You may have an Eating Disorder if:
- Eating and thinking about food dominates your life – do you obsess about everything you eat?
- Eating is controlling your life and prevents you from joining in with your peers.
- Food frightens you so much you avoid it, any way you can.
- Is your health being harmed?
- Is your weight loss extreme?
- Do you vomit after you have eaten, or use lots of laxatives?
- Are you a secret eater? Do you hide food to eat it alone?
- Do you hate your body and ‘feel fat’?
- Do you exercise excessively?
- Do you have bad thoughts about yourself because of the way you eat and/or look?
- Do you feel in a trance like state when you are eating?
- Voice in your head, anger, hate, sadness, guilty, greedy, shame……. Sound familiar?
As you can see, eating disorders present themselves in a variety of ways. You may only recognize and relate to 2 or 3 of the above descriptions, and if you do, you probably need help to overcome your particular type of eating disorder. So whatever your type of eating disorder is, you need a tailored programme that addresses both your particular eating/food and emotional issues.
ANOREXIA NERVOSA (AN)
AN is characterized by distorted body image and excessive dieting which causes severe weight loss, which is harmful to your health. People with AN have a pathological and intense fear of becoming fat, with a refusal to maintain body weight at a normal level. Anorexia affects males and females. If you are female, your periods may have stopped. The health risks of AN are severe, including osteoporosis, depression & poor immunity, with many other physical and psychological symptoms. AN affects both males and females.
Overcoming Anorexia requires a lot of understanding and compassion by your therapist, who will work with you, and support you to help you manage your fears and improve your relationship with food. Support will include dietary rehabilitation and nutrition education, to stabilize brain hormones and blood sugar levels. You will be given cognitive exercises to support you on your road to recovery. We can explore underlying issues and triggers and over time, restore your self-esteem and self-confidence, improve your body image, to enjoy a happier and more positive relationship with food.
ALCOHOL ANOREXIA
This type of anorexia is when you avoid eating to keep your weight down, but maintain a normal or lower body weight because you drink a lot of alcohol. This is very damaging to your health and wellbeing and affects both males and females.
BULIMIA NERVOSA (BN)
BN is an eating disorder where you have strong urges to overeat, sometimes after food avoidance, and then purge to ‘get rid’ of the calories that you believe you have eaten, and then hate yourself for doing so. Purging can be by vomiting or by taking lots of laxatives and diuretics (slimming pills). Your weight may be normal or slightly overweight. You may have previously also suffered from Anorexia.
Overcoming Bulimia requires a lot of understanding and compassion by your therapist, who will work with you, and support you to help you manage your fears and improve your relationship with food. Support will include dietary rehabilitation and nutrition education, to stabilize brain hormones and blood sugar levels, to enable you to gradually break the recurring destructive cycles, which your eating behaviour has locked you into. You will be given cognitive exercises to support you on your road to recovery. We can explore underlying issues and triggers and over time, restore your self-esteem and self-confidence, improve your body image, to enjoy a happier and more positive relationship with food.
BINGE EATING DISORDER (BED)
BED is when a person eats larger than normal quantities of food in one sitting. It is accompanied by a sense of loss of control and feelings of shame and disgust. People with this type of eating disorder often report eating in a trance like state, with a sense of calm shortly afterwards, to be followed by feelings of self-loathing. The type of foods consumed are often thought of as forbidden foods which are calorie dense, such as cakes, biscuits, ice cream, chocolate bars, crisps etc.
Overcoming Binge Eating disorder requires a lot of understanding and compassion by your therapist, who will work with you, and support you to help you manage your fears and improve your relationship with food. Support will include dietary rehabilitation and nutrition education, to stabilize brain hormones and blood sugar levels, to enable you to gradually break the recurring destructive cycles, which your eating behaviour has locked you into. You will be given cognitive exercises to support you on your road to recovery. We can explore underlying issues and triggers and over time, restore your self-esteem and self-confidence, improve your body image, to enjoy a happier and more positive relationship with food.