Overcome eating disorders

Do you have an eating disorder such as bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa? Do you binge on food? Perhaps you feel your eating pattern is out of control and wish to stop the behaviour? Angela Jullings has had much experience with assisting clients practicing bulimia and anorexia in addressing the underlying causes and change their behaviours and usage of food.

   What is bulimia?

Practising bulimia involves consuming large amounts of food (binge eating) and then ridding oneself of the food and calories (purge) by fasting, excessive exercise, vomiting or the use of laxatives. The behaviour often serves to reduce stress, relieve anxiety and can be a diversion from other emotions or thoughts. The behaviour results from an excessive concern with weight control and self-image as the person is unduly influenced by their body shape, size and weight in their evaluation of themselves.

   What is anorexia?

Anorexia is Greek meaning “loss of appetite” which is not entirely accurate as only in the late stages of anorexia do people tend to lose their appetites. Anorexia is characterised by an intense fear of weight gain, which leads anorexics to deny their hunger and literally starve themselves.

The person practicing anorexia will be significantly underweight, perhaps 15% below the recognised average for their height, age and frame. Weight loss may actually increase the fear and the symptoms. The anorexic has a distorted body image and may feel fat. Some, however, know they are underweight but wish to dissociate from individual body parts which they perceive as being too fat. As with the person practicing bulimia, the person practicing anorexia forms their self-worth through their bodily image.
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   What causes it?

Eating disorders may evolve over a period of time and can involve many contributing factors. Angela’s experience is that all eating behaviours are a form of distraction and a coping strategy for emotional issues. Sometimes the eating binges, for example, can take the focus and time away from having to think about disturbing emotional issues. The purges, vomiting, are also a way of taking back control after the out of control eating. Many schools of thought believe that the rejection of food and the subsequent need of food represent the “push and pull” of an underlying cause at a more basic level.

It is common for the anorexic and bulimic to deal with life and their emotions through the use of food.

Sometimes a person becomes bulimic after practicing vomiting in order to keep their weight down. However, this kind of behaviour can then become a problem for them.

   How can Angela help me?

Angela sees the behaviour of bulimia and anorexia as a communication by the unconscious mind. The way in which the unconscious mind uses food and feels about food is indicative of an unresolved emotional issue. Angela will examine your relationship with food in terms of the triggers for your behaviour. Your coping strategies around food will be looked at as will the emotions involved.

The use of psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, cognitive and timeline therapy as well as NLP will be utilised with the outcome of changing your behaviour and relationship around food in mind. Self-esteem issues will be addressed to generate positive, feel-good results from which you can once more lead a healthy, resourceful and balanced life.