Elite female athletes' struggles with body image and disordered eating
By Johanna McDiarmid
Throughout her career, former ice dancer Matilda Friend struggled with disordered eating and felt pressure to look a certain way. ABC's Women's Sport survey shows she isn't the only one.
#Sport #BodyImage #EatingDisorders #RugbyUnion #Rugby7 #SuperW #Women #WomensHealth #JohannaMcDiarmid
4 years of work. 424 abstracts screened, 112 papers read, 65 included. One review on #craving in #EatingDisorders — bridging research, clinic, and patient care. #MentalHealth #ClinicalResearch https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763425005160?via%3Dihub
Mum bans her kids from ALL sugary food and won't even let them have birthday cake
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-bans-kids-sugary-food-36535077
Elite sportswomen have shared their stories, and these are the hard truths
By Amanda Shalala, Elizabeth Wright, Johanna McDiarmid, Kate O'Halloran, and Lindsay Dunbar
Low pay, discrimination, disordered eating, sexism and online abuse are just a few of the prevalent issues ABC's Elite Athletes in Women's Sport Survey has revealed, despite recent progress in women's sport.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-12/abc-elite-athletes-womens-sport-survey-results/106100946
#Sport #WomensHealth #GenderDiscrimination #OnlineAbuse #WagesandBenefits #Discrimination #GenderEquality #MentalWellbeing #IncomeDistribution #SocialMedia #PeopleWithDisability #Racism #EatingDisorders #DomesticViolence #AmandaShalala #ElizabethWright #JohannaMcDiarmid #KateOHalloran # #LindsayDunbar
Woman loses stone a month and drops 120lbs with one rule
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/woman-loses-stone-month-drops-36515752
The worrying new way people are ‘faking weight’ for Mounjaro prescriptions
The following hashtags are trending across South African Mastodon instances:
#newyear
#newyear2026
#Wordle
#wordle1656
#bible
#verseoftheyear
#medicine
#eatingdisorders
#christmas
#praise
Based on recent posts made by non-automated accounts. Posts with more boosts, favourites, and replies are weighted higher.
The following hashtags are trending across South African Mastodon instances:
#newyear
#newyear2026
#Wordle
#wordle1656
#dreamed
#medicine
#eatingdisorders
#christmas
#bible
#verseoftheyear
Based on recent posts made by non-automated accounts. Posts with more boosts, favourites, and replies are weighted higher.
Wikipedia's article of the day today is about Tarrare, a man from the 16th century with an insatiable appetite. It's very interesting. Like something out of a cautionary fairy tale intended to teach kids about the perils of gluttony or something. :O
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare?utm_source=Mastodon
(h/t @wikipedia)
Consume Me review – an autobiographical indie gem
🚫no mens comments🚫
Therapy actually wasn't a shit show.
I wanted to talk about the anxiety I was feeling about visiting Greg in January, particularly around food and body image. It's something that I noticed last time I visited - his wife does keto and is very strict about it, and I found that was triggering for me and raising all these fears and anxieties that he would see what I was eating and judge me for that.
We talked about how I can feel the dissonance between what I believe with my logical thoughts and what deep wounds I was carrying from childhood.
We talked about things I can do more short term to help make sure I enjoy my time with Greg, and then also made plans to start EMDR when I get back to reprocess some of the trauma I carry around food and my body.
#MentalHealth #MentalIllness #ChildhoodTrauma #EatingDisorders #fat #fatness #FatTGNC #FatQueer #emdr #therapy #psychology
Social media makes many Australian teens feel worse about their bodies. Platforms must take responsibility | Zoe Daniel https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/14/social-media-makes-many-australian-teens-feel-worse-about-their-bodies-platforms-must-take-responsibility #Parentsandparenting #Eatingdisorders #Socialmediaban #Australianews #Mentalhealth #Health
BREAKING: Amanda Owen reveals brutal truth of Clive divorce as she feared for her life
Is Food Addiction Real? Just in Time for Thanksgiving!
Originally Published on November 25th, 2025 at 08:00 amFood Addiction: The “Addiction” We All Talk About
Many of us have joked about being “addicted” to ice cream or chips, describing an intense craving that feels impossible to resist. This common experience is at the heart of a serious scientific debate: Is Food Addiction (FA) a genuine addiction, similar to substance addiction?
The conversation has grown more complex as modern definitions of addiction have expanded.
Influential bodies like the American Society of Addiction Medicine no longer require the ingestion of a psychoactive substance for something to be considered an addiction. Similarly, behavioral addictions like gambling disorder are now formally recognized. This has intensified the scientific inquiry into whether addictive-like eating fits the same mold.
To find answers, a recent longitudinal study looked at the role of emotion regulation, how we handle our feelings, to compare food addiction and substance misuse.
The findings were surprising, revealing critical differences in the emotional pathways that drive these behaviors. This article breaks down the three most impactful takeaways that challenge what we think we know about food addiction.
1. The Counter-Intuitive Role of Positive Emotions in Food Addiction
Takeaway 1: Acting on a Good Mood Predicts Substance Misuse, But Deters Food Addiction.
