Self-disgust in anorexia nervosa - a possible explanation for a persisting negative body image?

What is it about?

Adolescents with anorexia nervosa often experience negative feelings and thoughts toward their bodies. It is still not well understood how such a negative body image can persist even when someone is underweight. We believe that disgust may play an important role. Disgust is a strong feeling of aversion that you can experience when you see, smell, taste, hear, or feel something unpleasant. Disgust can be very intense and is strongly linked to avoidance of the disgusting stimulus. Some people experience disgust in response to their own body, or parts of it, defined as self-disgust. As a first step to examine the role of self-disgust in eating disorder problems such as AN, we tested the relationship between various aspects of (trait) disgust and a negative body image. More specifically, we examined how disgust propensity, disgust sensitivity and self-disgust are related to a negative body image in adolescents with and without anorexia. What did we find? • Adolescents who have a strong tendency to experience disgust in different situations (disgust propensity) also tend to report a more negative body image, and this relationship may run via feelings of self-disgust. Thus, the results support the idea that individuals who are prone to experience disgust in general, are also more likely to experience self-disgust and thereby more likely to have a more negative body image. • Individuals who appreciate the experience of disgust as very negative (disgust sensitivity) did not show a stronger link between self-disgust and a negative body image. • The relationship between self-disgust and negative body image may run via body checking behaviours (for example, frequently looking in the mirror or checking one’s body). More specifically, the results supported the idea that individuals with high levels of self-disgust, tend to engage in relatively more body checking behaviours and subsequently have a more negative body image.

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Photo by Михаил Секацкий on Unsplash

Photo by Михаил Секацкий on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our findings are in line with the idea that disgust and self-disgust may be important factors in negative body image in anorexia nervosa. A better understanding of disgust processes may help to improve treatments. In future research, we aim to better understand what triggers feelings of disgust in adolescents with anorexia, and whether treatments targeting self-disgust may help reduce eating disorder symptoms.