What is Body Checking and Why is it Dangerous?

Woman struggling with an eating disorder and with Suicide Rates in Those who Suffer with Binge Eating Disorder

Body checking is a term often used in the eating disorder realm. However, many do not know what it means or how common it is outside of the world of eating disorders. What is Body Checking? Body checking can be simply defined as compulsively or obsessively focusing and scrutinizing either the body as a whole [...]
Read More

Is Video-Chatting Amidst COVID-19 Decreasing Self-Image?

Eating Disorder Recovery Apps can help support someone's therapy

Amidst the whirlwind of changes that have become our “new normal” since the COVID-19 outbreak, the increase in video-chatting is one of the biggest changes worldwide. In mid-March 2020, Google searches for the term “video chat” spiked worldwide, and searches for terms such as “games to play over video chat” increased +700% [1]. Now, more [...]
Read More

Coping with Feelings of Grief

Woman struggling with grief and depression

Grief is a profound emotion that can be painful to hold and even more painful to let go of. While most of us will experience grief or loss in our lifetime, we are often not prepared for it. Grief can blindside us and hold on tightly if we do not do our own work to [...]
Read More

Coping with Feelings of Anger

Man with his arms crossed in eating disorder treatment

Anger is one of 6 basic emotions identified in Paul Ekman’s “Atlas of Emotions.” These six emotions are ones that will be felt by everyone at one point or another [1]. Despite this, it is still one of the least socially acceptable emotions. We cannot face that which we are unwilling to accept, which is [...]
Read More

Coping with Feelings of Shame

Shame is likely one of the most powerful emotional states for humans to experience. Shame creates the potential for any individual to behave contrary to themselves out of avoidance, self-punishment, or embarrassment. Shame is not only emotional but physical. We feel it in our cringing toes, tight chests, flushed faces, and our desire to disappear. [...]
Read More

Talking to your Teen about Seeking Eating Disorder Treatment

Let’s be honest, talking to your teen about anything presents a challenge as it isn’t the age children are known for opening up to their parents. Add to this to the need to discuss something as serious as seeking eating disorder treatment, and you may be rightly overwhelmed on what to do. As difficult as [...]
Read More

Trauma Eased by Self-Compassion

Guy fighting Dieting and Eating Disorders

Trauma is sometimes classified as one of 3 different categories – acute, chronic, and complex. Regardless of which category it falls under, trauma undeniably impacts how one functions in their daily life, from relationships to jobs to identity. 70% of adults in the United States have experienced some type of trauma in their lifetime [1]. [...]
Read More

Lady Gaga’s Battle with an Eating Disorder—Just Bulimia?

Even though it seems like we know so much about celebrities, public information is only one piece of the puzzle. This makes it impossible to understand the full story. However, we can gain a more realistic picture if the individual chooses to share their life’s intimate details. One celebrity who has demonstrated authentic vulnerability about [...]
Read More

Body Image and Self-Compassion

Woman working on Long-Lasting Recovery from Anorexia

Consider how you speak to and about your body. What messages do you speak, think, or internalize the most? These thoughts can affect your body image with self-compassion helping it. Now, consider this definition of self-compassion: “self-compassion entails being moved by one’s own suffering and treating oneself in a caring and empathetic way—just as one [...]
Read More

A Letter to Caregivers Supporting Someone with an Eating Disorder

Dear Caregivers – I know there are many of you. 28.8 million Americans will be diagnosed with an eating disorder in their lifetime, and they do not struggle or recover on their own [1]. Parents, partners, siblings, doctors, therapists, coaches, teachers, the list could go on-and-on. All of you give of yourselves to help your [...]
Read More

MEDICAL ADVICE DISCLAIMER: The service, and any information contained on the website or provided through the service, is provided for informational purposes only. EatingDisorderHope.com, a website owned and operated by Hopeful Media, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Within Health Group, Inc., provides information intended for general consumer understanding and education and not as a substitute for medical or psychological advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All information provided on the website is presented “as is” without any warranty of any kind, and expressly excludes any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Find Help Today

Search Treatment Providers

Get eating disorder recovery resources by email

Practical guidance, treatment options, and support—delivered to your inbox.