Eating Disorders

What is an Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses; they are not a lifestyle choice or a diet gone ‘too far’. The facts
Eating disorders are serious, complex and potentially life-threatening mental illnesses. They are characterised by disturbances in behaviours, thoughts and feelings towards body weight and shape, and/or food and eating.

Find out about the characteristics, warning signs and risk factors of eating disorders including binge eating disorder (BED), anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED), avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and other presentations.

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

Prevalence of ARFID
Any person, at any stage of their life, can experience an eating disorder. More than 1. 1 million Australians are currently living with an eating disorder (1). The 2024 Paying the Price report indicates that ARFID had a prevalence rate in 2023 of 0. 13% (1).

Early intervention refers to the identification of eating disorder symptoms and implementation of support and treatment for a person as soon as symptoms are recognised. This also relates to the early identification and response to re-emerging symptoms for someone who has recovered from an eating disorder.

Health Professionals

Early intervention is key to improved health and quality of life when it comes to providing primary care for people affected by eating disorders.

Eating disorder treatment can involve different types of treatment approaches and settings, and requires collaborative care from a multidisciplinary team. This section provides information on treatment options, the care team, and associated information about accessing care.

Treatment Options

When considering treatment approaches for an eating disorder, it is important to understand that different people respond to different treatment approaches.

Media Literacy

Through communication platforms such as the media and social media, we are faced with manipulated, filtered and digitally enhanced images. Repeated exposure of such images can result in individuals feeling pressured to adhere to such ideals of appearance, increasing the risk of disordered eating and eating disorders.

Eating disorder prevention refers to actions, programs, or policies that aim to reduce modifiable risk factors for eating disorders, and/or bolster protective factors, to reduce the likelihood that a person will experience an eating disorder.

Primary Prevention

Primary prevention interventions aim to prevent the onset or development of an eating disorder and may be universal, selective or indicated. While the aims of all these interventions can vary slightly, they do share common goals that are focused on enhancing the prevention of eating disorders in general.