Objective: General aim of this study is to evaluate the presence of adverse life events (ALEs), mainly interpersonal and pre-13 years, in patients with eating disorder (ED), and to clarify their relationship with body image distortion (BID). Methods: Observational, case-control, study with a final sample of 140 participants consecutively recruited: 79 outpatients with ED, 20 outpatients with depressive disorder and 41 participants with no history of depression or ED. Main measure is the presence of ALEs. For the assessment of BID the contouring drawing rate scale was used. Data were collected and processed using SPSS v28 software. Results: ED patients have a higher proportion interpersonal pre-13 years ALEs. The ED group with interpersonal pre-13 years ALEs has more BID. Interpersonal pre-13 years ALEs, as an independent variable, predicts BID in ED patients. Conclusions: It seems that, in the estimation of body shape, the negative emotions experienced during childhood are displaced towards the body shape itself.