Like many key employees, Jessica, a grocery worker and graduate student in Atlanta, has been “extremely overwhelmed” during the coronavirus pandemic. Overwhelmed by stress, she has once again fallen into bad habits to deal with it.
Jessica, identified by her name only to preserve her anonymity, has struggled with bulimia for more than a decade.
“I’m wrapped up not to fall like a stressed rubber. I know I can’t purge, because that’s unhealthy,” Jessica said. “So I’m in the middle of this cycle that I’ve spent years trying to break.”
The pandemic has increased stress among many Americans, which has only been exacerbated by the isolation and lack of frequent social contacts. It has been the perfect storm of negative factors for people with eating disorders or for those in recovery.
“I think in many ways it’s been disastrous,” said Cynthia Bulik, who is the founding director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Eating Disorders, about the pandemic. Bulik co-authored a study published in July that looked at the early effects of the pandemic on people with eating disorders in the U.S. and the Netherlands. The study found the side effects of life in blockade, including “lack of structure, increased time spent in a triggering environment, lack of social support,” which led to worsening of symptoms for people with eating disorders and an increased risk of relapse. for those in recovery.
“This is just one of the tragedies that follow after the COVID crisis,” Bulik said about the rise in cases of eating disorder, which can affect anyone regardless of their race, gender, age or weight.
Chelsea Kronengold, communications manager for the National Eating Disorders Association, said the NEDA hotline has seen a 40% increase in contact since March 2020.
“Throughout the pandemic, NEDA is experiencing an increase in calls focused on suicide, self-harm and even the need for child protection services,” Kronengold told CBS News in an email. Kronengold explained that “eating disorders thrive in isolation” and that the isolation required to work from home, measures of social distancing and a break from routine “can put extreme pressure on people suffering from eating disorders.”
Many people working from home have lost structure to their days which helped them set better eating patterns, Bulik said.
“Time has lost its significance in the pandemic and everything is so amorphous, so it is much harder to superimpose the recovery structure on an amorphous life,” Bulik said.
The increase in isolation also leaves more time to check out social media, which can be incredibly triggering for people with eating disorders. Meredith, who lives in Washington, DC and works in marketing, told CBS News that she was overwhelmed by the announcements of fasting apps.
“January and February are particularly difficult months to be stuck at home because all social media users are inundated with fitness and diet ads,” he said. Meredith, who is about twenty-twenty years old, explained that the “boredom” of the pandemic era “leaves more time to move meaninglessly on Instagram and TikTok,” which they are crawling with influencers with certain types of cos.
Marita Cooper, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said social media can be a serious trigger for people with eating disorders, especially because of the prevalence of memes about weight gain during it was from the pandemic. Cooper was the lead author of a July study that found that “the potential impact of the pandemic on individuals with DS is staggering and requires concerted intervention.”
“The discussion about COVID’s weight gain has been really problematic,” Cooper said, referring to the so-called “COVID 15” or “quarantine 15,” a play on the often mocking phrase “first year 15” , which refers to £ 15 put first-year college students.
Food insecurity levels have also risen in the United States during the pandemic, as millions of people have lost their sources of income, which can be triggering for individuals prone to exaggeration and purging. Bulik noted that most of the cheapest foods available are also unhealthy, which can lead to an increased risk of getting excited or feeling guilty about what you eat.
“This ends up being a horrible cycle of perpetuation,” Bulik said, where people continually eat unhealthy foods and then react inappropriately.
In particular, at the beginning of the pandemic, many Americans engaged in hoarding food, believing they would be in quarantine for a few weeks or months. This was problematic for people who relied on eating certain foods as a way to control their eating disorders and who now had more difficulty accessing those foods.
“Many people with eating disorders feel safe with a wide range of foods and have those foods on their meal plan,” Cooper said. “When there’s limited access to that kind of food, that can be really triggering.”
Storing food can also create an unsafe environment for people with bulimia or eating disorder, who are now trapped in a place where the temptation to overeat is pervasive. People with food insecurity can often take longer to get upset because they don’t know when they will be able to eat their next meal, said Erin Parks, clinical psychologist, researcher and co-founder and clinical director of Team, a virtual eating disorder program.
“These become a kind of survival behaviors if you have food insecurity,” Parks said.
Still, the news is not entirely bleak for people with eating disorders. Bulik’s co-authored study found that a positive consequence of the pandemic was “a perceived increase in social support that helped challenge their eating disorder behaviors and increase motivation to recover.”
Thy Vo, a 29-year-old journalist living in Colorado, said his messy eating habits were “much better” in light of the pandemic. For seven years he has struggled with forced and especially purgative behavior.
At the start of the pandemic, she struggled to eat in front of her boyfriend, as she could not hide her behaviors when they were both trapped at home all the time. Although she initially strained her relationship, the conditions forced by the pandemic ultimately helped her, including participating in an online group for people with eating disorders.
“Finally, being home all the time helped me normalize my eating habits, which helped significantly decrease all of my ED thoughts,” Thy Vo said. “Being forced to sit down to eat all my meals three times a day with my boyfriend was torturous, but it finally helped.”
The increase in time at home has also helped some teens with eating disorders, who have been able to receive support from their families and be responsible. It is more difficult for young people to fall into messy eating habits when they are constantly surrounded by relatives.
Parks said children and teens are “more likely to recover” if they have adults in their lives who support them. He added that a greater reliance on telehealth has made it easier for family members to attend several weekly counseling sessions, rather than having to physically travel to different appointments.
“The advantage of telehealth is that anyone can come,” Parks said, encouraging people to “really bring their whole people” to address an eating disorder. Team offers a family-based virtual treatment, which uses what Parks described as the “radical idea that families are better equipped to help their loved one recover from an eating disorder.”
However, even with increased use of telehealth and the potential for family support, there is likely to be long-term damage from the pandemic in people with eating disorders. Bulik said he hoped to do a one-year follow-up study on how respondents were facing the pandemic for several months and see if people continue to report a stronger decision to recover or closer ties with their families.
“I think pandemic fatigue could erode these positives,” Bulik said.
People can recover from eating disorders, with support and treatment. But the road to recovery for many has been derailed by the pandemic, and it may be difficult to get back on track.
“There’s this assumption that EDs could disappear after life returns to normal,” Cooper said. “But that’s not something that magically disappears.”
Resources:
National Eating Disorder Association
If you or someone you know is having body or food problems, the NEDA Confidential and Free Helpline is available by phone or by phone at 1-800-931-2237 or by click to chat at nationaleatingdisorders.org/helpline. For 24-hour crisis assistance, 7 days a week, text “NEDA” at 741-741.
NEDA has also compiled a list of free or low-cost COVID-19 resources: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/help-support/covid-19-resources-page.
National Institute of Mental Health
PARTY
FEAST is a non-profit organization that offers free care for caregivers with loved ones who suffer from eating disorders.