Eating Disorders and Athletes

I understand the specific needs that athletes have when they look to recover from eating disorders or disordered eating. I am here to support your individual needs whether you are looking to continue your sport or need help with the retirement process. Eating disorder treatment for athletes focuses on not just our relationship to food, but our relationship to sport and our bodies. Sometimes in early treatment an athlete is forced to stop training and/or competing in order for their bodies to heal. This can be a challenging time for some and the support of a therapist is often helpful. Therapy can help support your emotional needs while recognizing the loss (temporary or not) with your sport and parts of your identity.

It is my belief as a provider that your sport can be part of your eating disorder recovery with the right support in place. For athletes, we can think of eating disorders as an injury. It is helpful to have a mental health provider who is aware of the culture of sport; who can work with you and your team to help you get back on track. As with all injuries, healing is needed and not always linear, but I am here to support your mental health concerns during that journey.

Some of the signs to look for in athletes who are struggling with disordered eating:

  • Overtraining

  • Obsessive rituals around food

  • Rigidity in food intake (quantity, time, rules)

  • Continuing to train or crossgrain when injured

  • recurrent injuries

  • Obsessing about training data, details, schedules,

  • Adding workouts to training schedule

  • Irritable moods

About Over Exercising

While overexercising isn’t considered an eating disorder itself it can become a compulsion that is similar to patterns of bulimia. Over exercising isn’t always linked to an eating disorder, but it is usually connected to how one feels about their body overall. Sometimes over exercise can be hard to identify as it is normalized and praised in our society. Some key signs to look for are:

  • Linking food to exercise

  • The “earn it or burn it” mentality.

  • Prioritizing exercise over other areas of life to the detriment of those other areas

  • The need to exercise taking away from ones ability to tolerate their emotions

  • Using exercise as their only emotional outlet

  • Rigid ideas about exercise and food

  • Multiple workouts in one day when not competing in athletic events or multi-sport events.

Are you ready to work on changing your relationship to food, your body, and your sport?