Midlife Eating Disorders in Quarantine

With the spread of coronavirus in the United States, our lives are changing in ways we never anticipated. Along with feeling heightened emotions like anxiety, uncertainty or even panic, many are experiencing unprecedented changes to their daily lives. Mass unemployment and job insecurity have impacted millions of Americans, and many of whom are fortunate to remain secure in their employment have adjusted to a new work-from-home lifestyle.  While such disruptions are harmful for everyone, quarantine has been particularly difficult for those who suffer from an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, and have already been in a particularly vulnerable state due to forced isolation. An eating disorder is a mental illness that thrives in isolation — and those in recovery have been finding themselves in “survival mode” during this time. This unprecedented crisis has brought with it a sense of feeling out of control — from how to prevent ourselves from catching the virus, to how long we need to be in self-isolation, to food scarcity and insecurity caused by panic buying, this pandemic has been riddled with uncertainty from the very beginning.  Diet culture has also infiltrated this difficult time, with nearly inescapable messaging that one should be worried about gaining weight due to “quarantine snacks” and increased sedentary time; news updates about COVID-19 are interspersed with how we should be “making the mos...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Anorexia Binge Eating Bulimia Eating Disorders Body Image coronavirus COVID-19 diet culture Emotional Eating Isolation pandemic panic buying social distancing teletherapy Source Type: blogs