Title: Eating Disorders and Suicide
Headings: Eating Disorders and Suicide
Eating Disorders and Suicide
Who’s at risk?
There is an increased risk of suicide attempts in anorexics who are:
There is an increased risk of suicide attempt in bulimics who have:
Self-injury vs. Suicide
Suicide and Eating Disorders
Getting Help
Warning Signs

Content: Like depression and anxiety, eating disorders are disorders of emotional distress and often exist along with another mood disorder and/or anxiety disorder. The eating disorder behaviors are driven by emotions. Their purpose often serves to avoid emotional discomfort or decrease the intensity of the unwanted emotion. One of the essential aspects of treatment is to learn to tolerate all emotions. This can be incredibly distressing at first and it’s common that individuals and families experience this as treatment making things worse. It may feel counterintuitive to feel worse in order to get better. As those suffering begin to become more in touch with their emotions they may feel more depressed and/or increasingly overwhelmed which could lead to an increase in suicidal thinking. Therefore it is essential to receive treatment at the appropriate level of care and to work with a multi-disciplinary team. Patients often feel like their “bad intense” emotions will never go away, but it’s important to remember that emotions are temporary. If an individual, for example, has had their eating disorder for five years and has used their eating disorder behaviors to mange/avoid emotions for five years, then when they start feeling it may feel like five years worth of emotions all at once.