076 How To Eat And Be Happy

This week we talk about recognising the patterns that potentially lead to, or already point to an eating disorder which is a complex mental illness, often misunderstood because of media portrayal.

Anyone, can develop one, no matter their age, gender, or background. There is no single cause and people might not even have all of the symptoms for any one eating disorder.

Earlier this week we saw Freddie Flintoff's documentary about his 20 year battle with bulimia in which he began to lift the lid on some of his personal battles (25% of people who suffer with an eating disorder are male) and of course anorexia is the other more well known eating disorder and yet, the causes and symptoms are still so misunderstood by the majority.

Obesity is something we hear and know about and yet we rarely hear about the risk of eating disorders which are so closely associated. 1 person dies every 62 minutes as a direct result of an eating disorder – and it's getting worse. We all need to be more aware of the patterns so well done Freddie for being brave enough to start talking about this so publically, it wouldn't have been easy as a big part of an eating disorder is the secrecy and shame.

So symptoms range from purging, to restricting, to over exercising, using pills and laxatives, dieting – there are many behavioural patterns around all of these things and so during this episode we talk with psychotherapist and eating disorder specialist Michelle Scott from The Recovery Centre. We cover:

• Diets
• Trauma
• How we use our body to regulate emotions
• Anxiety
• How the Corona virus lockdown and pandemic has increased anxiety levels and caused potential harm to eating habits or a relapse for some in negative eating patterns
• Personality types and how they effect our ability to manage emotions
• Managing trigger foods
• As parents, what to watch out for in our children
• The fact that it doesn't start being about image
• It effects people through all ages and stages in life

Thank you to Sally Jane who shared some of her struggles on the Inside My Wardrobe facebook group page and allowed us to discuss them further in this episode.

The Caitlin Moran book I believe is already available on Kindle but not yet out in hardback – More Than A Woman

BEAT is the national charity for eating disorders which has heaps of great resources and of course, please get in touch with Michelle at The Recovery Centre if you would like any further support or more resources and interviews.

All my links are on my website pipagordon.co.uk and please if you have a moment, do share this episode with anyone you think it might be helpful to.

Copyright 2020 Pipa Gordon

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