3 Signs Your Obsession with Food is Actually an Eating Disorder
(and how to find the right therapist to help)
Struggling with food and body image is unfortunately common, especially for teens and young adult women. In the age of social media and constant content consumption, it is hard not to compare yourself to the perfectly curated images you’re seeing online. The diet fads of the 90s have turned into beautiful, clean, bright, soothing images of green juice, pilates, matching workout sets, and thin bodies. It calls itself “wellness” but can fuel a gnarly obsession with food and your body.
But where does it cross a line to eating disorder territory? It can be hard to tell when it is so normalized to desire weight loss and “wellness.”
As an eating disorder therapist who helps young adult women and teens recover from food obsession, body dysmorphia, anxiety, and perfectionism, I help my clients navigate this daily in my Orange County, California private practice. The pressures of growing up in California (especially the Orange County area) are immense when it comes to body image and dieting. Maybe it’s the high socioeconomic status of the Orange County population, maybe it’s the close proximity to the glossy and glamorous Los Angeles. But as someone who grew up in Tustin, CA and now works with clients struggling with eating disorders in the OC, I can attest that the culture perpetuates thin idealism and diet culture.
Given my experiences helping women heal their eating disorders in the pressure cooker that is Southern California – this is what I’ve noticed as far as clear signs that your obsession with food might actually be an eating disorder.
You’re thinking about food and eating CONSTANTLY.
Are you thinking about food like all of the time? Planning your meals, obsessing over menus before you go out to eat, meticulously agonizing over what you will or won’t eat?
If you’re thinking about food and (importantly) controlling your food most of the day – this is a BIG sign that you may be struggling with disordered eating. Eating disorders are first and foremost MENTAL disorders. Even if you haven’t changed much as far as what you’re eating or how you’re behaving, if food thoughts are preoccupying your brain for most of the day and causing you major stress, you might have a problem with food.
In this case, eating disorder therapy would be super helpful. In my Tustin, CA practice, we work with clients both in-person and online throughout the state to challenge eating disorder thoughts and reduce the noise in your brain surrounding food and body image. Changing the way you think about eating will change the way you feel and behave around food. Therapy for eating disorders is really a game-changer.
2. You have strict rules around food and exercise.
Do you follow certain food rules? Like you can’t eat before or after certain hours of the day? Maybe you cut out certain food groups or never eat certain foods? You might be severely limiting portions or overly conscious about eating a certain number of calories. When you break a rule, do you totally freak out? This type of rigidity makes it hard to enjoy food or even engage socially around meals.
Any type of strict food rule is a massive sign that your relationship with food is disordered. Having such rigid ideas about what you should or shouldn’t eat disrupts your ability to listen to what your body actually needs and respond intuitively to your hunger.
Getting help in breaking these rules is what leads to food freedom – this is one of the most important goals in eating disorder therapy. My team of California therapists are experts in systematically helping you challenge these rules and giving you the tools to manage the stress and anxiety that come up as a result. Therapy is key to recognizing that these rules even exist, as often eating disorders lead you to believe your food rules are “healthy” and “normal.” A good eating disorder therapist will help you figure out the difference between having a healthful awareness of food and a disordered mindset.
3. You feel guilty or ashamed after eating.
Eating disorders and guilt are best friends. When you have a disordered mindset around food, it has the effect of “moralizing” your food choices. This means you categorize certain foods as “good” and others as “bad.” While this might seem super normal, it can impact your mental health significantly, leading to disordered eating behaviors. Why? Because when you eat a “bad food” you start seeing yourself as “bad.” This leads to immense guilt and shame.
Here’s the truth – food is neutral and holds no moral value. The food you eat has no bearing on your moral value as a human being. Believing that it does causes significant distress and totally wreaks havoc on your mental health. This is eating disorder territory.
You don’t need to feel guilty about eating a cookie or a donut. You also don’t need to feel superior because you chose to eat kale today! If you’re reading this and thinking, “That’s BS – I should feel guilty when I’m not ‘eating right,’” – uh oh. I would really recommend at least getting assessed by a qualified eating disorder therapist in your local area. If you’re in the state of California, give us a call here at SoCal Wellness Group.
This is all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eating disorders.
And there are many more signs that your food obsession is actually a significant issue that might be disordered eating.
If you feel called out by these signs, just know I have the most compassion in my heart for you and want to help you take the next step to healing. So how do you find the right therapist to treat your eating disorder?
Start Here: Do a local search for “eating disorder therapists near me.”
Don’t just work with any therapist. You want to be working with a therapist that is trained and specializes in eating disorders – this means your therapist has additional training above and beyond their graduate education in the treatment of eating disorders. Ask about this on your initial call!
I’d also recommend trying to see a therapist for in-person eating disorder therapy. Therapy online is a great option if you can’t find a qualified therapist in your area. However, as a therapist working in-person with clients in Tustin, CA, I’ve found my clients make the most progress when they have the accountability of a therapist that can meet in person weekly to assess the eating disorder issues coming up and observe any alarming physical changes you should be aware of for your own safety. If you’re in the Orange County area, I’d be happy to point you in the right direction to finding in-person eating disorder therapy that works for you.
If you made it to this point in the article, here is what I want you to know:
When you have an obsession with food and it feels like a problem – that is all you need to know to deserve reaching out for support. If it feels like an issue, it IS one.
And you are worthy of help and worthy of therapy.
