Everyone seems to have an opinion, you've probably encountered unsolicited advice and opinions from well-meaning (or not-so-well-meaning) friends or family. But here's the thing – You are not on a mission to help them see the world the way that you do. You are not on a mission to help them understand intuitive eating and eating disorder recovery.

When we view mental illnesses as medical illnesses, we are going to miss the nuance that is associated with emotions and psychology. There is no official proven line of treatment (I mean meds here) for eating disorders. But typically the individual also has some version of insert mental illness here and meds could be really helpful.

Someone who is more prone to feeling intolerable emotions is generally more prone to lean into any sort of eating disorder behaviors, substance abuse, or unhealthy coping mechanisms. The feelings they feel are so big and so intolerable, no wonder they’ll want relief from the pain.

So I think the biggest question here is: if you are a person who is highly sensitive, how do you deal with intense emotions?

Do you feel like you can’t get a hold of your emotional eating? This blog is all about that.

Obviously, your life won’t be immediately changed by reading one blog post. But you can begin to implement steps to work through your emotional eating. You’ll learn practical things to do and, of course, how we can go deeper into understanding where your emotional eating is coming from (my MO, of course, 🙂).

Learn more about eating disorder therapy and treatment in NYC and Brooklyn with Rachelle Heinemann at rachelleheinemann.com.

What is the difference between an eating disorder and disordered eating?

To be honest, I don’t care that much about the difference since if someone’s relationship with food is subjectively distressing, that’s enough of a reason to take it seriously. But there are different ways of going about working through ED or disordered eating that make it helpful to differentiate. This episode will cover specifically the "disordered eating" version of binge eating disorder. The high-functioning binge eating disorder, if you will.

Learn more about eating disorder therapy and treatment in NYC and Brooklyn with Rachelle Heinemann at rachelleheinemann.com.

If you have ever felt out of control around food, specifically sweets, I'm sure you've thought about whether or not you have a sugar addiction or food addiction. It definitely feels like it! Marci Evans shares revolutionary ideas about how dieting and the sugar addiction experience are closely linked. We also talk about what to do if you feel like you have a food addiction.

I know that I talk quite a bit about the deeper meaning of different eating disorder symptoms and behaviors. But sometimes, especially right after a binge, what you need is tips to help in the moment. In this episode I share 5 tips to keep in mind after a binge.

That obviously doesn’t mean that we forget about the function of the binge. The binge is there for a reason. It is there to help us manage really difficult emotional experiences. Chances are, if you are still bingeing, it’s actually doing so effectively. Except that now the binges have become their own problem. So now you got the underlying stuff and the binge itself. If you’re not yet in a place to try to understand the function of your binges, or if you’ve just binged and don’t feel like thinking about anything else, be sure to listen to the end to get all 5 tips.

Metaphors for eating disorders: this is one of my favorite topics, hands down.

A bit about Courtney: Courtney is a passionate and dedicated therapist who obtained her graduate degree from New York University. She is a licensed creative arts therapist in New York State, Certified Eating Disorders Therapist (CEDCAT) and a registered/board certified drama therapist with over 10 years of clinical experience.

Courtney brings warmth, compassion, and insight, offering clients an avenue to examine their thoughts and feelings in a nonjudgmental space. She brings all this to our conversation about metaphors and how we can utilize these ideas to incorporate into our food healing journey. 

Welcome to another episode of Understanding Disordered Eating. In this episode, we’re talking to Courtney Vickery. Courtney is a licensed dietitian, part-time Nutritional Science instructor at The University of Georgia, and a certified intuitive eating counselor. She is also the founder and owner of Vickery Wellness, where its primary goal is to help clients break free from the bondage of fad diets and eating disorders. In addition, she also works with young adults and college students who yearn to achieve eating disorder recovery.

Today, Courtney and I will be discussing everything you need to know about the prevalence of eating disorders in college students and how important it is to get the support that they need—proving to the students that there is more to life than counting calories and carbs.

Jeffrey DeSarbo, D.O. is a physician, psychiatrist and Medical Director of ED-180 Eating Disorder Treatment Programs in Garden City, N.Y., one of the largest private treatment centers in the country. His personal practice manages about 400 patients with eating disorders and related conditions. Dr. DeSarbo is an IAEDP certified supervisor overseeing the specialized training of other clinicians in the eating disorder field. He is the host of the podcast Translating ED and the producer of the free YouTube series The Brain and Neurobiology of Eating Disorders.

Join us in this episode to discuss important topics such as the relationship between eating disorders and neurobiology, biological predisposition, and the science behind irregular eating patterns. If you’ve ever thought “I just have to rewire my brain”, this episode is definitely for you!