The Eating Disorder Therapist

In this episode, I do a deep dive into atypical anorexia nervosa. I hope that you find it helpful. Atypical anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder and a severe one at that.

You will experience all the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, 

But your weight will appear ‘normal and healthy’ by the cultural ideal. This means that your BMI (Body Mass Index) will not be alarmingly low, as seen in anorexia nervosa. It is a confusing condition, as your friends and family will praise you for achieving a svelte-physique and will ask you for your weight loss tips and tricks.

However, you will be extremely ill. In fact, you will be starving. Your body will be suffering. Because this is not a healthy weight for you. Your natural setpoint weight is genetically higher due to being tall, larger boned or more muscular than the ‘average’. This is not a crime. This is diversity of body shapes. But you will probably feel that there is something wrong with your body, as the world will have reflected this back to you from childhood. Have you experienced atypical anorexia nervosa? Do share in the comments. Thank you.

 

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #atypicalanorexianervosa #atypicalanorexia #DisorderedEating #osfed #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #FoodObsessions #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #EmotionalEating #InnerHealing #TherapyInsights

Chewing and spitting is something many people struggle with, but very few talk about openly. If this is something you’re dealing with, you’re not alone and there is a way forward.

 

➡️ In this episode, I explore what chewing and spitting actually is, why it often develops alongside restriction and food rules, and why it can feel like a “solution” at first. For many, it starts as a way to enjoy food without the fear of weight gain, but over time it can become a compulsive and isolating behaviour that’s hard to stop. I also talk about the real impact this has on your mental and physical health, from digestive issues and dental problems to increased food obsession, shame, and feeling stuck in a cycle that takes over your day.

 

Most importantly, I share practical steps to help you begin breaking free from chewing and spitting, including reducing restriction, rebuilding regular eating, allowing feared foods, and developing a more compassionate relationship with yourself and your body. If you’ve been stuck in this behaviour, even for a long time, change is possible and it starts with understanding what’s really going on beneath the surface.

Time slots: -

2:22 Digestion.

2:47 Teeth.

3:18 Weight gain.

3:47 Addictive.

4:08 Isolation and shame.

4:36 Motivation.

5:19 Restrictive eating.

5: 54 Mindfulness.

6:12 Emotions.

6:36 Perfectionism.

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #ChewingAndSpitting #DisorderedEating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #FoodObsessions #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #EmotionalEating #InnerHealing #TherapyInsights

Today, I have a guest on the show and I'm talking to Paula D Atkinson (all the way from Palm Springs, California) who works as a psychotherapist, professor of Body Justice, author, and supporter of people navigating eating disorders, food obsession, and internalised body stigma.

Her practice is anti-diet, Health At Every Size, and body-liberation focused, and she loves infusing humor and creativity into tough conversations. Paula recently appeared on Jubilee Media’s Surrounded series (with Jillian Michaels) to challenge conventional health narratives. Paula co-hosts her own podcast, What If Nothing’s Wrong With You?, where she unpacks how traditional therapy sometimes reinforces the very systems that create suffering.

In today's episode, Paula shares about her own recovery, her academic background in fat studies, her experience speaking to Gen X women, LGBTQIA+ focus and more. There's lots to talk about. Stay tuned for an inspiring conversation. I hope that you find it helpful.

 

To find out more about Paula's work: -

Website: www.pauladatkinson.com

https://linktr.ee/pauladatkinson

Link for individual sessions: https://doxy.me/pauladatkinson

Instagram: @pauladatkinson

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bodyjustice #pauladatkinson #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bingeeatinghelp #bingeeatingrecovery #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #fatpositive #bodyliberation #weightstigma #lgbtq

Your identity shapes who you become. Research shows that people who are successful in giving up smoking tend to identify as a non-smoker, whereas if you identify as a smoker, even when you’re not smoking you are more likely to relapse. It is not uncommon that your identity is strongly linked with your eating disorder.

