Why We Develop Disordered Eating

In life, there’s so much we can’t control. Our jobs, futures, friends and health can easily get sidelined, making us feel helpless. When you feel life spinning out of your grasp, you may reach for other things that you can control, such as how and what you eat.

Disordered eating largely comes from our desire to feel a sense of control. The results are tangible: we see a direct correlation between restricting and monitoring our eating and how our bodies respond. You feel power from being able to effect such change. It’s also important to acknowledge that eating disorders are also a by-product of colonial-based social pressures to attempt attaining a type of ‘perfection’ in the body that is not realistically attainable. The influence of  Western and patriarchal standards of beauty, youth and ability ( through marketing, social media and consumerism) can also exacerbate eating disorders; they do this by creating unattainable, unhealthy and painfully distorted expectations of what a healthy, ‘beautiful’ body looks like. These multifaceted factors can lead us to have damaging and painful relationships with our bodies and food.

The irony is the more we focus on eating, weight, and exercise, the easier it is to develop unhealthy patterns that can quickly spin out of control, leaving us worse off than we were before.

Disordered eating can also develop when we use food as a means of comfort. Some people turn to substances and others use food as a way to cope with challenges or trauma. “Binge” eating or overeating can impact our lives in negative ways as well.

A Healthy Approach To Healing from Eating Disorders

A safe, caring, non-judgmental space gives you the best opportunity to share your thoughts candidly and find productive solutions. In Psychotherapy practice, you will experience compassionate collaboration, meaning working with a therapist to determine which tools and skills will best make up the approach to your healing.

We examine the things in your life that make you feel out of control then we respond to those challenges by figuring out what you need to feel centred, aware, and in control of how you react to those challenges.

Each session will give you new tools for coping with life’s challenges- physical, emotional, and mental. By talking through your fears and concerns openly and honestly, you will arrive at new insights about how to overcome disordered eating patterns and find alternative ways to feel empowered.

Taking a holistic approach to treating your eating disorder is extremely effective. A combination of psychotherapy with visits to your GP, a holistic nutritionist and a naturopath, treats the whole person so you can approach your life strong in body and soul. Your therapist can support you in creating these connections.

Life will always throw us curveballs, but it’s up to us to determine how we react to them.