The link between anorexia, OCD, conservative values and disgust sensitivity
Anorexia is often explained as a disorder based in anxiety, but I believe it is much better explained as a disease based in high disgust sensitivity. People who are very orderly tend to have high disgust sensitivity, be perfectionistic, judgmental, have an obsession with purity, and think in black and white terms. People who are very orderly in nature I feel are the most represented as people suffering with anorexia.
OCD is another disorder I believe to be very psychologically similar in nature to anorexia, and I was wondering if there is anyone else who has experienced both of these disorders and felt they were linked. OCD, often classified as an anxiety disorder, is another disorder which I believe is based in high disgust sensitivity. Hyper-grooming is an example of body-focused repetitive behaviours, which are symptoms of multiple disorders classified as types of OCD- Excoriation disorder, Trichotillomania. These hyper-grooming compulsions are clearly examples of behaviour from people who are very orderly.
People who are higher in disgust sensitivity and orderliness by personality, are traits that have been positively correlated with holding more conservative values, as conservatives much like very orderly individuals, like to conceptualize things as if the boundaries around categories of things are segregated.
I wanted to ask this group if any of this resonates with you. Do you find you match the description as someone who is very high in orderliness? Do any of you also suffer from OCD, a disorder I believe is very psychologically similar to anorexia? Do you find yourself to resonate with more socially/economically conservative values?
Sources for my opinions explaining these ideas better than I’m able to: