Eating Issues and Finding Help
Why the term ‘eating difficulties?’
EDEN uses the term eating difficulties to refer to a wide range of women’s and men’s body and eating experiences and practices. This includes the clinically defined eating disorders anorexia and bulimia as well as issues such as eating past fullness, excessive exercising, restricting, purging, body dissatisfaction and yo-yo dieting.
EDEN believes it is useful to view all eating and body image issues as a reflection of the anxiety which food and body size hold for many people in societies where being thin is idealised and being fat is abhorred. The severity or extent of these problems can be influenced by gendered expectations, family experiences, a background of abuse, major life stressors, unrealistic pressures to achieve, developmental or life-stage challenges (e.g., puberty, pregnancy, menopause) and disruption to normal eating patterns.
If you or someone you care about is struggling with any kind of eating or body image difficulty and you don’t know what to do you are welcome to contact us.
Services and Resources we provide
- Resource centre and library
- Telephone support
- Referral services
- Services for schools
- Services for tertiary students
- Support groups
- Newsletter
- Community events
- Community education
- Advocacy
- Individual counselling services
How to recognise an eating issue
With an eating or body image issue you may:
- Feel out of control around food
- Feel nervous and guilty about eating
- Find yourself continually on a diet
- Find yourself constantly thinking about eating or not eating
- Eat according to a set of rules that you have created and not according to when you feel hungry
- Attempt to get rid of food by vomiting or taking laxatives
- Starve yourself for periods of time
- Use weight loss medications and supplements inappropriately
- Exercise excessively
- Feel compelled to exercise even if you are tired, unwell, injured
- Binge on food followed by feelings of anxiety, guilt or self-disgust
- Not be able to eat until you have exercised
- Feel that your body is never quite ‘right’
- Feel terrified of gaining weight
- Believe that everything would be alright if only you had the ‘ideal’ figure
Is it Time for me to get Help?
Consider your responses to these questions
- Is this a problem for me a lot of the time?
- What changes have I noticed lately?
- Does this stop me from doing the things I would otherwise do?
- Does it cause me to feel bad about myself or put myself down?
- Do I feel unable to talk to anyone about this?
- Do I feel ashamed of this?
- Does this isolate me from other people?
- Does it diminish my quality of life?
If the answer is “yes” to one or more of these questions it maybe time to seek help.
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