One of the study’s most unexpected findings relates to “positive urgency.” It’s described as a psychological trait. One defined as the tendency to act impulsively when experiencing strong positive emotions, like feeling overjoyed or extremely happy.
The research, which tracked women over six months, found a striking divergence.
A one-unit increase in a person’s positive urgency score was associated with:
Why would feeling good lead to such different outcomes?
The researchers suggest it comes down to the reinforcing power of the substance or behavior.
Individuals high in positive urgency may seek to amplify or extend their good feelings, and psychoactive substances are far more effective at this than food.
The study’s authors explain: Women with greater positive urgency may tend to select psychoactive substances such as alcohol or drugs that can more effectively amplify or prolong their positive feelings, rather than food. Food’s effects are less potent and thus less reinforcing than psychoactive substances.
This discovery is significant because it highlights a fundamental difference in the emotional triggers for food addiction versus substance misuse.
While a good mood might increase the risk for substance misuse, it appears to have the opposite effect on addictive-like eating.
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2. How We Judge Our Feelings Matter… But Differently
Takeaway 2: Not Accepting Your Negative Emotions Has Opposite Effects on Food Addiction vs. Alcohol-Related Problems
Another key aspect of emotion regulation is the “non-acceptance of one’s negative emotions.”
This is the tendency to have self-critical or judgmental reactions like shame, guilt, or frustration to your own distressing feelings.
Here again, the study found that this trait was linked to food addiction and alcohol-related problems in opposite ways:
The researchers hypothesize that this difference may be rooted in social stigma.
Women who feel ashamed of their negative emotions might turn to food as a coping mechanism because overeating is often viewed as less stigmatized than alcohol misuse.
The study references other research showing that the label “food addict” is perceived as less shameful than “substance or alcohol addiction.” This suggests that societal norms and the fear of judgment can profoundly shape which coping behaviors we adopt.
3. The Complicated Truth About Negative Moods and Food Addiction
Takeaway 3: The Link Between Bad Moods and Bingeing Isn’t a Simple One
The idea that we eat to soothe bad feelings, often called “emotional eating,” is a popular one. This is related to the concept of “negative urgency,” or the tendency to act impulsively when experiencing strong negative emotions.
At first glance, the study’s data seemed to support this common belief.
When looking at a single point in time, the researchers found that negative urgency was a common link between both food addiction and substance misuse.
However, when they analyzed the data over time in a more sophisticated multivariate model, the picture changed dramatically.
After controlling for other emotion-regulation factors, negative urgency was not a significant predictor of future food addiction or substance misuse problems.
This doesn’t mean bad moods are irrelevant.
Rather, it suggests that negative urgency might be a “fellow traveler.” It’s present alongside the true driver, but not in the driver’s seat itself.
When the researchers statistically controlled for the powerful effect of positive urgency, the predictive signal from negative urgency faded away. This finding challenges the simple narrative that “feeling bad leads to addiction” and reveals that, over the long term, other emotional factors are far more influential.
Conclusion: A Different Kind of Struggle
While food addiction and substance addiction share surface-level similarities like cravings and loss of control, this new research paints a picture of two surprisingly different psychological profiles.
One is characterized by impulsivity in good times, which predicts substance misuse, while the other is marked by self-judgment in bad times, which predicts addictive-like eating.
This challenges the one-size-fits-all model of addiction.
The study’s overall conclusion is clear: “These findings suggest that FA [Food Addiction] is not associated with the same key deficits in emotion regulation as SA [Substance Addiction].”
This leaves us with a critical question to consider:
If the emotional drivers for food addiction and substance addiction are so different, does this mean we need to rethink how we talk about, prevent, and treat addictive-like eating?
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#addictionResearch #bingeEating #copingAndEmotions #eatingDisorders #emotionalEating #emotionalRegulation #evidenceBasedPractice #foodAddiction #negativeUrgency #positiveUrgency #shame #stigmaAndShame #substanceMisuse #traumaAndAddiction #treatmentImplications #womensMentalHealth
I thought I was the ultimate alpha male – I had an eating disorder
PsyPost: This university’s failed TikTok ban revealed a troubling fact. “The research indicates that college-aged women with existing disordered eating symptoms are more likely to increase their engagement with TikTok content promoting restrictive diets, rather than the content itself directly causing those symptoms to develop.”
Dad drops bold note into daughter's lunch box after judgmental commentary from her school
I’m a food writer with a binge-eating disorder, and I’m learning to reject shame https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/nov/08/food-writer-with-binge-eating-disorder #Australianlifestyle #Eatingdisorders #Lifeandstyle #Mentalhealth #Society #Health #Food
Meta researchers found that teens who said Instagram regularly makes them feel bad about their bodies saw significantly more "eating disorder adjacent content” than those who did not, according to an internal document. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/10/21/tech/instagram-eating-disorder-teens/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #tech #apps #instagram #socialmedia #mentalhealth #eatingdisorders #meta #markzuckerberg
Jamie Laing reveals he ‘suffered in silence’ with bulimia while filming Made In Chelsea
