Binge Eating Disorder
Is my relationship with food and my body becoming a battle?
Maybe you binge in secret, or restrict, or can't stop thinking about weight. Maybe you feel guilty after eating, over-exercise or purge. Part of you wants things to change while another part feels stuck, and perhaps nobody around you knows how hard it really is.
You're not alone, and support is available. Eating disorders can be exhausting and frightening, for the person living with one and often for the people who love them.
What is an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are complex emotional and psychological struggles that go well beyond food. Eating patterns, exercise or body image can become ways of coping with difficult emotions, anxiety, low self-esteem, perfectionism or feeling out of control. What begins as an attempt to feel safer or calmer can slowly become something that controls you instead. Shame, secrecy and guilt are common, and nobody has to be "sick enough" to deserve help.
What types are there?
What is binge eating disorder?
Eating large amounts quickly, often in private, followed by guilt, shame, regret or feeling out of control. It isn't a lack of willpower. It's often closely linked to emotional stress, anxiety, low mood or using food to cope.
What is anorexia nervosa?
An intense fear of gaining weight alongside restrictive eating. Food, exercise and body image can swallow enormous amounts of mental energy, often with perfectionism, anxiety, social withdrawal and pressure to meet impossible standards. It's very different from a simple loss of appetite.
What is bulimia nervosa?
Cycles of binge eating followed by attempts to compensate, such as vomiting (bulimia), over-exercising, restricting food or using laxatives, often bringing shame, secrecy and emotional exhaustion.
What is body dysmorphic disorder?
An intense preoccupation with perceived flaws in your appearance, even when others don't notice them. Body dysmorphic disorder can seriously affect confidence and everyday life.
What is orthorexia?
Orthorexia is a preoccupation with eating only "clean," "healthy" or "pure" food. Wanting to eat well isn't a problem, but for some people the focus becomes so rigid it creates anxiety, restriction and distress.
Who can develop an eating disorder?
Anyone. They're often associated with women and girls, but more men, boys and people of all ages are affected. You don't have to fit a stereotype, and eating disorders aren't defined by body size. Many people struggle silently for years.
How can therapy help?
Recovery involves far more than changing eating habits. Therapy gives you a supportive space to understand the patterns underneath, whether that's anxiety, perfectionism, trauma, low self-esteem, shame, emotional overwhelm or feeling out of control, and to change how you relate to yourself, your feelings and your body.
Support can help with binge or emotional eating, restrictive eating and food anxiety, bulimia or purging, body image concerns, food guilt and obsessive thoughts, low self-esteem and perfectionism, and anxiety linked to food or weight. Every person's experience is different, so I tailor support to you.
Is online therapy available?
Yes. Sessions run via FaceTime, Zoom, WhatsApp or Messenger, wherever you are. All you need is a phone, tablet or computer, a reliable internet connection and somewhere private.
How do we start?
Email me or call 0409 254 500 and we can arrange a chat.
When I met Liz, I was in a low point in my life.
I was been in conflict with myself, fighting constantly to convince myself that I wasn't fat, stupid, boring, lazy, and so on. I was trying to control everything around me to prove that I wasn't fat, stupid, boring, lazy...
I’ve always had a dodgy relationship with food between binge eating and dieting so I believed that if I could find a way to lose weight I would regain my confidence.
Liz made me face the fact that my eating disorder was only a symptom of deeper malfunction and that hypnotherapy was not going to help me deal with my anxiety and desire of control which was the main fuel for eating disorder so we started a Thrive Programme.
Step by step she guided me and helped me rebuilt the way I think and how I manage my emotions, how I manage my relationship with people and food and myself! This voice in my head can be such a pain in the a$$ sometime.
The changes didn't happen overnight. It was tiny steps at a time and to be honest for a long time I kept focusing on the last 10% of the journey, the last details. But then it hit me. I did look back at how far I've been and realised how much weight I lost since the beginning of the journey, and that I couldn't even remember the last time I binged.
I feel so much lighter now because I managed to let go of that desire for control and stop the internal conflict. I wouldn't say that I am 100% symptoms free but I know how to manage them and I stop beating myself up so the impact on my life is minimal.
There are books, forum etc that tells you how to build a healthy relationship with food, how to build self-esteem and so on but what Liz did was being with me on the journey, giving me advice on what I should focus on, giving me tools as well to manage my thoughts and feelings, given my personal circumstances. If I didn't met Liz, I would probably still be hovering between good and bad days but now I don’t have many bad days and I know what to do when I have them.
- RC, Melbourne