Difficulties that occur in our relationship with food are usually referred to as 'eating disorders' - So, let's look at what that means

What are eating disorders?

There are several kinds of eating disorder. The most well known are Anorexia Nervosa (usually called anorexia) and Bulimia. You've probably heard these names before.

Some people eat far more than is healthy and become obese. Sometimes, such behaviour is compulsive and this is known as Binge Eating Disorder or Compulsive Overeating.

In the following pages, we'll look at these three types of eating disorder, examine their common elements and see what options are available for recovery. A self-test is included, so you can check to see if you may have an eating disorder.


An eating disorder can come about when a person's normal relationship with food somehow goes wrong. Let's look at each of these conditions in turn - and see what we can discover about them.