Orthorexia

When healthy eating turns into a source of stress

Caring about your health and being intentional about food can be a good thing. But sometimes, that desire for wellness becomes rigid and all-consuming. You might find yourself spending hours researching ingredients, avoiding food prepared by others, or feeling anxious, ashamed, or “impure” when you eat something outside your rules.

This experience is often referred to as orthorexia. While it’s not currently an official mental health diagnosis, it shares features with eating disorders and anxiety disorders—particularly in how it can take over your life, damage your relationship with food and your body, and erode joy and spontaneity.

In therapy, we’ll explore what’s driving these patterns—not to pathologize you, but to understand what makes these food rules feel so necessary. Often, parts of you may believe that staying in control of your eating is the only way to stay safe, acceptable, or good enough. Other parts might feel exhausted, anxious, or even secretly rebellious. We’ll create space for all of these parts to be seen and heard, so they don’t have to work so hard behind the scenes.

We'll also practice making room for the anxious thoughts and urges that show up around food—without letting them steer the ship. Rather than getting caught in constant battles with your mind, you can begin to act in ways that reflect your deeper values: connection, ease, vitality, and self-trust.

And throughout our work, we’ll gently help you reconnect with your body—not as something to monitor or perfect, but as something to care for, listen to, and live in. This might include practices to build awareness of hunger and fullness, soothe your nervous system, and tune into what your body actually needs—not what the latest trend says it should want.

You don’t have to be “sick enough” to seek support. If your relationship with food feels burdensome or confusing, you deserve help. Healing doesn’t mean giving up on health—it means creating a relationship with food and your body that’s flexible, grounded, and nourishing in every sense of the word.