Eating Disorders are commonly labelled Anorexia, Bulimia and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) and whilst these labels may help identify common symptoms and behaviours, they do not necessarily help us understand what lies beneath or give us the insight we need into the mind of the individual suffering.  What we do know about Eating Disorders are that they are:

1. Serious Mental Illnesses characterised by:

• A loss of perspective; distored and/or delusional thoughts about size, shape, fat, food, exercise, self (worth, value, performance and achievement) and others (particularly what others are thinking of them).
• Black and White and/or All or Nothing thinking (cognitive inflexibility) where a sufferer finds it difficult to sit with a perceived or real increase in life's complexity, instability, unpredictability and  risk (greyness).  Cognitive inflexibility is seen in simple, stable, compulsive functions that minimise or reduce this complexity.
  
• avoidance of particular experience, emotion or feeling; in other words, eating disorders are about avoiding fear and percieved risk and staying emotionally safe.