Eating Disorders
Which services can help with eating disorders:
Eating disorders are a range of psychological conditions that cause unhealthy eating habits to develop. They might start with an obsession with food, body weight, or body shape.
Whether your eating disorder is restricting food, food binging, food purging or over-eating, Psychotherapy can be a long term solution for you.
Our innovative care strategies at For Health's Sake will help you. Our Psychotherapists offer free phone consultations, so book with whoever you think would be a good fit for you to learn more about how they can help you and to see if you would be a good fit.
Common Eating Disorders include:
Anorexia nervosa
This is likely the most well-known eating disorder. It generally develops during adolescence or young adulthood and tends to affect more women than men.
People with anorexia generally view themselves as overweight, even if they’re dangerously underweight. They tend to constantly monitor their weight, avoid eating certain types of foods, and severely restrict their calories.
Common symptoms of anorexia nervosa include:
- being considerably underweight compared with people of similar age and height
- very restricted eating patterns
- intense fear of gaining weight or persistent behaviours to avoid gaining weight, despite being underweight
- a relentless pursuit of thinness and unwillingness to maintain a healthy weight
- a heavy influence of body weight or perceived body shape on self-esteem
- a distorted body image, including denial of being seriously underweight
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms are also often present. For instance, many people with anorexia are often preoccupied with constant thoughts about food, and some may obsessively collect recipes or hoard food.
Such individuals may also have difficulty eating in public and exhibit a strong desire to control their environment, limiting their ability to be spontaneous.
Anorexia is officially categorized into two subtypes — the restricting type and the binge eating and purging type.
Individuals with the restricting type lose weight solely through dieting, fasting, or excessive exercise.
Individuals with the binge eating and purging type may binge on large amounts of food or eat very little. In both cases, after they eat, they purge using activities like vomiting, taking laxatives or diuretics, or exercising excessively.
Anorexia can be very damaging to the body. Over time, individuals living with it may experience the thinning of their bones, infertility, brittle hair and nails, and the growth of a layer of fine hair all over their body.
In severe cases, anorexia can result in heart, brain, or multi-organ failure and death.
Bulimia Nervosa
This condition, bulimia nervosa, occurs when someone is repeatedly binging on large amounts of food and then purging it. Purging behaviours include forcing oneself to throw up, over-exercising, and using diet pills and laxatives. Both binging and purging behaviours are dangerous, and together they can quickly lead to dangerous physical symptoms.
Muscle Dysmorphia
Unlike most types of eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia tends to affect more men than women. The disorder is characterized by a disruptive obsession with musculature and physique. The individual will fixate on obtaining the ‘perfect’ form of musculature.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
BED is characterized by episodes of binging on large amounts of food. A binge describes when someone consumes an excessive amount of food within a period of two hours. Binges are accompanied by a trance-like state, feeling guilty and ashamed afterwards, and weight gain. Unlike bulimia, BED does not usually include any purging behaviours. Typically, those affected by BED are overweight or obese because of the binging.
Compulsive Overeating (COE)
This disorder is similar to binge eating disorder. What makes COE unique is that the individual doesn’t binge in spurts, but rather eats large amounts of food all day long.
To consult with one of our Downtown (Queen St West), Leslieville (Queen St East) or Kingsway (Etobicoke) therapists, call (416) 551-7100 or click here to make an appointment.