Eating Disorders Across the Lifespan
When many people picture an eating disorder, they typically imagine an underweight teenage girl struggling silently with food and body image. While adolescents are certainly at high risk, eating disorders do not discriminate by age. They can begin in early childhood, intensify during adolescence, emerge in young adulthood, develop during the perinatal period, or appear for the first time in midlife.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NASW), eating disorders affect millions of people across all genders, ages, socio-economic statuses, races, and body sizes. Understanding how these illnesses present at different life stages — and how they impact families — is essential for early intervention, effective treatment, and lasting recovery.
At The Current, we specialize in recognizing the nuanced ways eating disorders show up across the lifespan — because the signs at age 8 often look very different from the signs at 38 or 58. We treat ages from 4 and up and have therapists that specialize in each stage of life.
Each year, NASW hosts Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW), and Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2026 is February 23 through March 1. NEDAW continues the vital mission of increasing education, reducing stigma, and encouraging early intervention. The Current has chosen to participate in this national campaign and shine a light on the reality that eating disorders affect people across the entire lifespan — not just one age group, gender, or body type.
Awareness week is an opportunity for families, providers, schools, and communities to deepen their understanding, challenge harmful myths, and amplify stories of recovery. Most importantly, it serves as a reminder that seeking help is a sign of strength — and that no one should struggle in silence.
Eating Disorders in Childhood
Eating disorders can begin much earlier than many families expect. In children, symptoms are often subtle and may be mistaken for “picky eating,” anxiety, or behavioral challenges.
Common Presentations in Children:
Sudden restriction of previously accepted foods
Rigid food rules or rituals
Intense fear of choking, vomiting, or contamination that limits food intake
Avoidance of eating in front of others
Weight loss or faltering growth
Comparison of their body type to other children
Children are less likely to articulate concerns about weight or shape directly. Instead, their distress may center on fear, control, or sensory sensitivity. In some cases, children develop ARFID, which differs from Anorexia nervosa because it is not driven by body image concerns but can still lead to serious nutritional and medical consequences.
Early intervention during childhood is incredibly effective. When families are supported and equipped with evidence-based tools, recovery outcomes are strong and long-lasting.
Eating Disorders in Adolescence
Adolescence is a period of rapid physical, neurological, and social change. Puberty, identity formation, peer comparison, and increasing independence all converge — creating a vulnerable window for eating disorders to develop.
Common Adolescent Presentations:
Calorie counting, food tracking, or rigid dieting
Compulsive exercise
Body dissatisfaction and intense comparison
Binge eating episodes
Purging behaviors
Diagnoses such as Anorexia Nervosa, Atypical Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia nervosa and Binge-eating disorder often emerge during this stage.
Importantly, adolescents may appear high-achieving and outwardly “fine.” Many are perfectionistic, responsible, and deeply motivated — traits that can mask serious internal distress.
Eating disorders thrive in secrecy and shame. Adolescents benefit from specialized treatment that includes family involvement, medical monitoring, and developmentally attuned therapy that addresses identity, autonomy, and emotional regulation.
To meet the need of increasing prevalence of eating disorders in childhood and adolescence The Current has opened a Child & Adolescent Clinic where we specialize in treating children and adolescents, with a strong emphasis on collaborative, family-centered care. Assistant Clinic Director, Jackie Esser, LPC and therapist Elise Smith, LMSW bring specialized expertise and ongoing advanced training in eating disorder treatment, equipping families with the guidance and support they need to navigate a diagnosis together with confidence and compassion.
Eating Disorders in Young Adulthood
Young adulthood brings transitions: college, careers, relationships, independence, and shifting routines. For some, this is when long-standing disordered eating escalates. For others, it’s when symptoms first appear.
Common Triggers in Young Adulthood:
Major life transitions
Increased stress and performance pressure
Social comparison amplified by digital culture
Loss of structure around meals and support with shopping, planning, and preparing food.
Trauma or relationship stress
Young adults often experience eating disorders as a coping mechanism — a way to regain control, numb emotion, or manage overwhelming uncertainty.
Treatment during this stage focuses not only on food behaviors, but on identity development, boundaries, emotional processing, and building sustainable coping strategies for both emotions and life skills.
