Eating disorder or weight problems

• Do you have a problem with binge eating or purging?
• Do you weigh much less than you should and are you excessively worried about being or becoming fat?

We live in a society that is obsessed with weight and body image but most people do not have an eating disorder.

With bulimia and binge eating disorders, your overeating episodes feel completely out of control. You feel terrible about yourself after a binge. You may try to compensate by getting rid of the calories through vomiting, starving, laxatives or excessive exercising. You are stuck in a disturbing, self-destructive, cycle of bingeing.

When suffering from anorexia nervosa, the terror of getting fat means that you will go to any lengths to lose and keep off weight. Perhaps your weight is now so low that people have told you that they are worried about how thin you look, but you still feel too fat. Your eating behaviour goes well beyond normal dieting to unhealthy weight loss.

• Each individual with an eating disorder has unique characteristics and should be thoroughly assessed.
• Every person suffering from an eating disorder would benefit from connecting with a skilled psychotherapist.