Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by restriction, but restriction is only the part that can be seen. Underneath it there may be an intense fear of weight gain, rigid rules around food and movement, a need for control, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, or a sense of safety that has become attached to eating less or becoming smaller. Over time, these patterns can become increasingly convincing and increasingly difficult to step outside of, particularly because undernourishment itself affects thinking, mood and flexibility.

Anorexia also does not have a particular look. It exists across a spectrum, and someone can be medically and psychologically unwell at a higher, average or lower body weight. You do not need to look underweight, have lost a certain amount of weight, or fit a stereotypical picture of anorexia for your difficulties to be taken seriously.

Treatment involves understanding both the eating disorder and what it has come to do for you. That means working with restriction and nutritional recovery, but also with the fears, rules, beliefs and behaviours that keep the disorder in place. The aim is not simply to get you eating again. It is to help food, weight and control take up less space, so that the rest of your life has room to come back in.