This is particularly understandable if you were diagnosed at a young age or were engaged with professional services, when young and impressionable. You may have been given a diagnostic label as a young teen. And the eating disorder may feel like a part of you. It has been around for so long. It feels safe, known and predictable. You may not like it, but you don’t know who you are without it. You may be into fitness and be labelled as ‘the healthy one’.

You may be identified in your friend group as ‘the skinny one’. You may have been praised continuously for your body shape, even though you’ve been internally struggling. You may derive a great deal of comfort and safety, from your identity being interwoven with your eating disorder. You may not know who you are without it.

If you relate to this, offer yourself deep kindness and compassion. The eating disorder has likely been a saviour through difficult times, even if holding you back now. But when your identity becomes unhealthily dependent on your eating disorder diagnosis, this can keep you stuck. It can drive you to unwittingly repeat and perpetuate the destructive cycles, which feel so familiar. There is little headspace for hobbies or friendship or pleasure (apart from food). The real-world blurs into the background and the eating disorder infiltrates into every aspect of life, dominating and filling every life crevice.

 

So how can you begin to rebuild a new identity and let go of the eating disorder?

This episode explores this.

Time slots:

9:55 1. Be inspired.

10:28 Early life.

11:13 Dream big.

I hope that you find it helpful.

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

 

#HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #identity #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom

Today, Joanne Moscalu (Binge Eating Dietitian) is a guest on the podcast. Joanne is a specialist Eating Disorder Dietitian, researcher and writer. Her work focuses on binge eating, combining clinical practice, research and thoughtful writing to challenge misconceptions and encourage more compassionate conversations about our relationship with food.

She is the host of The Binge Eating Dietitian Podcast and recently defended her doctoral thesis exploring the lived experience of binge eating. Joanne has recently started sharing her writing on these subjects and you can subscribe to her work with this link: https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

Today, Jo is here to talk about all things binge eating and to share some of her wonderful insights from her recent thesis.

1. Her thesis is about lived experience, not treatment or prevention of EDs but what it is actually like to live with binge eating in the modern day world.

2. As a dietitian, she focuses on the dietitian role and how we can maximise it for care of BED and how this is currently wildly underutilised.

3. Talking about BED as a bio-psycho-social condition and yet the social side is underlooked. Jo's thesis explores the significance of these social elements

4. Jo has publications in the pipeline but has just started sharing her ideas on a new writing platform which you can subscribe to here https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

I hope that you enjoy the conversation.

Jo's website: https://bingeeatingdietitian.com/

Subscribe for articles https://joanne-moscalu.ghost.io/

Instagram: @binge.eating.dietitian

 

🌐 If you're looking for more support in your recovery journey, you can explore my work here: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/

 💬 Have you used psychological formulation? What do you think about it as a tool?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

📱 Food Freedom App: https://studio.com/apps/harriet/freedomfood

🎙 Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-disorder-therapist/id1499476074

 

🔔 Subscribe to YouTube for weekly eating disorder recovery support, therapy insights, and real conversations about food and healing: https://www.youtube.com/@theeatingdisordertherapist?sub_confirmation=1

Online Courses:

Fitness Lovers Guide to Food Freedom https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/radical-self-care-and-building-your-thriving-eating-disorder-therapy-practice

Breaking Free From Bulimia: https://food-freedom-coach.teachable.com/p/intuitive-eating-beginners-course4

 Professional Training:

 Eating Disorders Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/eating-disorders-training-with-harriet-frew.html

Body Image Training: https://www.theeatingdisordertherapist.co.uk/body-image-training-with-harriet-frew.html

📲 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeatingdisordertherapist/ -

#eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorders #foodfreedom #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #EatingDisorderRecovery #Undereating #FoodFreedomJourney #BingeEatingRecovery #MentalHealthSupport #BodyImageHealing #RecoveryIsPossible #FoodObsessions #EmotionalEating #IntuitiveEating #HealingJourney #TherapyInsights #RecoveryJourney #RecoveryisPossible #forbiddenfood #intuitiveeating #healingjourney #howtoheal #HarrietFrew #TheEatingDisorderTherapist #bingeeating #bingeeatingdisorder #bingeeatinghelp #bingeeatingrecovery