Eating Disorder Support & Therapy
Common Symptoms and Recovery
Are you preoccupied with thoughts about your body, weight, shape and size? Are you going hell for leather at the gym and chastising yourself if you miss a session? Perhaps you are wedded to the bathroom scales and find yourself stepping on them several times a day and then berating yourself because you don't like what you see?
Do you constantly compare yourself to others; either in your world or the social media world? Do you have a chaotic eating style and find yourself going from one diet to another, only to feel disappointed when you haven't succeeded in what you have set out to achieve?
Perhaps you are investing in compensatory behaviours; such as taking laxatives, restricting food intake or self induced vomiting.
Maybe you are experiencing some shame and guilt around what you are eating? Perhaps other people are starting to express concerns about your weight loss/gain and eating behaviours? Have you started to align moral values to food? Maybe you find yourself avoiding meal times or pretending you have already eaten?
Prevalence & Definitions
It is estimated that over 700,000 people in the UK have some form of Eating Disorder (Royal College Psychiatrists, 2019), however it is suspected that the prevalence is much greater than is actually reported.
NICE (National Institute for Health & Care Excellence) define 4 main types of Eating Disorder, however it is recognised that it extends way beyond this. All of them are serious conditions and must be treated by clinicians with specific training.
Anorexia Nervosa - Individuals restrict their food and liquid intake. They may develop rules around eating. They may exercise often and check their bodies in the mirror regularly.
Binge Eating Disorder - Individuals will eat large quantities of food in a short space of time. They often feel like they are out of control and may have lost touch of their hunger/fullness cues.
Bulimia Nervosa - Individuals will eat large quantities of food in a short space of time and then will compensate for that eating with purging behaviours such as vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, fasting or exercising excessively.
OSFED - Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder. Sometimes an individuals behaviours do not fit with the aforementioned disorders, in this case individuals may be diagnosed with OSFED.
ARFID - Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. A serious feeding/eating disorder characterized by limiting the amount or types of food consumed, causing nutritional deficiencies and in some cases failure to thrive.
How Do Eating Disorders Come About?
Eating Disorders can arise out of many factors and with an appropriately trained Eating Disorder therapist, you will start to piece together these things that have resulted in a chaotic relationship with food.
Some people with an Eating Disorder have a low self esteem and often this can lead to a poor body image. Common characteristics of low self esteem are:
A sense of worthlessness and needing constant reassurance or validation from others.
Can experience rejection or abandonment on an intense level.
They struggle to be assertive and have their needs met.
They can struggle with emotional problem solving.
We know that those with confidence and a good self esteem are generally more resilient and can find solutions to problems or can accept those things that they cannot change.
Very rarely is the root cause of an Eating Disorder about the way individuals look. More often than not, the root is that which taps into their sense of not being "good enough" and having to fit with the worlds unrelenting standards and the "idea" of perfectionism.
Treatment & Support
How will we work?
Eating Disorders cannot be treated with counselling alone and the idea of changing behaviours that have acted as a protective factor for a long time can be terrifying. As such, this type of therapy must be conducted by someone with appropriate and accredited training.
Eating Disorders for many are "useful" and now your therapist is suggesting we take that away!
As with any counselling intervention, the "One Size Fits All" approach does not work here, so the work will be very much tailored to your need.
Our work is gentle and nurturing. We will work together to understand the nature of your Eating Disorder. We will look at your relationship with food. We will look at how you have experienced your body over the years. We will spend time looking at your unhelpful thoughts and core beliefs about your body and food. Together we will work together to develop and grow your self esteem. This will be done with the use of Psychoeducation and information around Nutrition Rehabilitation. We will also work together to re-write your internal narrative about the way you view yourself and develop a new food script.
Structure & Activities
Unlike traditional counselling, the work will be structured and there may be activities to be done between sessions.
All the activities have purpose and have been carefully designed to improve your assertiveness, confidence and self esteem and thereby improve your motivation.
The activities also helps clinicians to identify any possible fears or barriers to change.
The Initial Assessment process is longer than a traditional counselling assessment. This is because eating behaviours take years to develop and it takes time to unpick and understand those behaviours and core beliefs.