Disordered eating

Disordered eating describes a range of irregular or harmful eating behaviors, such as frequent restriction, skipping meals, bingeing, purging, or persistent preoccupation with food, weight, or body shape. These patterns may not meet the full diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia, but they can still affect physical and mental health.

Because appetite and eating patterns can change on GLP-1 medications, these behaviors are worth paying attention to. If eating feels out of control or distressing, it is reasonable to raise it with a clinician or a mental health professional.

Related terms

Weight stigma — Negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination directed at people because of their body weight, including within healthcare.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) — A mental health condition marked by persistent, excessive, hard-to-control worry about many things over months, often with restlessness, tension, and poor sleep.

Binge eating disorder (BED) — An eating disorder involving recurrent episodes of eating large amounts of food with a sense of loss of control, and distress afterward — without compensatory purging.

Related guides

GLP-1 medications and anxiety: what the evidence shows, and what to watch — Ask whether a GLP-1 helps or hurts anxiety and the honest answer is: both happen, and most people stay stable. Steadier blood sugar, quieter food noise, and weight change calm some people; a minority develop new or worse anxiety, and drug-safety databases show a small reporting signal. It is not a treatment for anxiety. Here's the balanced evidence and, more usefully, what to monitor and when to get help.

GLP-1 medications and ADHD: what to know if you have both — ADHD and obesity travel together, so a lot of people on a GLP-1 also have ADHD — and many take a stimulant. There are no trials of GLP-1s as an ADHD treatment, and it shouldn't be used as one. But if you have both, three practical things matter: stacking two appetite suppressants safely, the real ADHD–eating overlap, and the adherence hurdle a weekly injection poses for an ADHD brain. Here's the honest picture.

Getting mental health support while on a GLP-1: finding a therapist and the challenges to name — Losing weight on a GLP-1 changes more than your body — appetite, self-image, coping habits, and how others treat you can all shift, sometimes faster than your mind catches up. This is a practical guide to the mental-health challenges people commonly face on these medications, the kinds of therapists who can help, and exactly how to find and afford one — plus the crisis resources to keep close.