I feel as if people are becoming more aware of autism and sensory issues; however, it seems as if when I mention eating disorders there is still a lot of misconceptions and false beliefs of what an eating disorder actually is.
I normally spread awareness about autism but today I want to spread a little bit of light on eating disorders, feeding disorders, and sensory processing difficulties (such as dyspraxia) that effect eating.
A person with autism can have a combination of these issues or none of these issues. It is imperative to understand the differences because how they need to be approached is vastly different.
There are several categories of feeding disorders, but I won’t go into them all now. Many, but not all, of the feeding disorders revolve around inadequate nutritional intake because of a structural, sensory processing, metabolic, or digestive issue. With purely a feeding disorder there is not typically a fear associated with weight, calories, or body image. Most of the time a feeding disorder does not stem from a psychological issue. I say most because sometimes a person can associate a food with an experience and develop a phobia to that food, but I am not talking about that one here.
An eating disorder is a disease of the mind; it is a mental illness. I’ve heard eating disorders be likened to things such as cancer. Both are diseases that are very hard to treat and can have remissions and relapses. It can come and go and sometimes you aren’t even aware of the issue until the disease has progressed. Like feeding disorders, there are several kinds of eating disorders. All eating disorders have a psychological component to it. They almost always stem from anxiety, fear, a need for control, and/or poor emotional coping. In eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa there is also typically body dysmorphia making it difficult for the person to see themselves accurately.
People with eating disorders may have some additional feeding issues but remember they are separate issues.
Someone with an eating disorder may refuse to eat a certain food because of fear of weight gain or an irrational fear of what the food will do to the body. That same person may avoid food because there nervous system registers the components of the food as dangerous (for lack of a better word). The texture or taste of that food might be like eating fire ants, it may create such a pain that if is unbearable and the food is refused. That person would be struggling with both an eating disorder and a feeding disorder.
There can also be issues with getting adequate nutrition that aren’t related to eating or feeding disorders but does have to do with sensory processing or executive functioning. So for example a person with autism may have dyspraxia (difficulty with coordinating or sequencing movements). This can result in challenges with the actual act of putting the steps together to prepare a meal. For that individual, poor food variety and intake may stem from needing to prepare the same 1-2 things everyday because preparing something different is too challenging.
All 3 of these eating issues result in poor nutrition. The reasons behind the behaviors that cause the result though are very different.
Remember an eating disorder is a mental illness a feeding disorder or cognitive difficulties with sequencing are not.
I could continue on this “soap box” and get into the neurology of each as well as how the result of the nutritional deficiencies manifest in a similar manner, but I will not. I will mention one thing and then end, otherwise I’ll go on all night and all day tomorrow about it as we are getting into one of my special interests. So, if a person with ASD also has nutritional deficiencies from poor intake several of his/her ASD symptoms will intensify. A few things the malnourished brain has difficulty with include sensory processing, emotion recognition and expression, emotional regulation, communication, recognizing social cues, and executive functioning. A person with a feeding disorder or an eating disorder can present like a person with ASD when in a malnourished state. When properly nourished though those symptoms of the malnourished brain diminish. On the other hand a person with ASD will still exhibit those symptoms to an extent; they just won’t be as pronounced as when in the malnourished state. This is because autism is a developmental disability and has to do with how the brain takes in and processes information.
In conclusion I want you to remember that those with ASD can have an eating disorder, a feeding disorder, difficulty with adequate intake because of cognitive/sensory processing challenges, or no issues with food or nutrition period.
Remember eating disorders are mental illnesses. Here are three poems I wrote while in the midst of my eating disorder struggle.
-NOTHING
Nothing inside
Nothing out
I can barely hear my own voice
A whisper among a roar
Actions are not my own
A puppet in a play about death
-TRAPPED
Trapped in my thoughts I can’t let go
Afraid and alone
Surrounded by people
Laughter all around
Trying to be in control
Yet controlled
-I want to kill myself and be set free from this living hell which entraps me.
The eating disorder is like a death eater, it sucks the life from you, prevents you from being in the present, and forces you to focus on the past and future. It distracts from the here and now, it makes me black.
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