Food or Eating Issues

When is it time to get help?

Small weight fluctuations are normal and achieving a “perfect” size or weight may not be attainable for everyone but maintaining a healthy weight range is important for our physical health and mental health. Are you struggling to lose weight or control your food intake? Are you preoccupied with food – what you can or can’t eat? Do you find it impossible to stick to a healthy diet or are you stuck in a cycle of depriving yourself then falling off the wagon to go on to binge on unhealthy foods? If you are feeling repulsed by how you look, or how much you eat, this is likely affecting your self-esteem and possibly relationships. If your weight or eating issues are beginning to interfere with your daily activities (for example, you don’t want to go out in case you run into people who haven’t seen you this size, or you aren’t interested in physical intimacy because you’re embarrassed about your body) then it’s time to seek help! It’s important to note that people don’t have to be overweight to have an unhealthy relationship with food.

Food and eating issues treatment methods

Treating an unhealthy relationship with food can look different for different people. If this is a coping mechanism for a past trauma, then treating the trauma is the place to start. If it’s a symptom of depression or anxiety, then those need to be looked at as well. Your therapist will talk with you about your individual circumstances. Generally speaking, there are several therapies that have been effective in helping clients to overcome their problematic behaviours with food:

• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach to treatment that focuses on how people’s thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence their behaviour and how they perceive themselves.
• Emotionally focused therapy is based on observations and experience. It looks at emotions and emotional intelligence, which helps support stronger and more secure relationships by helping better understand how our actions impact others, and how our emotions drive our interaction.
• Hypnosis and hypnotherapy can allow clients to travel deeper into the unconscious or subconscious to look at and work with issues and ideas perhaps inaccessible otherwise. It’s like guided daydreaming: a form of relaxed concentration.