Is it Disordered Eating or an Eating Disorder? How to Tell the Difference and Why it Matters
Healing your relationship with food is possible. It often involves healing your relationship with yourself: your worth, your body, your emotions and the parts of your story that you may have been carrying quietly for a very long time.
The Short Version:
You don’t have to “look sick” or meet full diagnostic criteria to deserve support.
Rigid food rules, guilt after eating, obsessive thoughts about weight, or using food to manage anxiety are important signs.
Eating concerns often overlap with anxiety, trauma, perfectionism, hormonal conditions, and chronic stress.
Early support can prevent disordered eating patterns from becoming more severe.
Recovery is not about willpower. It’s about flexibility, emotional regulation and self-compassion.
If your relationship with food feels exhausting or shame-driven, that’s enough reason to seek help. END. OF. STORY.
This week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week which invites us to pause and ask: Is what I’m experiencing disordered eating, or is it an eating disorder? Many people find themselves quietly asking this question.
From the outside, nothing looks “wrong.” You’re showing up. You’re meeting responsibilities. You’re managing your roles.
But internally, your relationship with food or your body may feel anything but steady.
You might notice:
Constant thoughts about food
Cycling between restriction and overdoing it
Guilt or shame after eating
Rigid food rules you feel anxious breaking
Exercising to “make up for” meals
Self-worth rising or falling depending on your body weight, discipline or control
Feeling “in control” only when you restrict
So how do you know whether this is disordered eating or a diagnosable eating disorder?
What’s the Difference?
Both disordered eating and eating disorders involve an unhealthy relationship with food, eating and often body image. Both can cause significant emotional distress. And, both are common in women and men who, in particular, have spent years tying their worth to productivity, appearance, or control.
Research consistently shows that perfectionism, self-criticism and chronic stress are significant risk factors for developing problematic eating behaviors (Bardone-Cone et al., 2007). Sound familiar?
Disordered Eating
Disordered eating refers to a range of irregular eating behaviors that do not meet full diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder. Think of it as a spectrum of thoughts and behaviors around food that cause distress or interfere with your quality of life. Common signs of disordered eating can include:
Chronic dieting or yo-yo dieting
Skipping meals regularly as a way to “make up” for eating more at other times
Rigid food rules (“I can’t eat carbs after 6pm” or “I only eat clean”)
Guilt or shame after eating certain foods
Emotional eating or eating out of boredom, stress, or numbness
Preoccupation with food, calories or weight loss
Compensatory exercise
Frequent body checking
Orthorexia-type thinking (an obsessive focus on “healthy” eating that starts to feel less about health and more about control)
Disordered eating habits are common and often normalized in our culture. But common does not mean harmless.
Research shows that disordered eating behaviors are associated with increased risk of developing full-threshold eating disorders over time (Stice et al., 2017).
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders involve persistent disturbances in eating behaviors accompanied by significant emotional distress, medical risk, or impairment in functioning (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). They are clinically diagnosed mental health conditions outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) and include:
Anorexia Nervosa: severely restricting food intake, intense fear of weight gain and a distorted body image
Bulimia Nervosa: cycles of binge eating followed by purging behaviors (induced vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise)
Binge Eating Disorder: recurring episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short time, accompanied by feelings of loss of control and significant distress
Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID): extreme food avoidance not driven by body image concerns
Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED): a category that captures serious eating issues that don’t fit neatly into the above
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental health condition (Arcelus et al., 2011). They are serious, they are medical and they are treatable.
It’s important to know:
You do not have to be underweight.
You do not have to look visibly unwell.
And you do not have to “lose control” completely for your struggle to matter.
The line between disordered eating and an eating disorder is often thinner than people think.
Research shows that disordered eating behaviors are associated with increased risk for developing full-threshold eating disorders over time (Stice et al., 2017). Early intervention matters.
The Key Differences: Frequency, Severity, and Impact
Clinicians generally assess three things when distinguishing between disordered eating and an eating disorder:
Frequency and duration: How often are these behaviors happening? Have they persisted for weeks, months, or years?
Severity: Is there a medical risk? Is the behavior causing physical harm?
