“From That Moment, Everything has Changed”: The Experience of Women With Anorexia Nervosa Receiving a Diagnosis of Autism

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Creese, M., Hampton, S., Brede, J., Babb, C., Elliott, M., Serpell, L., Jones, C. R. G., Fox, J. R. E., Loewenberger, A., & Mandy, W. (2025). “From That Moment, Everything has Changed”: The Experience of Women With Anorexia Nervosa Receiving a Diagnosis of Autism. European Eating Disorders Review, 33(4), 825-834. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.3186

Publication date: 9 Mar 2025 Added to AutiHub: 15 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
10
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 10 (10.0%)
  1. Melissa Creese
  2. Sarah Hampton *
  3. Janina Brede
  4. Charli Babb
  5. Mair Elliott
  1. Lucy Serpell
  2. Catherine R. G. Jones
  3. John R. E. Fox
  4. Alana Loewenberger
  5. Will Mandy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective Autism and eating disorders (ED) frequently co‐occur, particularly in women. Autistic individuals are often undiagnosed when they present to mental health services and many receive their autism diagnosis during or after ED treatment. This study sought to understand the experiences of autistic women with co‐occurring anorexia nervosa (AN) receiving an autism diagnosis. Method Secondary data analysis was conducted on 17 semi‐structured interviews with autistic women with AN using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants had a diagnosis of autism, had current or past experience of AN, were female‐identifying and aged 18 or above. Results Participants experienced missed opportunities for autism diagnosis along with misdiagnoses and misunderstandings from healthcare professionals. Participants tended to receive their diagnosis at the point of crisis and experienced being passed between autism and ED services. Receiving a diagnosis helped participants make sense of their experiences and take control of their lives but also brought feelings of shock and distress. Conclusions While autism diagnosis is often a positive experience for autistic women with AN, a range of emotions can be experienced. The findings highlight a need for better and earlier identification of autism among women with EDs, alongside appropriate post‐diagnosis support and ED treatment that is adapted to autistic individuals' needs.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 20 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
48
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
4 / 48 (8.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 48 (8.3%)
References with detected author names
44 / 48 (91.7%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
3
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
206
From DOI or external metadata
206
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
108 / 206 (52.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 98 / 206 (47.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
5 / 206 (2.4%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 5 / 108 (4.6%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 148 (3.4%).
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