Eating Disorders Don’t Have a ‘Look’: Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2025

By: Megan Samuels, LCSW-C, Eating Disorder & Trauma Therapist

Eating Disorder Awareness Week plays a crucial role in increasing knowledge about eating disorders and helping individuals find appropriate treatment. However, for us at The Eating Disorder Center, we are focused on raising awareness of eating disorders all year long. 

It’s important to highlight that eating disorders do not discriminate—they affect people of all backgrounds, including various races, ages, ethnicities, religions, body sizes, abilities, and sexual orientations. 


Eye-Opening Statistics:

• 87% of LGBTQ youth report dissatisfaction with their body (The Trevor Project, 2022).
• BIPOC individuals with eating disorders are 50% less likely to receive a diagnosis or access treatment (Deloitte Access Economics, 2020).
• Transgender college students are four times as likely to receive an eating disorder diagnosis compared to their cisgender peers (Diemer et al., 2015).
• Black and Hispanic individuals experience higher rates of Bulimia Nervosa than non-Hispanic, non-Black individuals (Becker et al., 2003).
• Asian American college students report higher levels of restrictive eating, purging, and body dissatisfaction than their white or non-Asian counterparts (Uri et al., 2021).

These statistics make it clear: eating disorders don’t have a singular “look.” 


Recognizing the Signs of an Eating Disorder

Symptoms can vary widely from person to person. While many associate eating disorders with restricting food intake, purging, or weight loss, there are numerous other signs that may indicate someone is struggling.


Common Warning Signs:

• Preparing meals for others but avoiding eating themselves
• Excessive use of condiments like mustard or hot sauce.
• Eating in private or hiding food; avoiding eating with others due to shame about portion size or food choices.
• Episodes of consuming large amounts of food in one sitting (more than the ‘average’ person would in a short period of time), associated with feeling a ‘loss of control,’ and feeling guilt or shame after eating.
• Eating a very small number of foods (can be a possible warning sign of struggling with ARFID for some).
• Fear of the aversive consequences of eating i.e. fear that eating will cause you to vomit.
• Physical symptoms like digestive issues, persistent stomach pain, dizziness, or extreme sensitivity to cold.
• Experiencing distress when “safe” or so-called “healthy” foods aren’t available.
• Following rigid exercise routines and struggling to take rest days or break away from rigid routines.
• Obsessively thinking about food, weight, and body image.
• Body image distress that significantly impacts mood and/or behavior around food.

Eating Disorders and Mental Health

One of the complexities of eating disorders is their strong connection to other mental health conditions. Many individuals with eating disorders also experience an eating disorder and OCD, an eating disorder and trauma, or occurring disorders of depression or anxiety disorders.

Finding the right treatment can be overwhelming, and specialized eating disorder therapy is essential to address both the eating disorder and any co-occurring mental health challenges.

At The Eating Disorder Center, our clinicians provide assessments, eating disorder therapy, and recovery coaching for those struggling with eating disorders and related mental health concerns. Whether you or a loved one need a one-time evaluation or ongoing support, we’re here to help.

---

Schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation to explore how eating disorder therapy or recovery coaching can help you to find freedom.
​
​🌟 Available in MD, VA, DC, PA, NY, FL, and CA for eating disorder therapy
🌍 Offering recovery coaching worldwide

---

The Eating Disorder Center is a premier outpatient eating disorder therapy center founded by Jennifer Rollin. We specialize in helping children, teens, and adults struggling with anorexia, binge eating disorder, bulimia, OSFED, and body image issues. We provide eating disorder therapy in Rockville, MD, easily accessible to individuals in Potomac, North Potomac, Bethesda, Olney, Silver Spring, Germantown, and Washington D.C. We also provide eating disorder therapy in Arlington, Virginia and virtually throughout Virginia. Additionally, we offer eating disorder therapy virtually in New York (NYC), Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. We provide eating disorder and EMDR trauma therapy in Rockville, Maryland and virtually throughout Maryland and Virginia. We provide eating disorder recovery coaching via Zoom to people worldwide. Connect with us through our website at www.theeatingdisordercenter.com

---

*Disclaimer: The information is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for your independent medical decision-making nor a recommendation or endorsement for any particular treatment plan, organization, provider, professional service, or product. The information may change without notice. No claims, promises, or guarantees are made about the completeness, accuracy, currency, content or quality of information linked. You assume all responsibility and risk for any use of the information.
​
References:

• Becker, A. E., Franko, D. L., Speck, A., & Herzog, D. B. (2003). Ethnicity and differential access to care for eating disorder symptoms. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 33(2), 205-212. doi:10.1002/eat.10129
• Deloitte Access Economics. The Social and Economic Cost of Eating Disorders in the United States of America: A Report for the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders and the Academy for Eating Disorders. June 2020. Available at: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/striped/report-economic-costs-of-eating-disorders/.
• Diemer, E. W., Grant, J. D., Munn-Chernoff, M. A., Patterson, D. A., & Duncan, A. E. (2015). Gender Identity, sexual orientation, and eating-related pathology in a national sample of college students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 57(2), 144–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.03.003
• The Trevor Project. (2022). Research Brief: Eating Disorders among LGBTQ Youth. Available at: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/eating-disorders-among-lgbtq-youth-feb-2022/. Accessed on December 14, 2023
• Uri, R. C., Wu, Y., Baker, J. H., & Munn-Chernoff, M. A. (2021). Eating disorder symptoms in Asian American college students. Eating Behaviors, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2020.101458