Is your disordered eating feeling out of control?
Want help to have a positive relationship with food?
Book in for a free call with Vanessa, specialist disordered eating therapist.
Do you struggle with disordered eating? The thoughts of food seem to take over your life. You have tried to correct your eating many times, but you don’t know what to do.
Therapy can help to address the underlying causes of your eating problems and help you find new eating habits that are sustainable and healthy for you.
What is disordered eating?
Disordered eating is an irregular eating pattern. This could also be known as Emotional eating. The eating behaviours may not meet the full criteria of an Eating Disorder, however, you will be experiencing some of the symptoms of an eating disorder.
Some examples of disordered eating are:
- Overeating at mealtimes, not being able to stop.
- Constantly picking at food, like snacking on sweets or snacks.
- Eating too much of a food in one sitting, like junk food.
- Eating in secret, hiding the wrappers away.
- Eating during the night. Night time Eating.
- Eating not due to hunger.
- Bingeing and restricting.
Disordered eating is less severe than a diagnosed eating disorder. Yet, you could still experience the same emotions around food; Guilt from overeating, shame around eating, body shame, and feeling not in control of your eating.
How does disordered eating happen?
Disordered eating can happen at any time in our lives. Quite often we turn to food as a coping mechanism if something is not right or has not been right in our lives. Some reasons why I have found people turning to food:
- It starts in childhood. You may have experienced bullying, adverse events, abuse, grief, or abandonment. Food became your go-to as a way of feeling better.
- Your parents had an adverse relationship with food. So you learned by watching them.
- You experienced trauma in adulthood and you found food gave you solace at that time.
- Along the way food has become your friend, it is there for you, comforting you.
- Your life is busy, and hectic, everyone else comes first. Work takes up a lot of time and energy. You don’t know why you have irregular eating patterns. You know what you ‘should’ be eating, you just don’t have time for it and grab food on the go.
Food = stress and everything that comes with it, like preparing and cooking. It is overwhelming.
You may not be experiencing trauma or the consequences of adverse events now, only our brains have learnt that food helped at the time. The brain made many positive associations between feelings and food. Because you feel better in the moment of eating, the brain keeps these associations for you, so you don’t have to think about it. What wonderful brains we have.
What I help with.
I help people with a range of eating problems. This could be Binge Eating Disorder, ARFID, night time eating, secret eating, overeating, or any other eating issue that is causing you problems.
I understand that when you have disordered eating of any kind, it can end up taking over your life.
The emotions that come with it range widely from shame, embarrassment, frustration, and many more.
You might have tried many things to help from diets, telling yourself to stop, to funny strategies, but they might only last so long and then they stop working.
How I help with disordered eating.
I help you with the reasons that are causing your disordered eating. The issues you experienced in childhood. The issues that you may not even know about that are causing you to overeat.
I use a range of therapy techniques integrated together to help you get the best outcome. I work in a humanistic way, which means looking at the whole of you. Looking at everything causing your eating.
If we only work on the eating habits, it is not a long-term strategy. We would only be applying strategies to manage your eating. Your eating issue might get better in the short term, but if we do not work on the underlying causes, your eating issue could well find a way back into your life. I am guessing you want change and want to change for the long term?
What happens during a therapy session for Disordered eating?
Initally we will have a conversation, mostly likely over zoom, so that we get the opportunity to discuss further what is troubling you. You can find out how therapy can be suited to you and how it could work for you. It also gives you the opportunity to ask as many questions as you need.
During sessions, we may discuss a particular eating habit, or something else in your life that is bothering you or has bothered you in the past. I will listen, and help you untangle it. It can be like a sounding board, a problem-solving workshop or just a safe space for you to unload what’s on your mind in a non-judgmental, empathetic, and compassionate space.
If this sounds like this could help you, you can book in using the link.