Why are athletes susceptible to anorexia?

Why are athletes susceptible to anorexia?

Divya Kakaiya (Program Founder and Clinical Supervisor) gives expert video advice on: Why are athletes susceptible to anorexia?; What sports have more susceptibility to anorexia?; What is the female athletic triad? and more...

When we think about what a good athlete is the thoughts that come to our mind is somebody who is compliant, coachable, and willing to suffer discomfort for the sake of the team. Someone who has high standards of excellence, a perfectionist. Someone who is competitive and has a drive to win. When we look at a person who is prone to an eating disorder, they tend to be very hard on themselves, which makes them push hard to achieve. They have a focus on athleticism where they can really deny pleasure in their body. Therefore, they can put their body under extreme amounts of stress in order to achieve a certain goal. For a person to become anorexic they really have to deny their body a lot of nourishment. They also have to reject the hunger pains in the service of what they have decided is a greater good. So when you find that the traits of an anorexic are the classic traits that define a good athlete, that's the reason athletes tend to be very prone to eating disorders. Because they have very similar traits to someone who would be predisposed to an eating disorder.