Having An Eating Disorder Within The Context Of Schizophrenia & DID
Trigger Warning: Discussion of Eating Disorder, Child Abuse, Bullying, Delusional Thinking, and Self Harm
This week marks National Eating Disorder Awareness Week for 2022. Eating Disorders have been found to be more common among Schizophrenia Spectrum patients, with an association between Binge Eating and Antipsychotic usage (Sankaranarayanan et al, 2021). I personally struggled with various forms of Disordered Eating (DE) and acute phases of Eating Disorders (ED) for about 10 years, from the ages of 11-21. My experiences were related to my Schizophrenia, as well as the Dissociative Identity Disorder I experienced at the time.
The Disorientation Of Growing Up Schizophrenic
To be Schizophrenic is to be inherently nonconformist. Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and no area of the brain appears to be untouched by the condition, even the neuroendocrine system (Yates, 2016). Every aspect of how we think and operate in the world is somehow painted by our Schizophrenia. Since Schizophrenia is neurodevelopmental, parts of it are with us from early on. While most people do not develop full symptoms until late adolescence or young adulthood, myself and many people I have met in my work experienced Psychotic symptoms from early childhood.