What are people's experiences of orthorexia nervosa? A qualitative study of online blogs.
TLDR
Evidence is provided of some of the potential triggers and maintaining factors for this disordered eating style, as described in online blogs by women bloggers who self-identified as having ON.Abstract:
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a proposed new eating disorder, used to describe a pathological obsession with healthy or ‘clean’ eating. Although some quantitative research has been carried out in ON, very little qualitative work has been published to date to explore individual experiences of ON. Thus, this study aimed to explore individuals’ personal experiences of ON, as described in online blogs. Fifteen women bloggers, who self-identified as having ON, consented for their blog entries to be analysed in this study. Forty pre-existing blog entries describing the first-person experiences of ON were analysed using thematic analysis. Three key themes were discussed: (1) initial motivations for a healthier lifestyle, (2) fuelling the problem—social influences, and: (3) when healthy becomes unhealthy. Bloggers described the role of social messages, comparison with others around ideas of ‘healthiness’, as well as confusion around diagnosis as factors influencing their disordered eating. They also described the exacerbating impact of perfectionism and perceived control, as well as a confirmatory cycle of fear and avoidance. For some bloggers, increased physical symptoms in response to feared foods provided confirmation for these fears, further exacerbating food avoidance. Whilst the debate around the diagnosis of ON continues, these bloggers’ accounts suggest that ON is experienced as a legitimate, debilitating disorder, worthy of clinical and research investigation. This study provides evidence of some of the potential triggers and maintaining factors for this disordered eating style. Level V, qualitative descriptive study.read more
Citations
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"And it snowballed from there": The development of orthorexia nervosa from the perspective of people who self-diagnose.
TL;DR: This study aims to include the perspectives of those who share content about Orthorexia Nervosa on Instagram and self-diagnose with ON to trace their development of ON, gain insights into risk factors, symptoms and recovery, and explore differences with those who do not SD-ON.
Journal ArticleDOI
Orthorexic tendencies are linked with difficulties with emotion identification and regulation.
TL;DR: It is suggested that ON behaviours may be used as a coping strategy in order to feel in control in participants who have poor emotion regulation abilities, as shown in the results of this study.
Journal ArticleDOI
Evaluation of Orthorexia Nervosa and Symptomatology Associated with Eating Disorders among European University Students: A Multicentre Cross-Sectional Study
Anna Brytek-Matera,María Dolores Onieva-Zafra,María Laura Parra-Fernández,Anna Staniszewska,Justyna Modrzejewska,Elia Fernández-Martínez +5 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that ON significantly overlaps with ED symptoms, which is in line with recent studies, and longitudinal studies are needed to assess how ON develops in a sample of young adults.
Journal ArticleDOI
Identifying the Profile of Orthorexic Behavior and "Normal" Eating Behavior with Cluster Analysis: A Cross-Sectional Study among Polish Adults.
TL;DR: The results emphasize the possibility to target pathological eating behaviors and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms in ON in psychological intervention.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessing Orthorexia Nervosa: Validation of the Polish Version of the Eating Habits Questionnaire in a General Population Sample.
TL;DR: The Polish version of the EHQ is a reliable questionnaire that can be used with confidence to better assess ON in a general population sample and showed strong internal consistency.
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