How does Eating Disorders affect Self-Harm Behavior?

People who have an eating disorder often develop self-harm behaviour like cutting. The behaviour can be an expression of frustration, anger and anxiety that builds up inside them. They can also use it to punish themselves.

People with an eating disorder often have a negative body image and a lack of respect for their bodies. They are also likely to be unhappy and depressed about their life and feel hopeless. These emotions can be dangerous for their health and they may develop a variety of other unhelpful behaviours including restricting, binge eating, purging and laxative abuse.

Those with bulimia nervosa are more likely to be involved in self-harming behaviour, especially when they have binge episodes. They might cut themselves, burn themselves, pull out their own hair or take a high dose of medication and drugs. This is mainly because people with bulimia tend to feel an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame after their bingeing. This is the opposite of the feeling of relief they experience after their purging.

Some people who have an eating disorder might also be using self-harm as a way of distracting themselves from other difficult emotions that they are experiencing. Others might be struggling with a comorbid diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The people we interviewed for this project talked about how their eating disorders and self-harm developed together, both becoming more serious and regular over time. They often described how their eating disorder helped them cope with the distress of other painful emotions that they were dealing with such as depression, rage and suicidal thoughts.