Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025

6 days ago

This week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025, so at Burton and District Mind we think this is a fantastic opportunity to talk about the links between our mental health and food.

For some, food might be something that they enjoy, and even something that you may look forward to. However, there are many people across the world who instead have a much more difficult relationship with food. In fact, it is currently thought that there are around 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder, including people of a variety of ages, genders, cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

It is so important that we remember that eating disorders can affect everyone, regardless of who you are.

These eating disorders can include the following: ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and OSFED, which are all complex mental health conditions.

It is important to keep in mind the difference between an ‘Eating Problem’ and an ‘eating disorder’.

Eating Problem: A challenge you experience when it comes to food and eating. This could involve emotional struggles, habits or just general negative thoughts about mental health.

Eating Disorders: A medical condition diagnosed based on specific eating behavior's.

Here is a video that may help you be able to recognise if you are experiencing an eating disorder -> https://youtu.be/zNaaDoUuDic?feature=shared

So how can food/eating have an impact on our mental health?

There are several different ways that food can impact on our mental health such as the types of food that we eat, the act of eating itself, eating around others, or even concerns around your physical appearance which may add further difficulties.

If your blood sugar is lower than usual, you may often find yourself feeling tired, irritable, or depressed. So, to manage this and keep your sugar levels steady, you may find yourself having to eat certain foods that may release energy slowly.

So not only could that impact your mental health and mood, but you may also find yourself dealing with stress/anxiety as you try to manage it.

Additionally, this also comes with the challenge of making sure to eat regularly which might not be as easy for everyone to do.

The relationship between us and eating can be very complex.

Stigmas

Like mental health, eating disorders also have stigmas surrounding the topic which can impact people’s ability to seek help, or even just talk to the people around them about what they are going through. These stigmas can also contribute to making misconceptions around eating disorders common place, causing people to have incorrect information.

Some incorrect stigmas surrounding the topic include…

Eating disorders are a lifestyle choice
Dieting is just a normal part of life
Eating disorders are just a phase
Eating disorders only affect white younger women.

So, what can you do to counter these stigmas?

Use trusted, correct sources of information that are reliable.
Correct people spreading false stigmas when you see it.
Show compassion and empathy to people who are experiencing mental health/eating disorder struggles.
Be conscious of the language that you use.

If you’d like to get involved this Eating Disorder Awareness Week, you can check out their website here, where you can find a variety of FREE assets with helpful information that you can share on social media or in person -> https://edaw.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

Additionally, if you are in need of support due to experiencing an eating disorder/problem hare some helplines…