What Are Eating Disorders?

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Eating disorders are sustained less by food and more by cycles of shame, isolation, avoidance, and fear.

Well-intentioned responses can unintentionally reinforce the disorder.

Evidence-based therapies such as CBT focus on addressing underlying emotions and beliefs driving behaviours.

When we talk about eating disorders, we often talk about food. But in my experience, they are far more about isolation than what’s on the plate.

Again and again, I see how these illnesses quietly shrink someone’s world. Shame creeps in. Fear grows. People begin to believe painful things about themselves — that they are too much, not enough, or would be better if they looked a certain way. These beliefs underpin powerful feelings, and the eating disorder behaviours become a way of coping. The behaviours are almost the outcome, a manifestation of what is happening underneath.

Shame keeps people stuck. It tells them not to speak and convinces them others won’t understand. Eating disorders thrive in secrecy. I’ve worked with many people whose partners, parents, or closest friends had no idea what was happening. And you can’t always tell by looking. Not all eating disorders are visible. Someone might wear baggy clothes, someone else may appear a healthy weight while struggling intensely with restriction, bingeing, or purging. With avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder, a person may simply be labelled a “picky eater.”

However, when........

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