When to Seek Help for Disordered Eating
By Dr. Colleen Reichmann, owner and clinical director of Wildflower Therapy
It’s not always easy to know when your relationship with food has crossed into territory that needs attention. In a culture that praises “discipline,” “wellness,” and “clean eating,” it can feel confusing to figure out what’s healthy vs what’s starting to actually hurt you.
Maybe you’ve started noticing that food takes up more of your mental energy than you’d like. Or that guilt and anxiety are creeping into your meals. Or that your body image is regularly impacting your mood, your social life, or your ability to just be present.
At Wildflower Therapy, our Philadelphia-based team of eating disorder therapists often hears some version of the same question:
“Do I really need help for this? I don’t think I’m sick enough.”
If that thought sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and it’s one of the clearest signs that something deeper may be going on. The truth is, people who don’t have major struggles with food or body image don’t tend to wonder if they are sick enough to warrent care. You do not have to wait until things feel severe, or until your eating patterns meet a specific diagnosis, to reach out for support.
Understanding Disordered Eating
“Disordered eating” describes a range of thoughts and behaviors around food, exercise, and body image that cause distress or interfere with your life-but may not fit neatly into a diagnostic label like anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
You might not restrict all day, but maybe you feel out of control at night. You might eat normally with others, but secretly compensate afterward. You might avoid certain foods because they feel “bad,” or feel intense guilt after eating something you enjoy.
These experiences can look like:
Regularly skipping meals or ignoring hunger cues
Counting calories or tracking macros to an obsessive degree
Feeling anxious or guilty after eating
Avoiding social events that involve food
Saving up eating until the evening and then eating past fullness
Frequent binge eating or “emotional eating” episodes
Exercising primarily to “earn” or “burn off” food
Body checking (repeatedly weighing, pinching, or measuring yourself)
Constant comparison to others’ bodies or eating habits
While these behaviors are common, they’re not harmless. They can chip away at your physical health, emotional well-being, and sense of self-worth over time.
The Myth of “Not Sick Enough”
One of the biggest barriers to getting help for something like disordered eating is believing you don’t deserve it.
Our culture tends to define eating disorders in extremes-images of someone drastically underweight or visibly struggling. But eating disorders and disordered eating exist across all body sizes, genders, and backgrounds. Actually, those who are underweight are the exception, not the rule when it comes to eating disorders. You can be high-functioning, successful, and seemingly “fine” on the outside, and still be deeply unwell on the inside.
You might tell yourself:
“I don’t need therapy—I just need more willpower.”
“I haven’t lost that much weight.”
“Other people have it worse.”
These thoughts are part of how eating disorders protect themselves. They convince you to stay quiet. They make you question your own reality.
At Wildflower Therapy, we want you to know: if food and body thoughts are stealing your peace, that’s reason enough to seek help. There’s no weight, symptom severity, or lab result required to deserve care.
When to Consider Reaching Out for Eating Disorder Therapy
You might consider reaching out to an eating disorder therapist near Philadelphia if you notice:
1. Food and body thoughts are taking up too much headspace.
If you spend more time thinking about what you should or shouldn’t eat than about your goals, relationships, or hobbies, that’s a red flag. A healthy relationship with food is flexible. Maybe you have thoughts about weight or how you “should” eating, but they don’t dominate your mental bandwidth or impact your whole day.
2. Eating feels tied to emotion rather than hunger.
Using food to cope with stress, sadness, or anxiety is human, but if eating or restricting becomes your main emotional regulation tool, therapy can help you find gentler, sustainable ways to meet your needs.
3. You’ve started avoiding social situations.
If dinner with friends, holidays, or family gatherings bring more dread than joy because of the food involved, it’s worth exploring why. Isolation is a common (and painful) symptom of disordered eating.
4. You often feel guilt or shame after eating.
When “good” and “bad” labels on food start to define your self-worth, that’s not discipline, it’s distress. You deserve a relationship with food that doesn’t punish or define you.
5. Your physical health is being affected.
Changes in energy, sleep, digestion, or your menstrual cycle can signal that your body is under strain. A qualified eating disorder therapist can help you work with your medical team to restore balance and safety.
6. You feel anxious or out of control around food.
Whether you’re skipping meals, bingeing, purging, or caught in a restrict–overeat cycle, therapy can help uncover what drives those patterns and how to find steadier ground.
Why Early Support Matters
Many people wait until things feel “bad enough” to seek treatment, but getting help early can prevent symptoms from deepening. Disordered eating is like a small fire, in that it’s much easier to put out when it’s in the spark stage than when it’s taken over the whole room.
When you begin therapy early, you give yourself the chance to:
Reconnect with hunger and fullness cues
Heal perfectionism and body shame before they harden
Learn to regulate emotions without always turning to food or engaging in restriction
Build resilience against diet culture messages
Protect your physical and mental health long-term
Even if you’ve been struggling for years, it’s never too late to reach out. Recovery is absolutely possible at every stage.
What Eating Disorder Therapy Looks Like at Wildflower Therapy
At Wildflower Therapy in Philadelphia, our eating disorder therapists specialize in helping clients find peace with food and their bodies. We work with children/teens (and their parents) and adults who are navigating disordered eating, body image distress, or eating disorder recovery.
Our approach combines:
Evidence-based treatment (such as CBT, DBT, and FBT)
Relational and compassion-focused therapy
Support for co-occurring concerns like anxiety, trauma, OCD, and more
Collaboration with dietitians, psychiatrists, and physicians when needed
We believe healing happens when you feel understood-not judged. You won’t find punative measures or shame here. You will never have to feel like you let us down or disappointed us. Instead, our goal is to help you build a relationship with food that feels safe, flexible, and joyful again.
Our office, conveniently located for clients throughout Philadelphia and the Main Line, offers both in-person options, and we are also able to work with people anywhere in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Massechusetts, Ohio, Vermont, Florida, Virginia, or South Carolina virtually.
How to Reach Out for Help
Taking the first step can feel intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t need to have the right words or know what kind of treatment you need. Simply sharing that you’re struggling is enough.
If you’re wondering whether what you’re experiencing “counts,” we invite you to reach out. Our team will listen, help you make sense of what’s happening, and guide you toward next steps that fit your needs.
If you are in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Massechusetts, Ohio, Vermont, Florida, Virginia, or South Carolina Wildflower Therapy is here for you (although we wish we could work with people from every single state!) Our eating disorder therapists near Philadelphia offer compassionate, specialized care for anyone ready to heal their relationship with food, their body, and themselves.
A Gentle Reminder
You don’t have to wait for a crisis to deserve help. You don’t have to reach a certain weight, or fit a certain diagnosis, or prove your pain to anyone.
If you’re reading this and something inside you is whispering, “Maybe I need help…” well then, that’s reason enough in our eyes.
At Wildflower Therapy, we believe you deserve a life where meals feel peaceful, your body feels like home, and your worth has much less to do with what you eat or how you look, and more about your values. As Glennon Doyle once famously said, your body is not your masterpiece. It is the painbrush that helps you pain the masterpiece of your life. You deserve to live that out loud.
If that kind of healing sounds like something you want, we’re here to walk beside you.
Wildflower Therapy | Eating Disorder Treatment in PA
Serving clients in Philadelphia, the Main Line, and across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Massechusetts, Ohio, Vermont, Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina