therapy for eating disorders and DISORDERED eating.

Do you want to feel free in the way you relate to food and your body?

How do I know if I have an Eating Disorder or Disordered eating?

Asking yourself this question is the first step to recognizing if your relationship with food is disordered.

Eating disorders are a dangerous mental illness characterized by a change of attitude towards food. You may be doing a few of the following behaviors:

  • Dieting: looks like counting calories, fasting, skipping meals, avoiding certain food groups out of fear , creating obsessive rituals around food intake.

  • Binge eating: looks like hiding food, eating in secrecy out of shame, hoarding and food disappearing from kitchen.

  • Purging: looks like using laxatives, vomiting, excessive exercising to get rid of food.

  • Social withdrawal: looks like avoiding social events, increase isolation by fear or anxiety for eating in public. t

  • Body image: looks like body checking, dissatisfaction with body type or shape or weight.

  • Change in clothing style: looks like wearing baggy clothes to hide body.

Eating disorders don’t discriminate, and can look different for everyone. It might even be hard to detect. Although not a diet, excessive dieting can lead to eating disorders. Research has shown how, diet culture can directly impact pre-adolescents from developing eating disorders.

Women of color also tend to be miss diagnosed due to providers biases towards the illness. Statistics show that Hispanics and Asians report more body dissatisfaction then their white counterparts in high school

What is considered Disordered eating?

consider eating disorders and disordered eating to be fraternal twins. while one requires a diagnosis, the other presents with behaviors and symptoms found within the diagnosis. it involves:

  • Constantly experiencing with new diets

  • Meal skipping

  • Anxiety around certain foods

  • Rigid and excessive rituals around food and exercise

  • Preoccupation with food to the point of impacting the quality of one’s life

  • Chronic weight fluctuations

  • Obsessive calorie counting

  • Feeling guilt and shame associated with eating certain foods

  • Labeling food as good or bad

  • feeling like you are losing control around food and overeating

  • Using exercise , purging or fasting to “work off” or “make up for” foods consumed

  • No cognitive flexibility around meals, avoid eating out at restaurants , limiting to only certain foods.