When an eating disorder is escalating — whether you are experiencing it yourself or watching someone you love deteriorate — the instinct is often to seek the most intensive intervention available. For many people, that means searching for inpatient eating disorder treatment, residential treatment or eating disorder hospitals, on the assumption that a more contained…
If you are a parent of a teenager, you have almost certainly noticed it — a comment about their stomach in front of the mirror, a refusal to wear something they used to love, a new and intense interest in what they eat or how they look. Your instinct is telling you to pay attention….
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are both serious eating disorders, but they are not the same condition. Understanding how they differ — in terms of behaviours, physical effects and psychological drivers — is not about labelling or categorising. It is about helping people to better understand what they, or a loved one, are experiencing. In…
When concern about eating well begins to dominate your thoughts, narrow your social life and leave you anxious rather than nourished, it may have shifted from a positive intention into something more distressing. This is the territory of orthorexia — an increasingly recognised pattern in which a focus on food quality becomes rigid, all-consuming and…
Orthorexia nervosa describes an increasingly rigid preoccupation with “healthy” or “clean” eating that, over time, begins to cause significant psychological distress and functional impairment. It is not a formal diagnosis in the DSM-5 or ICD-11, but it is a well-recognised clinical presentation — one that eating disorder specialists encounter regularly and that responds to structured,…
Deciding to seek help for an eating disorder – whether for yourself or someone you care about – is a significant step. It often comes with another difficult question: where should I go for help? The NHS provides essential eating disorder services across the UK, and for many people it is the first point of…
Our Clinical Director, Dr Bryony Bamford, recently joined the Relational Lives Podcast for an episode titled “Loving Someone in Denial: Eating Disorders and the Strain on Relationships.” In this thoughtful conversation, Bryony discusses how eating disorders can affect relationships, particularly when a loved one may be struggling to recognise or accept the seriousness of their difficulties. The episode explores…
Most conversations about body image difficulties focus on thinness, weight loss and restriction. But for many men, the distress runs in a different direction: toward size, muscularity and a relentless sense of not being big enough, lean enough or strong enough. This experience is real, it is common, and it is significantly underrecognised. Men who…
Anorexia nervosa affects people of all genders, ages and backgrounds. Yet the persistent misconception that eating disorders are exclusively, or primarily, female conditions continues to shape public understanding, media representation and, critically, who feels entitled to seek help. For men experiencing anorexia, this misconception creates a specific and significant barrier. When the condition is framed…
The binge-purge cycle is one of the most misunderstood aspects of eating disorders, and one of the most distressing to live with. People caught in this pattern often describe feeling trapped: driven to eat in a way that feels out of control, followed by an urgent need to compensate, followed by shame, followed by the…
When someone you care about is struggling with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), it can be difficult to know what to do. You can see that they are in distress, perhaps spending hours checking their appearance, avoiding social situations, or asking repeatedly whether something about their face or body looks “wrong”, but nothing you say seems…
Body Dysmorphic Disorder, BDD, is one of the most misunderstood conditions in mental health. People living with BDD often spend years convinced that what they see in the mirror is real: that their appearance flaw(s) are obvious and severe. Many people with BDD avoid seeking help because they fear being dismissed as vain or told…
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