Understanding anorexia.
You can live a life free from anorexia
You may be unsure whether you have anorexia, but you are aware that there’s something not quite right about your relationship to food, eating and your body.
Whatever your situation, we know how hard it is to admit you’re struggling, and there’s likely a big part of you that doesn’t want to reach out for fear of what treatment will entail.
So, be proud of taking this first step.
With the right support, recovery from anorexia is possible
Anorexia is a complex mental illness, but it is treatable and recovery is possible.
It typically involves restrictive eating, where someone limits their food intake to a dangerous and often life-threatening degree.
Despite how it may seem, anorexia – like other eating disorders – is not just about food. Rather, there are often complex emotional underlying causes that prompt an individual to look outside of themselves to cope.
Respective, kindness and compassion
People living with anorexia can often feel a lot of guilt and shame associated with their illness and its symptoms.
This, in turn, can fuel the ‘critical voice’ of the illness, and keep them trapped further in their illness.
It is therefore vitally important that people are treated with respect, kindness and compassion as they navigate recovery.
There’s no ‘one way’ to have a problem
There is no ‘one way’ to have anorexia, but there are common behavioural patterns and emotional and cognitive characteristics that help with diagnosing the illness.
Anorexia typically involves restrictive eating, and an irrational fear of gaining weight and distorted body image can feed into a restricted relationship to food as someone attempts to maintain a low weight or strive to lose more.
Excessive exercise and binge/purge cycles – often associated with bulimia – may also factor as a means to compensate for any food eaten.
The preoccupation with food can lead to secrecy and self-conscious eating around other people; contributing towards social withdrawal and isolation.
It can be daunting to realise you have a problem, and that it might be bigger than yourself
Go gently as you navigate this experience, and know that you can always reach out, at any time.
Do these feel familiar?
Food and/or exercising has started to dictate life decisions
Preparing meals, and meals themselves, have become a challenge
Food ‘rituals’ in the preparation or eating of food
Tightly regulated and restricted eating
Social withdrawal and isolation
Preoccupation with size and body image
Insomnia or struggling to sleep/stay asleep
Low self-esteem and insecurity
Perfectionism, often at the expense of relationships
Co-occurring conditions, such as depression and anxiety
You are not alone. There is hope and recovery is possible.
To us, recovery is more than just an absence of symptoms.
It is a gradual process that won’t happen on any particular day but will deepen and strengthen over time.
Our commitment is to the individual and their journey, along with their support system of family, carers and friends.
Your journey with Orri.
Recover in person, online, or with a blend of both.
Online.
No matter your location, our online treatment is face-to-face recovery community at the click of a button.
In Person.
A safe space in central London for you to recover from your eating disorder. No matter where you are in your journey, we’re here to walk alongside you.
Blend.
Our Blend Programme is a unique programme for eating disorder recovery, combining both our in person and online treatment programmes.