What is eating disorder?

Eating disorder is the general name given to a group of disorders that can occur in both men and women and negatively affect attitudes and behaviour towards eating and food. The pressures of modern society can make a person feel very insecure about their appearance and give them a distorted view of what their body should look like and what it does currently look like. If you spend a lot of time focusing on your weight and find yourself making unhealthy choices, such as over-exercising, restricting the food you eat and/or obsessively calorie counting, or other behaviours such as purging to control your weight, you may be suffering from an eating disorder.

There are different types of eating disorder with the most common being:

Anorexia nervosa – When a person tries to keep their weight as low as possible, often by excessively restricting the food they are eating and/or exercising too much

Bulimia – When a person goes through periods of binge eating and is then deliberately sick or uses laxatives to control their weight

Binge eating disorder – When a person eats large amounts of food in a short time and feels unable to control themselves

Some people might be diagnosed with an eating disorder that has a mixed presentation of these symptoms which is referred to as EDNOS, eating disorder not otherwise specified.

Although there are some symptoms that are specific to the type of eating disorder, the most common symptoms of an eating disorder are:

• Negative perception of your own body
• Constantly weighing yourself
• Dissatisfaction with body parts
• Food restriction
• Compulsive exercise
• Need for perfection
• Purging
• Fear of being fat
• Excess eating

These attitudes and behaviours can really damage your mental and physical help and it is important to seek help if you feel that the above applies to you or someone you know. If you are suffering from an eating disorder depending on its type and severity you might require a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment, but therapy can greatly help to improve your quality of life.

Which therapies might help?

• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Dialectical behaviour therapy
• Cognitive analytic therapy

The team at My Online Therapy are highly skilled and experienced in providing expert treatment for individuals suffering from an eating disorder.