Eating Disorders

Chris Owens says he knew what healthy eating looked like in theory, but it felt like food noise had “hijacked” his brain. “I wasn’t free to make those choices,” he explains. “I don’t know that the food noise was ever quiet enough to where I could actually experience real physical…

Noah Kahan has built a career out of saying the things men don’t often say. So when his Netflix documentary “Out of Body” dropped on April 13, I watched it twice—once as a fan, and once as a therapist. As a licensed mental health counselor at Thriveworks, I work with…

Eating disorders are serious conditions that affect both one’s mental and physical health, and they can be extremely difficult to endure alone. Not to be confused with bulimia or avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, anorexia nervosa, more commonly known as anorexia, causes a person to restrict their food intake with the…

Children are often picky with their food choices, but sometimes, those eating habits can go beyond pickiness and start affecting a child’s physical health. If a child’s eating patterns become increasingly restrictive and they begin to have symptoms like a lack of energy, failing to hit growth milestones, and refusing…

Eating disorders can take many forms: the aspiring model who disappears to the bathroom after every meal; the college student who hoards junk food in his dorm room so he can binge in secret late at night; the gymnast who skips meals and time with her friends so she can…

A holiday feast should be a joyous occasion, where people clink glasses and indulge in deliciousness and reinforce their bonds of love. But all too often these banquets conclude with a substantial portion of the guests laid up on the couch, dealing with heartburn, hating themselves for their gluttony. (This…

On the surface, the fitness guru you follow is inspirational—but they’re also driving unhealthy, relentless exercising into some of their followers. What about the diet teas or fizz drinks that everyone is drinking (according to the influencers you follow) in order to lose weight? How about the waist trainers they…

When you think of picky eaters, what comes to mind? Maybe a toddler who only ever wants chicken nuggets. Or perhaps a young child who refuses to eat vegetables. But what about children who only eat three types of foods and gag at the idea of trying something new? When…

Last night, my roommate turned to me and said, “Is it just me, or does it feel you’re bombarded with information about food and dieting every second of every day?” She’s right. Everywhere you look nowadays, there is a conversation being had about food: the foods we should and shouldn’t…

Binge-eating is consuming large amounts of food in a short amount of time. And while pigging out on a bowl of popcorn and M&M’s during a movie night with your friends or eating a whole pint of ice cream in the midst of a breakup might be acceptable, binge-eating is…

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), rumination is characterized by both voluntary or involuntary regurgitation and rechewing of the partially digested food that is then re-swallowed or spat out. The regurgitation process is sometimes preceded by a belching sensation, but the individual does…

Scott Griffiths is a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He researches eating and body image disorders, including muscle dysmorphia, anorexia nervosa, body dysmorphic disorder, anabolic steroids, and the contributions that masculinity, femininity, and stigma make to these. In this TEDxSydney Talk, Scott discusses…