Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions characterized by harmful eating behaviors, distorted body image, and/or concerns about weight or shape. They can have both psychological and physical consequences.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the most common types based on the DSM:

• Anorexia Nervosa – Involves extreme food restriction, intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image, often leading to severe weight loss and health complications.

• Bulimia Nervosa – Characterized by cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors like purging, excessive exercise, or fasting to prevent weight gain.

• Binge-Eating Disorder (BED) – Involves recurrent episodes of eating large amounts of food in a short period, often accompanied by feelings of loss of control, shame, or guilt, but without purging behaviors.

• Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) – Marked by extreme picky eating or avoidance of certain foods, leading to nutritional deficiencies, but not driven by body image concerns.

• Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED) – A category for individuals who experience significant eating disorder symptoms but don’t fit neatly into the above diagnoses.

Eating disorders often require a combination of medical, nutritional, and psychological support for recovery.

The Basics

Hmm…I might be struggling with some of this.

Let’s get into it.

Eating disorders (EDs) are complex diagnoses. They almost never travel alone; as in, eating disorders have a high co-morbidity rate. You will almost certainly find ED with depression and anxiety; these are baseline co-morbidities. EDs can exist with other mood disorders, anxiety disorders (like OCD), personality disorders (think borderline), and trauma-based disorders (PTSD, for sure).

So yeah…complex.

As a therapist, it is my duty to support you emotionally and psychologically as much as I can while you work towards recovery at the outpatient level of care. EDs, however, impact more than your mental health; they take a huge toll on your physical health too.

Eating disorders often require a combination of medical, nutritional, and psychological support for recovery.

Therefore, it is crucial to me, as a clinician, that you take responsibility of your care beyond mental health.

I’m talking about making sure you have an outpatient team that includes a registered dietitian AND a medical professional that has experience in working with eating disorders.

I provide not only individual therapy sessions, but also meal support sessions virtually and/or in-person for those who struggle with EDs or disordered eating.
But for these meal support sessions to work, it is expected that you already have an outpatient team OR you are willing to build one while working with me.