-Compassion Instead of Criticism
There’s a positive correlation between self-compassion and less body shame, criticism, or dissatisfaction. If it goes unchecked, self-criticism and dissatisfaction can impact eating behaviors and even lead to other forms of anxiety, like social anxiety or food anxiety.
Before you cast judgment on yourself for having so-called “flaws,” remember that perfection does not exist, and chasing after unrealistic expectations will worsen your anxious thoughts and behaviors.
“The $159 billion weight loss and $100 billion beauty industries in the U.S. promote elusive and ever-changing beauty standards and then profit off of our anxiety and insecurities,” says eating disorder therapist and founder of Kindful Body, Marcella Cox, LMFT.
She reminds us, “In a world driven by impossible ideals, we are all uniquely flawsome. It’s crucial to embrace our individuality and challenge the narrative that our worth is tied to appearance, body size, or shape. Be intentional about embracing imperfection—after all, it’s a normal and unavoidable part of life. Rather than berating yourself for the times you fall short, replace this harsh self-talk with a gentle, compassionate reminder about all you have to offer, no matter how you look or what you achieve.”
If it’s helpful, write all the attributes you love about yourself on sticky notes and place them around your house (on your fridge, on a mirror, etc.). This part of healing is about repetition in order to rewire your brain.
Work a Mindfulness Practice into Your Routine
Practicing mindfulness consistently for at least two months helps manage chronic stress, reduce nervous system arousal, increase emotional regulation, and nurture self-awareness. These benefits can also do wonders to calm anxiety and combat eating disorder behaviors because mindfulness teaches you how to:
- Focus on the present
- Turn down the volume on worries about the future
- Accept your thoughts or emotions, without letting them dictate your actions
Even just 5 to 10 minutes of meditation, conscious breathwork, or body image affirmations can set the tone for a balanced, healthy mindset. Do this at the start or end of every day to build it into your daily routine.
Seek Professional Help
Eating disorders can cause severe emotional and psychological harm—but despite this harsh reality, about 80 percent of those who suffer don’t receive help. This could be the result of systemic treatment barriers or the mental health stigma that pervades many cultures. Accessibility to care is also often an issue. More often than not, we hear people say they’re not “sick enough.”
There’s never a certain level of “sick” you need to be to ask for help—ever. It can be hard to access and accept help, but Californians can reach out to us as a starting place and folks elsewhere can find help through one of these great directories:
When you think about the words “eating disorder treatment” you may envision a hospital or residential treatment setting. At Kindful Body, and many other places, you can access outpatient eating disorder therapy, with professionals that specialize in different kinds of eating disorders. “Treatment” is not always necessary—but therapy usually is.
In therapy, you’ll often work with frameworks like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, set goals, and work through the underlying trauma with EMDR and IFS that is often at the root of eating disorders, whether you’re experiencing Binge Eating Disorder or Anorexia Nervosa.
Ready to Break Free from Your Anxiety and Eating Disorder?
If you want to embark on the healing process and embrace a life of freedom, balance, and mental wellness, Kindful Body is here to support you on this courageous journey.
Contact us for a free 15-minute consultation—our team of clinicians will match you with a licensed therapist who can equip you with the tools to navigate anxiety, trauma, self-esteem, nutrition, relationship dynamics, or other factors that influence eating disorder recovery. Interested in learning more about Kindful Body? Visit our website, read our blog or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
