Disordered Eating

Do you engage in disordered eating or have an eating disorder?

Early Warning Signs

If your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or actions with regard to your food, weight, exercise or body image interfere with your quality of life, emotional well being, and/or physical wellness, you may have an eating disorder. Essentially, when your relationship with your weight and body interfere with you being able to be yourself, when your thoughts become obsessive and debilitating, it may be time to seek professional help.

Anorexia

A self-starvation and excessive weight loss due to an intense fear of fatness and an unrelenting pursuit of thinness.

Bulimia

A secretive cycle of binge eating followed by some form of self-induced purging, such as overexercising and/or vomiting.

Binge Eating Disorder

A destructive cycle of impulsive gorging, grazing, bingeing and/or continuous eating, not in response to physical hunger. It is accompanied by a sense of lack of control and often guilt with shame. Eating is driven by emotions rather than hunger and is used as a way of coping and self-soothing.

Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)

Can include a combination of the signs and symptoms of anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder that ultimately takes up a disproportionate space in your head while stealing time and aliveness from your life.

Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

Dis-interest or distain in eating food in general, or specific groups of food. (e.g. only consuming white food).Usually related to the sensory characteristics of food or concern about consequences of eating. Usually an extension of anxiety disorders, the autism spectrum, OCD and ADHD.

Orthorexia

An unhealthy fixation on eating healthy or “pure” food which is typically characterized by an extreme obsession with avoiding foods perceived to be harmful or wholesome.

Treatment

Eating disorders are complex illnesses with biological, genetic, psychological, social, and developmental roots. Since there is no single cause for the development of an eating disorder, treatment is most effective when it targets the factors that are responsible for maintaining the symptoms once they develop. If you are struggling with disordered eating, signs of an eating disorder, and/or are maintaining your recovery from an eating disorder, reach out to schedule an appointment! We will provide an individualized treatment plan to create healthier habits and develop coping mechanisms for difficult cues or triggers. As appropriate, we will collaborate closely with multidisciplinary treatment team members and are co-located in an office suite with a registered dietician (https://www.lesliewilliamsnutrition.com).