The Current is located in Columbia, Missouri — a vibrant college town, home to several universities and higher education institutions. Young adults make up the majority of our client population so our therapists have extensive experience supporting young adults in eating disorder recovery, helping them build independence while thoughtfully integrating family and peer support into the healing process.
Eating Disorders During the Perinatal Phase
The perinatal phase — including pregnancy, postpartum, and the first year after birth — is a uniquely vulnerable and often overlooked time for eating disorder development, recurrence, or intensification.
Common Perinatal Risk Factors:
Rapid and unavoidable body changes
Heightened focus on weight and medical monitoring
Anxiety about fetal health or feeding decisions
Identity shifts related to parenthood
Sleep deprivation and hormonal fluctuations
Pressure to “bounce back” physically after birth
For individuals with a history of eating disorders, pregnancy can reactivate body image distress and control patterns. For others, symptoms may emerge for the first time.
Specialized perinatal treatment prioritizes both parental and infant wellbeing, often including collaboration with medical providers and compassionate support through identity transitions. Therapist Kelsey Crandall, LPC has nearly completed her certification in Perinatal Mood & Anxiety Disorders and Advanced Psychotherapy for Perinatal Populations through PSI and her approach is both grounded in professional training and lived experience as a parent.
Eating Disorders in Midlife
It is a myth that eating disorders are a “teen problem.” Midlife onset is more common than many realize, and relapse can occur decades after initial recovery.
Midlife Risk Factors:
Hormonal shifts, including menopause
Body changes associated with aging
Caregiver stress
Divorce or relationship transitions
Grief and loss
Career shifts or burnout
Midlife clients often carry additional shame about struggling “at this age,” which can delay seeking help. Yet treatment remains deeply effective and transformative.
The Impact of Eating Disorders on the Family System
Eating disorders do not affect just one individual — they impact the entire family system.
Meals can become battlegrounds. Siblings may feel confused or overlooked. Parents often oscillate between fear, frustration, guilt, and exhaustion. Partners may struggle to know how to help without making things worse.
Common family impacts include:
Increased conflict around food and routines
Emotional walking on eggshells
Financial strain from medical care
Shifts in sibling roles or attention
Caregiver burnout
Strain on marriages or partnerships
It is important to say clearly: families do not cause eating disorders. Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors.
However, families play a powerful role in recovery.
When caregivers are supported and educated, they become one of the strongest protective factors in healing. In child and adolescent treatment especially, family-based approaches can be life-saving. For adults, involving partners or loved ones in therapy can reduce isolation and strengthen relational resilience.
Supporting the family system is not an “extra” — it is often essential to sustainable recovery. The Current’s Child & Adolescent Clinic understands the impacts on family and is here to support the whole family system.
Why Eating Disorders Look Different at Every Age
Eating disorders are not just about food. They are complex biopsychosocial illnesses influenced by genetics, temperament, environment, culture, and life experience.
Across the lifespan, what shifts is:
The developmental task at hand
The stressors present
The meaning food and body hold for the individual
A child may restrict food out of fear.
An adolescent may restrict to manage intense emotions and belonging.
A young adult may binge to cope with overwhelm.
A perinatal parent may struggle amid identity shifts and body changes.
A midlife adult may relapse in response to loss or aging transitions.
The behavior may look similar — restriction, bingeing, purging, compulsive movement — but the underlying function often evolves.
Effective treatment honors both the individual and the system surrounding them.
Recovery Is Possible at Any Age
One of the most hopeful truths in eating disorder treatment is this: recovery is possible at every stage of life.
Early intervention improves outcomes, but it is never “too late” to seek help. Whether symptoms began last month or decades ago, specialized, compassionate care can interrupt the cycle and support sustainable healing.
At The Current, we work with children, adolescents, adults, perinatal parents, and individuals navigating midlife transitions. We also support families and partners navigating the ripple effects of an eating disorder.
Healing cannot happen soon enough nor does not have an expiration date — and no one has to navigate it alone. Reach out to us today to see how we can support you, no matter your age!
Additional Resources for NASW’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW) February 23 through March 1, 2026.
NEDAW “Every Body Belongs”: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/nedaw/
Renfrew Center “The Myths We Carry”: https://renfrewcenter.com/edaw-2026/
Eating Disorder Foundation “Fighting for Change, Committed to Change”: https://www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org/event/eating-disorders-awareness-week-2026/