this is a touchy subject, so I’m going to tread lightly…
but I think with any mental health disorder, it would be most appropriate to display this as part of the character’s descriptive background rather than the main conflict that moves your plot. here’s some examples of what I mean…
1
a girl wants to go to college, but struggles financially to come up with the tuition (conflict) - a friend notices her unique outfits and after discovering she enjoys sewing, asks her to collaborate on a clothing line they could sell - the girl agrees, but finds that measuring and creating clothing of different sizes causes a previous obsession (background) with body measurements to resurface (tension) - in the end, the girl learns to communicate her triggers to her work partner and they decide to market accessories instead (resolution).
- here, the focus of the plot is a girl needing money for college. eating disorders are discussed, and cause the girl some difficulty in achieving her goal of raising money for tuition. by making the solution communication with others rather than “overcoming” her eating disorder, you give readers a good example of what to do if they are struggling with something similar as well as affirm the fact that ed aren’t something that you just wake up and decide to be done with.
2
a girl wants to go to college, but her parents say they do not feel she should be on her own due to an ongoing eating disorder (conflict) - the girl desires the education and independence so she goes on a 30 day challenge of working past her eating disorder - in the end she no longer shows symptoms of an eating disorder and her parents let her go to college (resolution).
- this is a very bad example, do not do this. by placing her ed as the main conflict that drives the story, it identifies the girl first by her disorder with all her other personality traits/interests as secondary to that. in addition, it gives an unrealistic representation of the stages of growth/recovery for eating disorders. lastly, it further pushes the misconception that eating disorders are something that just goes away (like an illness that received medication/treatment). this is very untrue for the vast majority of people with ed.