Eva Trujillo

Eating disorders literally rewire the brain.

They're not just emotional or behavioral.

Recovery is possible, but the brain needs time, food, therapy, and compassion to heal.

Yes, this is key.

The stereotype of the thin, white, affluent teenage girl leaves thousands of people in

invisible and unfortunately undertreated, underdiagnosed.

So eating disorders do not discriminate.

They affect people across the entire spectrum of human identity, men and women, trans, non-binary people, children, adults, athletes, parents, immigrants, indigenous populations, people in larger bodies and those in the smaller ones.

We know that eating disorders are just as likely and often more likely to go undiagnosed in people from marginalized communities, including people of color, low-income individuals, and the LGBTQ population.

So when someone is malnourished, when someone is not eating all the calories they need to eat, regardless of their weight, the brain is deprived of the energy it needs to function properly.

There are studies that report that there's a reduction in what we call the gray and white matter of the brain.

So that means the brain is literally shrinking.

And it would lose a lot of the biochemical compounds it has that can help you to determine your mood and the way you think and the way you feel and the way you perceive your environment.

Cognitively, patients often experience difficulty concentrating, obsessive thoughts about food, rigid thinking, poor emotional regulation, and even symptoms that may resemble ADHD or depression.

Or families say sometimes, my daughter disappeared.

It's like she's not herself anymore.

And that's not an exaggeration.

The brain is starving.

Yeah.

But the good thing, the good news is that many of these changes can be reversed with full nutritional rehabilitation.