What is anorexia?

Anorexia nervosa is a serious mental health condition affecting attitudes and behaviour towards eating and food, which can affect both males and females. People suffering from anorexia issues tend to have a crippling fear of becoming ‘fat’ and often struggle to see their bodies as they truly are, with most sufferers wrongly believing that they are fat when they are not. People with anorexia may keep their weight as low as possible by restricting the food that they eat, making themselves vomit, and exercising too much, which has really harmful consequences for their physical and mental health.

People suffering from anorexia often hide their behaviour from loved ones. Common symptoms of anorexia include:

• Missing meals, eating very little or avoiding certain types of food
• Obsessively counting calories in food
• Leaving the table immediately after eating in order to vomit
• Taking laxatives and appetite suppressants
• Physical problems such as feeling lightheaded or dizzy, hair loss or dry skin
• Repeated weighing and checking one’s body in the mirror

Individuals suffering from anorexia might also suffer from a range of other emotional difficulties such as anxiety, depression and self harm.

If you feel that any of the above applies to you or someone you know, therapy alongside medical treatment can be a huge help.

Which therapies might help?

• Psychiatric management
• Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)
• Schema therapy (ST)
• Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT)

Due to the complexity of the disorder it is often recommended that treatment needs to be multi-disciplinary attending to the individual’s mental, emotional and physical well-being.

The team at My Online Therapy has considerable experience of working with eating disorders.