Eating Disorders
"I can't keep doing this AND I can't stop!"
Think about your attitudes and behaviors around your weight and eating habits. Do you experience:
- Eating when you are not hungry
- Not eating when you are hungry
- Dissatisfaction with your body shape and/or size
- Consuming large quantities of food in a very short period of time and feeling out of control while doing it
- Refusing to eat because of your fear of gaining weight
- Being preoccupied with food and weight
- Eating in secret
- Throwing up after eating
- Excessive exercising
- Family and friends commenting about your weight and/or eating habits
- Lying to yourself and others about how much you have eaten/not eaten
- Feeling out of control when you eat certain foods
- Feelings of shame and guilt about your eating and/or your weight
- Knowing that what you’re doing is harmful, yet being unable to stop
- Pre/post bariatric surgery problems
If any of these statements describe you, you need help. You deserve it, and asking for it shows how strong you are, even though you may not believe you have that strength right now.
Eating disorders and disordered eating are disruptive to daily living at the minimum and life threatening at the maximum. Individuals of any age can benefit from professional help. No one deserves to live with these very treatable diseases. Getting treatment is not easy, nor is not getting it. If you are struggling with your eating habits, we can help restore you and your family to physical, emotional and spiritual health.
Types of Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.
Binge Eating Disorder
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a type of eating disorder not otherwise specified and is characterized by recurrent binge eating without the regular use of compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.
Definitions taken from the National Eating Disorders Association website: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
Most people are familiar with these disorders. Now let’s talk about a little known condition:
Orthorexia
Orthorexia is an obsession with eating only pure, organic, non-processed foods.
Sounds like a great thing, eh? BEWARE. While it seems desirable to eat only healthy foods, for some, it can lead to an obsession that causes severe weight loss and a host of life problems. Orthorexia is not yet a clinical diagnosis, yet we are treating an increasing number of people who have taken healthy eating to an extreme. Not only have they developed medical complications as a result of the obsession, they also suffer from these sorts of problems:
Health Problems: People with Orthorexia often develop malnutrition. As the obsession grows, food choices shrink. Getting enough protein is often the biggest problem. Malnutrition, even from healthy foods, can lead to unhealthy weight loss, heart problems, and poor brain function.
Relationship strains: People with Orthorexia often push their beliefs on others. They won’t eat certain foods, go to certain restaurants, and insist others adopt their “pure” eating habits. Friends and family become frustrated and will often distance themselves from the person who has become moody, argumentative and difficult to be around.
Financial issues: Eating organic, unprocessed foods is very expensive. Few people have the financial means to eat only these foods.
Time constraints: People obsessed with eating only healthy foods often find themselves going to several grocery stores to get the limited kinds of food they will eat. Then there is the issue of finding recipes and preparing the food…
Depression and anxiety: Taking any behavior to the extreme causes problems. Depression and anxiety often result from trying to eat perfectly. “Did I eat too much? Did my meal have impure ingredients? Did the pesticides from the neighbor’s garden get onto my garden?”
With our weight and healthy eating obsessed society, we are likely to hear more about Orthorexia. This is a potentially serious problem that can lead to an eating disorder.
If you think you suffer from any of the above issues, please contact The Hull Institute. Our therapists and dietitians can help.
Do people recover?
Yes! With help, recovery is possible. Our experience is that eating disorders and obesity are very treatable diseases and people do get well. The disorders are not just about food, they are about how we have learned to manage life’s many complexities and challenges. Through creative, holistic and individualized treatment, we help adolescents, adults and families develop lasting, healthy and rewarding lifestyles.
Hope for parents
For parents, we understand your fears and frustrations. We will work with you as closely as the adult client allows, and even closer if your child is a minor, and we’ll help you move quickly to restore your daughter or son to mental and physical health. Along the way, we’ll also help you learn to cope and take better care of yourself through this difficult time.
For more information on how we can help please contact us.