How do treatments for disordered eating work?

Most treatments for disordered eating work by addressing the underlying internalized weight stigma, body image disturbances, and rigid food rules.

Dissonance-based treatments include verbal, written, and behavioral activities that work by highlighting the costs of pursuing the thin ideal and engaging in disordered eating behaviors and emphasizing their conflict with the participant’s values.^[1][2]

Mindfulness practices involve noticing and responding to hunger and fullness cues, rather than following external rules about what or how much to eat, and may also reduce disordered eating behaviors by improving emotional regulation skills. Intuitive eating integrates mindful eating with other practices that address body image concerns and strict food rules, similar to dissonance-based treatments.^[3][4]

Interventions that encourage body appreciation and self-compassion may also reduce or prevent eating pathology by addressing the underlying body image concerns that create a drive for a specific physique. Education programs that focus on social media use can help adolescents understand the ways that social media can negatively affect body image and potentially reduce their susceptibility to problematic content such as photoshopped pictures that depict unrealistic beauty standards.^[2][5]