Why Choose Therapy?
- Are you sick and tired of obsessing about food and your body?
- Do you hate what you see when you look in the mirror?
- Is your anxiety and depression causing you to feel trapped?
- Do you struggle with restricting, binging, purging, or over-exercising?
- Are your negative thoughts about your body keeping you from enjoying life?
Are you someone who on the outside appears to have it all together? No one knows you have a secret struggle. But, underneath you know how desperate and trapped you feel.
You are the one who wonders how things have gotten so “out of control.” Because you can eat normally in public, and no one knows anything is different about you. But they don’t know about the binges of a jar of peanut butter, bread, bags of chips at night. They don’t know about the painful aching stomach, the guilt feelings and self-loathing when trying to go to sleep.
This is for the person who would love to eat normally but finding that the “food rules” in your head are taking over. Just the thought of eating at a restaurant, brings on intense anxiety, fear and a false smile, while counting calories in your head.
Maybe you struggle with exercising even though it has begun to hurt. You would like to rest more often but that brings on more anxiety. Sometimes, you feel like a total slave to the gym.
Maybe your struggle is with binging and purging. Each time you tell yourself, this is the last binge, but you feel exhausted and unable to stop. But then you feel disgusted and ashamed. Your throat hurts, your cheeks swell, and you wonder if anyone will pick up on your secret.
But I really don’t have a problem you say. The voice in your head tells you that, “You don’t look sick,” or “It’s not that bad,” or “I can stop any time I want.”
It’s important to be aware that eating disorders can impact people of all races, ages, genders, weights, and body sizes. The voice in your head is not your friend, instead it will tell you anything that keeps you trapped in the distorted thinking and behaviors.
Maybe you tell yourself that you can handle this on your own, or that you simply need to have “more will-power.”
Eating disorders are not a choice and they aren’t about “lacking willpower.” They are serious mental illnesses. No one would choose to binge until they feel physically ill, to purge and feel disgusted with themselves, to have constant thoughts about food and body, to have bradycardia and other health complications, to lose friends and to isolate themselves, or to be unable to eat at a restaurant without feelings of anxiety and dread.
You Deserve to Seek Help
No matter what your mind is telling you, you deserve to seek help from a trained professional. Eating disorders are treatable illnesses and recovery is possible. No one should have to struggle with an eating disorder alone.
Seeking help when you are struggling is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Living with an eating disorder can feel miserable. It may give you a temporary “high” or feeling of “comfort,” however in the long run, it only leads to increased anxiety and unhappiness.
Maybe part of you is scared or unsure if you even want to let go of your eating disorder. This is entirely normal. However, you’ve been doing things the same way and continuing to have the same result. What if you tried something different? If you find that you hate your life in recovery, you can always go back to your eating disorder. However, once recovered, I don’t think that you will want to.
You deserve a life that is free from constant thoughts about food and your body. Take the first step to reach out for help. It will be worth it.
