Disordered eating is a term used when someone doesn’t meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder. This could look like your health or behaviours not being seen as severe enough for a diagnosis. But, this doesn’t mean that your relationship to food and body isn’t causing you a significant amount of distress.

Your pain and struggle are real, whether you have a diagnosis or not.

If you’re living with an eating disorder or disordered eating, you may:

• Over-eat when you’re feeling anxious, bored, sad, angry, etc.

• Hide or eat food in secret

• Spend minutes, maybe hours, checking your body in the mirror

• Limit the amount of food you eat in a day, and you may bypass or no longer have hunger cues

• Exercise, throw up, or use other strategies to compensate for what you ate

• Check your weight multiple times per week, maybe even daily, and any fluctuations impact your mood and self-confidence

• Have a very strict diet and exercise plan, eating only “healthy” foods

• Avoid environments where there’s food or your body may be seen (e.g., not going to restaurants or avoiding pools)

• Go through phases where your relationship to food and body feels stable, but then a few months later it feels like it’s taken over your life again

• Keep your challenges a secret from everyone you know, leaving you feeling a deep sense of loneliness and shame

You don’t need a diagnosis to seek support or to feel like your relationship to food and body is “bad enough” to get help.

While often times our perception of our body can be a significant part of eating disorders and disordered eating, it isn’t the only aspect. Through my training and work, I began to understand that eating disorders and disordered eating may be tools people learned to use to cope with overwhelming experiences in their lives. That stressful day at work, difficult conversation with a loved one, moment that startled you, or promotion you wanted can all create feelings that you may not have the capacity to hold, so you may turn to eating disorder or disordered eating behaviours to try and comfort yourself.

This is the “why” behind my approach to counselling for eating disorders and disordered eating. I intentionally create space to explore your relationship to food and your body, while also looking at other areas that may be impacting your recovery, including interpersonal relationship challenges, life transitions, anxiety, depression, and trauma. We will work to understand what the eating disorder/disordered eating may be helping you cope with, while developing new skills to help you turn towards it less, building a life that feels more fulfilling and aligned with who you are.