Functional impairment: Is it affecting your relationships, your work, your ability to be present in your own life?
Here’s what’s important to understand: disordered eating exists on a continuum, and it can progress into an eating disorder over time, especially during periods of high stress, major life transitions, or untreated trauma (Fairburn et al., 2003).
Why It’s Often Hard to See Clearly
Many people minimize their eating concerns because:
“Other people have it worse.”
“I’m just trying to be healthy.”
“It’s not that extreme.”
But eating concerns rarely exist in isolation.
They often overlap with:
Anxiety
Trauma or chronic stress
Depression
Hormonal conditions such as PCOS
Caregiver fatigue
Longstanding patterns of self-doubt or self-criticism
When you’ve built your identity around achievement and control, it can be incredibly difficult to recognize that the “discipline” around food isn’t strength. It can be a coping strategy. A way to regulate emotion, numb overwhelm or create a sense of control when life feels uncertain.
Research also points to the role of internalized weight stigma, past trauma, and chronic self-criticism in the development and maintenance of eating concerns (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015). These patterns can run deep if you grew up in a home where your body, your appetite, or your emotions were criticized or if you’ve experienced trauma.
Questions to Consider
Instead of focusing only on diagnosis, you might ask yourself:
How much mental energy does food or body image take up daily?
Do I feel shame around my eating?
Am I using food, restriction, or exercise to manage anxiety?
Does my eating feel rigid or fear-based?
If nothing changed, would I want to keep living this way?
But here’s what I want you to hear: you don’t have to be “sick enough” to deserve help. If your relationship with food is causing you distress, taking up mental energy or keeping you from being fully present in your life that’s enough. End. Of. Story.
What Does Treatment Look Like?
Evidence-based treatments for eating disorders and disordered eating include:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Addressing underlying trauma when relevant
Collaborative care with medical providers and dietitians
CBT-E, in particular, is considered a leading treatment approach for adults with eating disorders (Fairburn et al., 2015).
Recovery focuses on:
Increasing flexibility with food
Reducing shame
Strengthening emotional regulation
Understanding body image and identity concerns
Developing a more compassionate internal voice
Addressing underlying anxiety, trauma or grief
Recovery is not about perfection. It’s about freedom.
A Note If This Is Landing Close to Home
If you’re reading this and something is clicking into place…maybe with relief, maybe with some anxiety? I want you to know that what you’re feeling makes sense. Recognizing a pattern is not the same as being defined by it.
Healing your relationship with food is possible. It often involves healing your relationship with yourself: your worth, your body, your emotions and the parts of your story that you may have been carrying quietly for a very long time.
You’ve spent years showing up for everyone else. This might be the moment to show up for you.
With care,
Ronelle
Jackson Therapy & Consulting | Omaha, NE
Ready to take the next step toward greater emotional balance and meaningful growth? At Jackson Therapy & Consulting, we specialize in personalized individual therapy, intensive therapeutic support, family intensives, and professional consultation designed to help you navigate trauma, relational challenges, life transitions, and more with evidence-based strategies and compassionate care.
Discover how our approach can support your healing journey. Explore our services or book a free consultation today to begin moving from stuck to empowered.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing.
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.).
Arcelus, J., Mitchell, A. J., Wales, J., & Nielsen, S. (2011). Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(7), 724–731. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74
Bardone-Cone, A. M., Wonderlich, S. A., Frost, R. O., Bulik, C. M., Mitchell, J. E., Uppala, S., & Simonich, H. (2007). Perfectionism and eating disorders: Current status and future directions. Clinical Psychology Review, 27(3), 384–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.12.005
Fairburn, C. G. (2008). Cognitive behavior therapy and eating disorders. Guilford Press.
Fairburn, C. G., Cooper, Z., & Shafran, R. (2003). Cognitive behaviour therapy for eating disorders: A “transdiagnostic” theory and treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41(5), 509–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(02)00088-8
Stice, E., Marti, C. N., & Rohde, P. (2017). Prevalence, incidence, impairment, and course of eating disorders in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(5), 625–635. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000249
Tylka, T. L., & Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image? Conceptual foundations and construct definition. Body Image, 14, 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.001
