Understanding Eating Disorders | Eating Disorder Specialist Ashley McHan
Table of Contents
For most of us, food is a delight to enjoy every day. Whether alone or with family, friends, our spouse, children, or strangers. However, what might be nothing but a pleasant experience for someone can harbor great demons for others.
For some, what they can eat, how much they can eat, why they eat, and so many other thoughts and beliefs around food, are a daily occupation that runs through their head constantly.
As outsiders who do not struggle with eating and food, it can be confusing to understand exactly what eating disorders are about.
As our guest for this interview here on the IPS Podcast, Ashley McHan, a licensed eating disorder and trauma specialist says;
“Eating disorders are not about food.”
But what then are eating disorders about?
It is complicated.
Which is exactly why we invited a specialist on the podcast to talk about them.
For those reading who struggle or think they might struggle with an eating disorder; in this interview you will find a whole lot of compassion, understanding, and practical tips and advice on what to do.
Also, for anyone reading who is seeking to help someone, this interview with Ashley will answer many of your questions and give you practical takeaways to be there for someone else.
Understanding eating disorders and knowing what to do can be challenging both for those struggling and those trying to help someone.
But to quote Ashley:
“One of the other things that people have in common regardless of any variation of disordered eating to diagnosable eating disorders, is that lack of belief that your life can change. That you can do it.”
However, as you will learn in this interview, change truly is possible. Yes it will take time, yes it will take effort, and yes there will be ups and downs, but the path of healing is one that is available to all of us.
I sincerely hope through this interview and the additional resources provided down below, we at The IPS Project can ever so slightly aid you on this path of healing.
With that please enjoy this insightful interview with licensed therapist Ashley McHan.
Recommended Books to Understanding Eating Disorders and Trauma:
EP 031 - Understanding Eating Disorders | Eating Disorder Specialist Ashley McHan
“What I came to see that we all have in common is that these underlying limiting beliefs were there for all of us, but sent us in different directions. Sent us into different unhealthy coping strategies.”
Some of the Questions:
- What could you recommend as first steps to someone listening who knows they have an eating disorder or recognize they might be struggling with one?
- For the people listening who know someone with an eating disorder, or might suspect someone around them to have one, how do you offer help?
- Apart from anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating, which other eating disorder do you feel does not get enough attention?
What You Will Learn from this Episode:
- What the difference is between anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating.
- How past traumas and eating disorders often go hand in hand.
- Why it is so difficult to recover from an eating disorder and what to do against relapsing.
“If you look at patterns of eating disorders as coping gone wrong, if you look at the patterns of eating disorders as symptoms of a problem, then you start to look at it a bit differently. Why might it make sense that a person is doing this?”
Resources Mentioned:
- – Getting Past Your Past by Francine Shapiro (Whether we’ve experienced small setbacks or major traumas, we are all influenced by memories and experiences we may not remember or don’t fully understand. Getting Past Your Past offers practical procedures that demystify the human condition and empower readers looking to achieve real change.)
- – The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.)
- – The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself (What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity? The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions.)
- – Food Psych (A weekly show dedicated to helping you make peace with food and break free from diet culture.)
- – Recovery Warrior (Recovery Warrior’s mission is deeply rooted in connecting treatment, technology and innovative design to eating disorder recovery.)
- – EP 023 – Scott Pinyard on Alcohol Use Disorder, the Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Body, and How to Provide Support (Scott Pinyard: Alcohol use disorder, effects of alcohol on the brain & body, how to help someone struggling with alcohol addiction, and more.)
- – EP 021 – How to Rewire Your Brain to Be Happy | Dr. Rick Hanson, Ph.D. | The Science of Happiness (In this episode on The IPS Podcast, Dr. Rick Hanson, leading expert on positive neuroplasticity, talks about how you can rewire your brain to be happy.)
- – I’ve Eaten Only Mac & Cheese for the Past 17 Years, Here’s Why (Austin suffers from Selective Eating Disorder, also known as Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, an anxiety disorder that’s characterized by the persistent refusal to eat specific foods or refusal to eat any type of food due to a negative response from certain sensory characteristics of that food.)
- – An Eating Disorder Specialist Explains How Trauma Creates Food Disorders (As an eating disorder and trauma therapist, Ashley McHan sees patients with an array of issues with food. VICE speaks to her about our unhealthy relationship to food, how it contributes to disordered eating and the underlying causes, similarities and differences of various eating disorders.)
FOLLOW Ashley Mchan
You may also like these episodes:
- – EP 027 – A Life Free from Emotional Abuse | Psychologist Signe M. Hegestand
- – EP 023 – Scott Pinyard on Alcohol Use Disorder, the Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Body, and How to Provide Support
- – EP 019 – Dr. Guy Macpherson, Ph.D. What is Psychological Trauma and How to Heal It
Question about this episode: Did you find this episode with Ashley to be helpful? Did it help you in understanding eating disorders better? Also if you would like to share your story or something else related to this topic, feel free to share down below in the comments.
Did you enjoy this episode?
Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
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