Self-regulatory disturbances in eating disorders

The hypothesis that eating-disordered patients utilize their bodies as transitional objects is examined, but the evidence does not support this proposition. Instead, these patients reveal a deficit in transitional object relatedness. It is found that these patients have severe deficits in self-organization and self-regulation. Much of the symptomology such as starvation, hinging, vomiting, and hyperactivity is better understood as desperate measures to drown out states of overstimulation and/or fragmentation.