# Are eating disorders OCD in disguise? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 4, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-eating-disorders-ocd-in-disguise/703651 "2014-11-04T18:27:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-eating-disorders-ocd-in-disguise/703651/1 "2014-11-04T18:27:53Z")
Do you think it’s possible that anorexia and bulimia are actually manifestation/rituals of an OCD obsession? I’m an OCD sufferer myself as is my mother so I understand how obsessions and compulsions work. My sister is an anorexic. No matter how irrational a thought is (Did I accidentally poison that food? Am I fat?) an OCD sufferer cannot shake the fact it is real, even though a part of them deep down knows they’re wrong. Their brain gets stuck in a loop. A lot of people think OCD is only hand-washing, but I’m actually quite a sloppy person. My fears started out with hand washing but later moved to AIDS, then to fear of contamination/poisoning others and then I became paranoid that I would become a murderer or a rapist someday. OCD always takes the form of your worst fears and if being fat or ugly is terrifying to you I could see how it could lead you to starving yourself or inducing vomiting as a ritual to prevent weight gain. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2014, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-eating-disorders-ocd-in-disguise/703651/2 "2014-11-04T21:04:44Z")
Yes. > **[Well](https://www.nytimes.com/section/well)** > > Well ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-eating-disorders-ocd-in-disguise/703651/3 "2014-11-04T22:09:37Z")
Well, my knee-jerk response is that while they may share some things in common, OCD is one hell of a lot more easily treatable than eating disorders. Most anxiety disorders respond very well to evidence-based interventions such as medication, CBT, or a combination of treatments. Anorexia is not only the [most deadly mental health disorder](http://www.mirror-mirror.org/eating-disorders-statistics.htm), it’s also one of the hardest to treat. > [@](#): > > With treatment, 60% of eating disorder sufferers make a full recovery. Without treatment 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from eating disorder related health complications, including suicide and heart problems(16). That is not intended to minimize the real suffering of people who have OCD. My husband treats children with OCD and comorbid disorders such as Tourette’s Syndrome, and it sounds pretty much like hell. But fortunately you will find a lot of success stories and see people make significant gains in a short amount of time, if they are given the opportunity to use treatments that work. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-eating-disorders-ocd-in-disguise/703651/4 "2014-11-05T01:12:29Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Well, my knee-jerk response is that while they may share some things in common, OCD is one hell of a lot more easily treatable than eating disorders. Most anxiety disorders respond very well to evidence-based interventions such as medication, CBT, or a combination of treatments. Anorexia is not only the [most deadly mental health disorder](http://www.mirror-mirror.org/eating-disorders-statistics.htm), it’s also one of the hardest to treat. > > That is not intended to minimize the real suffering of people who have OCD. My husband treats children with OCD and comorbid disorders such as Tourette’s Syndrome, and it sounds pretty much like hell. But fortunately you will find a lot of success stories and see people make significant gains in a short amount of time, if they are given the opportunity to use treatments that work. Does that really mean that the two disorders are unrelated though, or are eating disorders just an extremely ugly manifestation of OCD?