A licensed psychotherapist, who once struggled with an eating disorder, is now helping others who also struggle.

Despite possessing the second highest mortality rate of all mental health conditions, eating disorders remain one of the most understudied and misunderstood psychological conditions.

And New Year’s resolutions tend to be a trigger for many to begin a tumultuous relationship with food.

Certified eating disorder specialist Mary Dobson says she was 12 or 13 when she first developed symptoms of an eating disorder.

She now helps children and adults with eating disorders at her eating disorder treatment center in Westport called Liftwell Health.

Eating disorders are characterized by severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions.

They can be very serious conditions affecting physical, psychological and social function-- and include anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder.

"Eating disorders are biologically based conditions. They are in fact mental health conditions which begin with mental health symptoms or symptoms of anxiety, depression, over control, sometimes obsessive compulsive type symptoms and then evolve into a physical catastrophe," said Dobson.

Dobson says eating disorders impact all ages, genders, and body sizes.

She says misconceptions and poor public information distort who gets recognized and identified for treatment.