The Impact of COVID-19 on Eating Disorders
As the pandemic struck the whole world, we faced the raw truth of life without physical contact as we were forced to quarantine for our own safety. Perhaps you happen to be one of the individuals who has acquired great things from quarantine such as learning new instruments, taking courses online, or working from home. Clearly, the pandemic had affected every individual in its own beneficial way, or on the opposite side, it provoked an unfortunate event in their lives. However, for some, the effects of the pandemic have placed them in a position where they find themselves struggling mentally and even emotionally. Before the pandemic, eating disorders were already a focus on mental health awareness, and due to the pandemic’s effects, there was a noticeable increase in incoming patients. It affected a larger number of individuals including those who were in “recovery”. Being this, there is current data that can show beyond doubt the pandemic effects inducing a dramatic rise in incoming eating disorders patients including “recovered” individuals.
From the very beginning, the pandemic had forced us to place a stop on our lives, it did not matter who you were, where you were from, what you are going through, and less what your position in this world was… the virus was not out for pick and choose. In the same way, we did not get to pick and choose how it would affect our lives. This pandemic had taken away plentiful meaningful resources from individuals, especially from adolescents dealing with mental health issues. For example, an adolescent eating disorder patient attends school and extracurriculars daily, and once the pandemic began these activities are canceled disrupting their routines, and leaving them not knowing what to do with their time while facing the pandemic. The article titled “Study: Hospitalizations for Eating Disorders Spike among Adolescents during COVID” is a study based on the spike of eating disorders among adolescents aged between 10-23 years old. This study was deemed exempt from review by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Boards as secondary research. They stated,“ Additionally, changes to adolescents’ day-to-day lives, such as school closures and cancellation of organized sports, may disrupt routines related to eating and exercise, and such disruptions may be an impetus for the development of ED behaviors in those at risk for these disorders. Indeed, although anecdotal, our recent clinical experience suggests adolescents with new EDs frequently report their ED behaviors began when pandemic precautions were implemented because, for example, they found themselves with nothing else to do or with more time to engage in diet and/or exercise behaviors they had previously considered but not acted on.” This quote exemplifies my point that the dramatic disruption in routine and cancellation of extracurricular activities due to the pandemic had triggered behaviors leading to forming an eating disorder or going back to old behaviors of their eating disorders. Many adolescents, including myself as I was dealing with an eating disorder before and after the pandemic, school and after-school activities such as sports were a refugee. You may ask yourself, how can simple routines or activities be meaningful to someone’s health?. In the same way, it may be hard to accept when something or someone was your distraction from feeling anguished. For example, a job that we would go to every morning and we would already have planned what to do after our jobs keeping our minds busy, suddenly the pandemic hits and no more working for “a while” which sounds great for a break but for how long…?. Now, what will you do with your time after you tried to replace it with other hundred activities at home and no more ideas come through. You come to realize that your job is part of what makes sense in your daily routine, similarly to adolescents who attend schools and extracurriculars that’s what their minds and bodies were invested in the whole time.
Throughout the pandemic, we all had mixed emotions leading us to feel unstable and confused. The question I remember hearing the most was, “When will everything go back to normal?”. We were in the unknown hoping to go back to what we all used to know which is what was “normal” in our lives. As time passed by, we realized hope was not gonna come to our door any time soon. Therefore, we as humans had to adjust to our new environment but as we all know, every individual responds differently to change. Eating disorder patients who were currently receiving treatment before the pandemic had to adjust to online treatment. Now, has online treatment been effective as in-person treatment?. There are many factors that play a major role in how successful the outcome would be. In the article “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with eating disorders: the role of emotion regulation and exploration of online treatment experiences” authors Vuillier, L., May, L., Greville-Harris, M. collected qualitative and quantitative data from 207 (76 males) self-selected UK residents with self-reported ED, who described impacts of the pandemic on their symptoms. They stated “A very preliminary qualitative analysis of a small group of patients with anorexia nervosa and their families [10] suggested that while some benefited from continued support in this alternative format, others were unable to tolerate seeing themselves on screens. Other concerns expressed by patients and families about online treatment included the lack of non-verbal communication; that previous homework challenges, such as eating out, would become impossible; and that virtual connection placed responsibility on patients to manage their own weigh-ins, accountability which would be difficult for people at early stages of recovery and which might constitute an extra burden on carers.”. As we can see, a transition to online treatment for patients was reacted to differently being that some benefited from it, however, others patients expressed otherwise. Also, within this study, “Of 207 participants surveyed online, 83.1% reported that their ED symptoms had worsened, most notably due to difficulties managing emotions like anxiety around the unknown situation, changes in routine and in physical activity.” Clearly, the pandemic effects caused a loss of treatment impacting the patient’s recovery and experiencing a ‘detached connection’ from online treatments.
In the article “Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and UK lockdown on individuals with experience of eating disorders” authors Dawn Branley-Bell and Catherine V. Talbot collected data from 129 individuals currently experiencing, or in recovery from, an eating disorder during the early stages of the UK pandemic lockdown through online surveys. They stated “When asked whether they felt this change had affected their ED symptoms, 85.2% reported that the change had worsened their symptoms. Reasons included: Increased interpersonal stresses, hiding their ED from others, increased scrutiny and/or pressure from others to eat more, and a loss of control over diet.”. Over the time of the pandemic, the living environment of many individuals had changed dramatically causing stress on their eating disorders. Personally, dealing with an untreated eating disorder throughout the pandemic was one of the major challenges I had ever faced in my life. Nobody in my family knew and my mom was the one who was constantly in control of the food we ate at home. It was constant arguments at home one after another, eventually, I understood she was just worried about my health but the eating disorder voices would be louder than her. One of the many emotions I felt was anger and constant anxiety due to the everyday pressure of eating and not being understood. Not only my mind could only focus on my goal to lose weight and achieve a specific number on the scale but my environment then was always at home being unable to control what I ate and madly frustrated causing me to take actions that worsened my eating disorder. For anyone dealing with an eating disorder, it’s a constant war inside their heads and outside as others are unaware of the situation. As we can see, according to the results of the data collected by the online survey the individuals faced a challenge of a change in an environment due to the pandemic contributing to worsening the individuals eating disorders.
