Disordered Eating

Food, weight, and self-esteem are not easy topics to discuss especially if you know that the person you have in mind already feels embarrassed or shame about these issues. But that may be a good reason to begin talking about it: to help them become less embarrassed and move toward change. It takes courage to start such a conversation, but it may be a blessing that you hadn’t expected. If you do choose to talk about it, the key to unlocking that conversation is how you approach them. If done with sensitivity and care, chances are good that it will go well and have a positive outcome.

Disordered eating may include restrictive eating, compulsive eating, or irregular or inflexible eating patterns. Dieting is one of the most common forms of disordered eating.

Interestingly, many confuse eating disorder with disordered eating. It is not the same! Eating disorder is a clinical diagnosis , and disordered eating refers to abnormal eating patterns that do not meet the criteria for an eating disorder diagnosis. Someone with an eating disorder may exhibit disordered eating behaviours, but not all people with disordered eating will be diagnosed with an eating disorder. Let me explain.

Some examples of disordered eating are,

• Eating for reasons other than nourishment or hunger
• Eating to deal with stress or difficult emotions
• Engaging in calorie restriction, binging, or purging irregularly or on a limited basis
• Avoiding major food groups
• Only eating certain foods

Daily, we all process thousands of thoughts. Many of our thoughts are automatic, and we don’t usually stop to examine whether they are facts or whether they are even useful.

Dysfunctional thoughts, also known as cognitive distortions, are thoughts that are inaccurate and destructive. These distortions can contribute to problematic eating behaviours such as restriction, bingeing, purging, and excessive exercise. Distorted thoughts play a role in disordered eating behaviours, which can eventually lead to the development of an eating disorder. Disordered eating treatments often focus on changing these underlying thought patterns to help improve mental well-being and eating behaviours.

Mr Vivek S. Practitioner CBT & NLP | Gestalt Master