Eating disorders

In 2024, the BPS submitted a response to the Scottish Government's consultation on a national specification for the care and treatment of eating disorders. The aim of the specification is an attempt to address current disparity in experiences and outcomes for those accessing services that provide eating disorder treatment. This review follows on from the news in 2023 that the number of young people with eating disorders in England had more than doubled since 2016-2017.

In 2021 the BPS published guidelines for trainee and qualified clinical psychologists working with people with eating disorders.

Here we share our own recent articles on eating disorders, and selected TV, radio and articles from elsewhere online.

In The Psychologist and our Research Digest 

Let's step away from eating disorder stereotypes
Dr Fiona Duffy on why assuming that only white, teenage girls have eating disorders, risks many people slipping through the support net

'I can only apologise to the patients where I didn't recognise their autism'
Professor Kate Tchanturia on why people with coexisting autism and eating disorders need a different, heightened focus

Honest answers to difficult questions
Deputy Editor, Jennifer Gledhill, reviews a new support book for families; What Does Eating Disorder Recovery Look Like

'Magic shoes illusion' is different for people with eating disorders
Why women with eating disorders do not respond in the typical way to filtering of their footstep sounds and the possibility of these findings helping to inform treatments

Eating disorder rates vary among different groups of transgender and gender diverse people
How gender identity and sexuality intersect to affect risk for eating disorders

How the cost of living can impact those suffering with eating disorders
Decisions surrounding nutrition can be made even more intense when money worries are added to the mix. 

The contradictory dynamics of eating
Lucia Giombini on an act dense with meaning

Hope, control and opportunity
Thea Fitch on her move from homelessness and eating disorders to becoming a psychologist working in these areas

Fasting for my eating disorder or God?
Sumayya Alidina reflects on the challenge of Ramadan for those with an eating disorder

‘It’s a privilege to work at Great Ormond Street, but it brings responsibilities’
Rachel Bryant-Waugh on her work in the Feeding and Eating Disorders Service

Can attachment theory help explain the relationship some people have with their “anorexia voice”?
Alex Fradera for the Research Digest

Quest for identity: recovering from eating disorders
Lucia Giombini outlines her work and thinking around anorexia

The ‘ugly stepsister’ of the eating disorder family
Nancy Tucker on bulimia nervosa

Orthorexia – slipping through the net?
Rachel Lisle on a less well-known eating disorder

Anorexia nervosa - on the autistic spectrum?
Clare Allely wonders whether the parallels might lead to novel therapy

They just need to care
Helen McCarthy reviews ‘The Year I Didn’t Eat’ by Samuel Pollen

'I can’t read because I’m anorexic'
Jenny Tan with a personal perspective on young adult fiction.

Cupboard love – Unwrapping the comfort in food
Andrea Oskis explores the intrinsic connection between food and feelings

Elsewhere

Rethinking anorexia nervosa
BBC Radio 4. Sally Marlow on novel experimental techniques to treat anorexia

A grown-up approach to treating anorexia
Mosaic. Carrie Arnold on adults with destructive relationships with food 

Louis Theroux: Talking to anorexia
BBC iPlayer. Louis Theroux meets women with anorexia.

Gender orientation, body image and eating disorders
Appearance Matters podcast. Allegra Gordon on why trans individuals are at a higher risk of eating disorders

‘For five years we dreaded every meal’: My infant son’s struggle with food
The Guardian. Tahmima Anam on her experiences at a paediatric feeding disorder centre

Diabulimia: The world’s most dangerous eating disorder
BBC Three. Documentary about people with Type 1 diabetes who give themselves less insulin than they need in order to lose weight

Beat – the UK’s eating disorder charity
Find information and support on Beat’s website