Orthorexia Blog

Managing body concerns during the summer

Summer, a period that involves lighter clothing and greater body exposure, along with the pressure to acquire a ‘bikini body’, can seriously reinforce issues such as eating disorders and negative body image. If you are faced with such a challenge, it is really important to prepare accordingly and support yourself during this period. Continue Reading

Common Causes of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

The vast majority of people suffering from BDD have been found to have experienced early emotional trauma, in the form of bullying. This can range from being (seemingly humorously) teased to being verbally and possibly physically attacked, in an openly aggressive way. Continue Reading

Therapists explain common causes of anorexia nervosa

One of the most consistent findings in anorexia sufferers, from a personality perspective, is the characteristic of perfectionism -you may have rigid, rather uncompromising, often exclusive focus on achieving particularly high goals that you set for yourself, and on being and appearing as 'the'best' at what you do. Continue Reading

Yoga and Eating Disorders -  Part I

In my eating disorders practice, I have met -and continue to meet regularly- many clients who were yoga practitioners. Their involvement in yoga would range from occasionally joining a class to being whole-heartedly devoted to a daily practice, or sadhana, while some of them were also yoga teachers. There are certain elements of contemporary Western yoga practice that make it both more attractive to eating disorders’ clients, but also more distabilising and potentially fortifying of their unhelpful thought and behavioural patterns. Continue Reading

The emotional side of Eating Disorders -  Part II

How can therapy help eating disorders’ clients learn to healthily and effectively deal with their emotions? First and foremost, the individual who has developed such rigid and negative attitudes towards emotions and their expression needs to be given explicit permission to feel; to be encouraged to allow their inner experience to be revealed and openly shared in an environment free of judgment and filled with respect. In order for this to happen, it is important for the client to be assisted in recognizing, challenging and eventually eliminating the unhelpful beliefs about themselves, and their needs and emotions that cause them to neglect their feelings in the first place. Continue Reading

The emotional side of Eating Disorders -  Part I

One of the most important realisations that I reached, from the very early days of my involvement in the therapy and healing world, was that, in our culture, we are never taught how to deal with our emotions. As we grow up, we are encouraged to become good children, good students, good professionals, and we are shown very specific ways to achieve those states, but no one ever tells us what to do with those very intimate, particularly powerful and potentially overwhelming signals from our body, mind and heart. Continue Reading

 

Page 1 of 1