Dietitian Talk: Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders are complex mental health conditions that rarely exist on their own. An eating disorder will often co-exist with one or more mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety and OCD (Bhatia, 2018). This can be referred to as comorbidity or co-occurring disorder. Co-occurring disorder refers to an individual presenting with two or more mental health diagnoses at the same time. Diagnosis of this co-occurring condition could start around the same time as an eating disorder, could precede it, or could even emerge after the eating disorder has begun (Bhatia, 2018). Regardless of the order, it is important to understand and address the relationship between these comorbidities to achieve an accurate diagnosis and provide effective care (Rittenhouse, 2021).