Orthorexia Nervosa
A healthy awareness of how to nourish oneself is a positive development, but this can quickly become an unhealthy obsession. When this behavior disrupts areas of life outside food, including health and relationships, it may be a sign of orthorexia nervosa.
It’s important to seek treatment for an eating disorder that is based on fear and a lack of balance. Seeking help can lead to a healthy relationship with food and improve mental well-being.
| Mental Health Minute : Eating Disorders |
Causes
A preoccupation with healthy and “clean” eating. Fear and avoidance of foods that are not deemed pure, healthy, or nutritious. Rigid food rules and excessive time spent planning meals and preparing ingredients. Food-driven disruptions to daily functioning in domains such as work, school, and relationships.
Impaired social functioning is a key feature of orthorexia. The restrictive nature of a person’s diet may distance them from friends and family who do not share their dietary beliefs, resulting in isolation and estrangement. People with orthorexia can also experience intense guilt and anxiety if they break their own dietary rules.
Those struggling with orthorexia need to seek professional help. Psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), can help individuals challenge and modify unhealthy thoughts and behaviors and explore any underlying psychological factors that contribute to the condition. In addition, nutritional counseling with a registered dietitian can support the recovery process by helping individuals establish a balanced and flexible approach to eating and gradually reintroduce foods they have been avoiding.
Symptoms
Individuals struggling with orthorexia are typically highly focused — and sometimes obsessed — over the quality of their food. They often limit their "go foods" to those that are organic, raw, pure or vegan. This dietary restriction can cause serious health problems, including malnutrition, severe weight loss and other medical issues.
Individuals who struggle with orthorexia can experience high levels of anxiety and distress when they break their own dietary rules or feel they are eating something unhealthy. They may also be highly critical of friends' or family members' food choices, leading to social isolation.
If you or someone you know displays these symptoms, they should seek professional evaluation and treatment immediately. A doctor or nutritionist can assess whether the symptoms are a sign of an eating disorder, and they might recommend connecting with a mental health professional. A therapist can help individuals learn healthier ways to cope with negative emotions and situations, which may help decrease the need for disordered eating behaviors as a coping mechanism.
Diagnosis
Attempting to eat healthfully isn’t necessarily harmful, but when it becomes a fixation that causes someone to ignore other areas of their life and become socially isolated from friends and family, it can be a sign of an eating disorder. If an individual restricts their diet to the point of malnutrition or has any other negative health consequences, they need to seek professional help.
Individuals with orthorexia nervosa may also develop co-occurring mental health conditions, such as anxiety disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Accurate diagnosis is crucial to ensuring adequate treatment for individuals suffering from this complex eating disorder.
Psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, can help people challenge unhealthy thoughts and behaviors related to food. Therapists may also use exposure therapy to help people gradually reintroduce foods that have been restricted, such as starting with being in the same room as their "fear foods", then watching other people eat them, and finally trying a small amount of these foods.
Treatment
Like other eating disorders, orthorexia can be a complex condition. Often, diets that turn into obsessions have underlying causes that may need to be addressed – whether those include childhood trauma, depression, co-occurring mental health diagnoses or abusive relationships.
Individuals with orthorexia typically develop an extreme fixation on consuming only "clean" foods. This can lead to restrictive dietary behaviors that prevent individuals from meeting their nutritional needs, leading to malnutrition and other physical complications.
Treatment options include psychotherapy and nutritional counseling. Psychotherapy, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), can help individuals explore and modify distorted beliefs and behaviors about food and body image that contribute to the disorder. Nutritional counseling can help individuals establish a balanced and flexible approach to eating, including gradually reintroducing foods that have been restricted or avoided. This can improve a person's relationship with food and help them restore healthy weight and body composition.
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