Eating and Body Image

Your body image is the way that you think about, feel and see your body. For some people that thought stays quiet. For others it shapes the whole day.

Food can carry more than hunger. It can carry comfort, guilt, control or the sense that you got it wrong again.

This page is for anyone whose relationship with food or their body has become hard work. You do not need a diagnosis to read it.

Source: NHS 24: body image

If something feels urgent

Some things need help sooner than an appointment allows.

If you want to talk to someone today, our UK crisis page lists people you can reach at any hour.

Beat's helpline is free. No diagnosis is needed to call it.

Beat

All ages

Support for anyone affected by an eating disorder, including friends and family. No diagnosis needed.

• England 0808 801 0677 Weekdays 3pm to 8pm
• Scotland 0808 801 0432 Weekdays 3pm to 8pm
• Wales 0808 801 0433 Weekdays 3pm to 8pm
• Northern Ireland 0808 801 0434 Weekdays 3pm to 8pm

Source: Beat: helplines

Eating disorders and your GP

The NHS asks you to see a GP as soon as you can. It says the same about anorexia, even if you are not sure.

A GP should refer you to an eating disorder specialist or team of specialists. That referral comes first.

For adults with anorexia nervosa, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence names CBT-ED, MANTRA and SSCM. It names a talking therapy for bulimia and binge eating disorder too.

Those names stand for eating-disorder-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, Maudsley Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults and specialist supportive clinical management.

Support found here runs alongside your GP and your NHS eating disorder team, never in place of them.

Beat says eating disorders are treatable. A full and sustained recovery is very possible. Beat estimates about 3.5m children, young people and adults in the UK are living with one.

Sources: NHS: eating disorders, NHS: anorexia nervosa, NICE NG69, Beat: early intervention, Beat: prevalence 2025

Body image, emotional eating and your relationship with food

Many people find food or their body hard work without ever meeting a diagnosis.

Some eat to settle stress, boredom or a feeling they cannot name. Some keep rigid food rules and feel guilty when a rule breaks. Some avoid mirrors, photographs or clothes shopping.

None of that is vanity. None of it is a character flaw.

Cognitive behavioural therapy works on the rules and the thoughts that keep a pattern going. In dialectical behaviour therapy you learn to sit with a feeling without acting on it. A first session helps you tell which one fits.

Our anxiety page covers the worry that often sits underneath.

Weight and your wellbeing

Some people come to therapy because their weight sits at the centre of how they feel about themselves.

The support here is psychological. It works on the thoughts, habits and feelings around eating, not on a diet plan. We set no target, no rate and no promised outcome.

Anything medical about your weight belongs with your GP.

What we are and what we are not

We help you find a professional who works with food, body image and the feelings around them. We do not diagnose. We do not give medical or dietary advice.

If your GP refers you to an NHS eating disorder team, take that route. A professional found here can work alongside it, never instead of it.

If you think you may have an eating disorder, see a GP as soon as you can. For everything else about food and your body, tell us how it has been.

Source: NHS: eating disorders