Anorexia
Anorexia, regardless of body size, is the restriction of food. This can look like going as long as you can without eating, eating 1 small meal a day, or severely limiting your calories. Most “diets” fall into this category especially intermittent fasting. An obsession with only eating “clean” or “healthy” foods is called Orthorexia.
Bulimia
Bulimia is most commonly understood as a cycle of eating and purging. In fact, a diagnosis of bulimia is applied to ANY compensatory behavior like purging, restricting, or over exercise.
Binge Eating
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is when you eat an abnormally large amount of food in a short period of time that is significantly larger than the average person can eat. Usually this includes some sort of food ritual/planning and results in a quiet food high followed by shame.
While I specialize in working with eating disorders, I do not work with clients who are actively needing consistent support of a higher level of care, or more than outpatient support. The clients I work with have already completed programming, are actively working in recovery, or are experiencing a relapse. If you feel like your eating disorder is out of control or are actively restricting, bingeing, or purging more than once or twice a week then you will probably require a higher level of care since I am not able to provide support more than once a week. If you have an active eating disorder, here are some referrals to programs with clickable links: Center for Discovery, Monte Nido, Healthy Teen Project, The Meadows, Montecatini, Shoreline, and Rosewood.
If you would like a consultation to discuss services and appropriate level of care, I’d be happy to meet with you for an assessment to give you referrals.
Yo-Yo Dieting and Disordered Eating
If you’ve been on one diet, then I’m guessing you’ve tried several. It starts with the excitement on Monday, fantasizing on how much weight you want to lose and how happy and healthy you will be. Then as the weeks drag on you find yourself losing weight, but you’re hungry, really hungry. Even if “logically you have enough calories” you still find yourself thinking about all the things you want to eat but shouldn’t. Inevitably, you cheat or get the fuck-its and its back into the cycle you go.
Even if the diet is “successful” after 2 years 95% of people have gained the weight back plus more, and of the 5% that didn’t they mostly go into the eating disorder category.
If you’re tired of living this cycle, there is a different path that you can take! Living your life through the lens of health at every size and learning true intuitive eating will give you the freedom and happiness that diets promise but can never back up. Check out this article about the science behind HAES and IE.
General Eating Disorder Statistics
- Eating disorders affect at least 9% of the population worldwide.
- Less than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as “underweight.”
- 28-74% of risk for eating disorders is through genetic heritability.
- Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdose.
- 10,200 deaths each year are the direct result of an eating disorder—that’s one death every 52 minutes.
- About 26% of people with eating disorders attempt suicide.
- 30% of people dealing with eating disorders have experienced sexual abuse.