What should you do if you think you’re developing an eating disorder?

You’re probably reading this blog because you’re worried about your own or a loved one’s relationship with food. It can be overwhelming to reach out for support, so this is a great place to start. You also might want to consider reading our blog about eating disorder warning signs.

Regardless of what thoughts and behaviors you have, if your relationship with food, body or exercise is getting in the way of your life and values, you deserve support. 

Here are some ideas on what you should do if you think you’re developing an eating disorder:

Tell a trusted person.

Sharing your concerns with a trusted family member, friend, or colleague can be super helpful. Eating disorder thoughts and behaviors can feel isolating. So enlisting someone for support may help you feel less alone. You can also look into calling an eating disorder helpline if you do not have a trusted family member or friend.

Educate yourself on recovery.

You can start by visiting our Recovery Resources page. We list several books, Instagram accounts and podcasts to listen to. 

Follow recovery positive social media.

In addition to visiting our recovery resources page and following some of those instagram accounts, I’d recommend reading our blog about cultivating a positive relationship with social media. For many of us, it can be helpful to be intentional about social media use. How long you use it for. What accounts you follow. Monitoring emotions that pop up with social media use…etc. The first step, though, is absolutely cleaning your feed and removing or muting any accounts that overwhelm you.

Assemble your recovery team 

Working with a supportive recovery team is a great step to take in improving your relationship with food. At a minimum, a treatment team consists of an eating disorder dietitian, a doctor and a therapist.

Treatment can unfortunately be extremely inaccessible. Project HEAL offers scholarships for those in recovery. And some treatment centers are in network with Medicare, Tricare or Medicaid. Courage to Nourish is happy to support you in finding treatment options. Whether that is a referral out to a treatment center or someone in network with state insurance or working with you one on one. Our support group is also free, so contact us to learn more about it.

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PS. If you’re a clinician, head to this link to check out our eating disorder resources for providers. We have resources for therapists, doctors and more! 

Final Thoughts

Eating disorder recovery is overwhelming. But recovery is possible. We’d love to be a part of your recovery team. Courage to Nourish is a team of eating disorder recovery dietitians and nutritionists. We have office locations in Alexandria, Virginia. Columbia, Maryland. and College Park, Maryland. We offer virtual services across the state of Maryland. Virginia, Washington DC. Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

Please contact us for more information about our individual nutrition counseling sessions for eating disorders, Health at Every Size © and intuitive eating, as well as eating disorder support groups.