‘Terminal anorexia’: a lived experience perspective (3 July 2023)

Summary

This opinion piece in the Journal of Eating Disorders looks at the use of the diagnosis 'terminal anorexia' and its impact on people with anorexia nervosa, their families and the healthcare professionals working with them. Alykhan Asaria offers a lived-experience perspective on how the term may cause distress and harm to patients, feeding the narrative power of an individual's eating disorder. The article also talks about how the term can remove hope from patients, families and clinicians, and how it might set a dangerous precedent in paving the way for people with other mental health conditions to be labelled 'terminal'.