Before the pandemic, ∼85% of adolescents were unhappy with their bodies (Ricciardelli and McCabe, 2001), and 50–60% reported “disturbed eating behaviors” (e.g., fasting, taking diet pills or laxatives, vomiting, and binge eating) (Croll et al., 2002; Quick and Byrd-Bredbenner, 2013). It is challenging to face dissatisfaction with your own body at any point in your life, however, having to face these challenges during the pandemic could have triggered negative thoughts or actions. In the article “Eating Disorders Spectrum During the COVID Pandemic: A Systematic Review” authors Mario Miniati, Francesca Marzetti, Laura Paladini, Donatella Marazziti, Graziella Orrù, Ciro Conversano, and Angelo Gemignani collected several data suggest that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may exacerbate or trigger eating disorders (EDs). They state “CEDIC was a national non-profit organization that, since 1985, operated toll-free helpline and an instant chat service for patients with EDs (Richardson et al., 2020). The proportion of patients with EDs who called the CEDIC describing dieting/restriction, over-exercising, perfectionism, purging, anxiety, and depression was significantly higher in 2020 than in 2018 and 2019. The most relevant issues in 2020 were related to the difficulties in accessing treatments because of the pandemic, and to an urgent need for support, due to the worsening of symptoms.”. This exemplifies the urgency in individuals that were struggling with their eating disorder throughout the pandemic since the number of calls was higher in 2020 than previous years. It also states “ In summary, the authors concluded that stable traits of anxiety and uncertainty were more relevant in worsening EDs and compulsive exercise than the current levels of the same subjective variables.”. As we can see, before a pandemic came along, we already had our daily mental battles to fight, and while greater stress, pressure, and confusion hardly made it any easier for anyone. Any individual who already struggled with anxiety or uncertainty was more prone to worsened eating disorders, in other words, fail to recover.
This data table shows is from the article “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with eating disorders: the role of emotion regulation and exploration of online treatment experiences” by authors L. Vuillier, L. May, M. Greville-Harris, R. Surman, and R. L. Moseley whose report showed participants experiencing a greater level of distressing emotions during the pandemic, which had a negative impact on their ED. As we can see, there are many factors that played a role in each individual eating disorder. The top within each was based on, disruption of routine for anorexia nervosa, change in physical activity for bulimia nervosa, emotions for binge eating disorder, and once again emotions for OSFED.
Overall, the effects of the pandemic on eating disorder patients cannot be summed up in a simple solid statement. As we now know, these various effects impacted the lives of these individuals in ways that are long-term to this very day. As someone who has dealt with an untreated eating disorder throughout the pandemic, I hold tremendous respect for anyone dealing with an eating disorder. It is harsh to accept that the world continues no matter what you go through and no one will stop for you but it’s the plain truth. It’s important to have support by your side since without the right people or help it is a miserable mental state to live in. After all, these harsh impactful effects of the pandemic it has stuck with individuals leading to long-term effects. Now, knowing that these individuals’ lives have been turned upside down, it can’t be taken lightly to believe their recovery process will be straight away successful now that resources are more established. It would definitely be interesting to observe an analysis of the post-pandemic came of individuals with eating disorders who participated throughout the pandemics data.
Work Cited:
Branley-Bell, D., Talbot, C.V. Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and UK lockdown on individuals with experience of eating disorders. J Eat Disord 8, 44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-020-00319-y
Miniati M, Marzetti F, Palagini L, Marazziti D, Orrù G, Conversano C and Gemignani A (2021) Eating Disorders Spectrum During the COVID Pandemic: A Systematic Review. Front. Psychol. 12:663376. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663376
“Study: Hospitalizations for Eating Disorders Spike among Adolescents during COVID.” University of Michigan, labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/study-hospitalizations-for-eating-disorders-spike-among-adolescents-during-covid.
Vuillier, L., May, L., Greville-Harris, M. et al. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with eating disorders: the role of emotion regulation and exploration of online treatment experiences. J Eat Disord 9, 10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-020-00362-9
SELF-ASSESSMENT
The first learning outcome was, “ Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazines, and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias”. I felt more confident in searching for sources that stand my argument. Within this paper, I aim to add actual data from conducted research. As I read each article, there was a lot of information but I was able to have a solid summary of each quote I would add to my paper.
The second learning outcome was, “Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing”. Throughout my critical analysis articles, I found myself not going over and over again confused about what the author’s points were trying to convey. I was able to find a counterargument within a few articles and I had developed a possible idea to add to my argument but in the end, I did not include it. I did not want to lose balance within my argument and I wasn’t sure how to approach it.
Lastly, the third-course learning outcome was, “Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.”. I found myself being more straightforward with my points in the arguments in which I felt more confident writing my paper. Also, reading article after article filled me in with a lot of aspects for my argument and enough to talk about. I realized having strong sources and a good analysis of the information I will use in my paper makes me feel more confident about my argument and helps me to express myself more.
