What You Think You Know About Eating Disorders Is Probably Wrong: A Salt Lake City Therapist’s Perspective
I remember sitting in a 9th-grade health class learning about eating disorders. That year, I even gave a presentation on bulimia.
Now, as an eating disorder therapist working with women in Salt Lake City, Utah, I look back on what I was taught and feel a deep sense of grief. Not because it was outdated, but because it excluded so many people who were already struggling.
What we were taught about eating disorders left out a large population of adults in Utah who don’t fit the stereotype, and I see the impact of that misinformation every week in eating disorder therapy in Salt Lake City.
Eating Disorders Don’t Just Impact Young, White Women- What I See in Salt Lake City
If I could sum up what I was taught that year in two sentences, it’s this: White women from teens to college-aged, struggle with either starving themselves or throwing up after they eat. If you have anorexia, you will be severely underweight.
Wrong.
It devastates me to think of how many people in that class themselves or someone they loved didn’t feel included because it did not describe their symptoms.
I cannot even begin to tell you how many people that definition excludes.
Eating disorders exist in every age, gender, and race.
Yes women struggle with eating disorders and this is who I work with but men also experience eating disorders. Eating disorders aren’t just for white women. They are found among different races and ethnicities with both quite young people, and some that are older. Eating disorders don’t discriminate.
You Can’t Tell Someone Has an Eating Disorder by Looking at Them, Especially in Adult Women in Utah
We have been led to believe that in order to have an eating disorder you are drastically underweight and lose your period. Here’s the truth, less than 6 percent of people with eating disorders are underweight. This means that 94 percent of people with eating disorders are in the “normal” weight range or “above normal”. The women I work with that have eating disorders or disordered eating, aren’t underweight most of the time. The majority of the time! I have said it here before and I will say it again… People of any and all weights can have an eating disorder, and it can be deadly without it looking like it is.
Weight COULD BE an indicator of an eating disorder but it’s not the most important one.
It’s one of many. It’s the behaviors that matter. It’s the emotional and mental struggle that matters. It’s the rigidity, the need for control, the hurt and pain. That’s what matters.
I don’t want you to even hesitate to reach out for help because of what you think you look like or what you think you’re supposed to weigh to get help. I pinky promise you that I don’t care what you weigh nor am I even using weight to decide if you have disordered eating.
Binge Eating Disorder Is Often Overlooked
Many of the women I work with struggle with binge eating, and they are suffocating in shame. To them, they didn’t get the “good eating disorder,” and what they don’t realize is that binge eating occurs as a result of restriction. It has nothing to do with self-control, but it’s your brain's natural response to being deprived of food for so long. Your eating disorder deserves treatment and help like any other eating disorder.
Therapy for Women Struggling with Eating Disorders in Salt Lake City
If you’re a woman in Salt Lake City who feels stuck in cycles of dieting, binge eating, food guilt, or constant body criticism, you’re not alone, and nothing about this means you’ve failed. I work exclusively with adult women who are exhausted from trying to control food and themselves, often while appearing “high-functioning” on the outside. Eating disorder therapy isn’t about “fixing your weight” or giving you more rules. It’s about understanding the anxiety, shame, and emotional patterns underneath your eating behaviors so food no longer feels like the problem or the solution. If you’re ready for support that actually fits your lived experience as a woman, therapy can help you step out of the cycle and into a steadier, more compassionate relationship with food and your body.
Eating disorder therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah, can help
If you’re in Salt Lake City (or anywhere in Utah) and struggling with binge eating, food guilt, or a constant battle with your body, you don’t have to figure this out alone. Eating disorder therapy can help you step out of the cycle of restriction, bingeing, and shame and into a more peaceful relationship with food.
Begin working with an Eating Disorder Therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah
You can let your eating disorder go, but I know it’s hard to do it alone. At Maple Canyon Therapy, I work with women in Salt Lake City, Utah, who are struggling with binge eating, chronic dieting, and body image issues. Therapy focuses on the emotional and nervous-system patterns underneath eating disorders, not weight or willpower. To begin therapy, follow the steps below:
Meet with a caring therapist
Begin eating disorder recovery
Online Eating Disorder Therapy in Salt Lake City, Utah
I know how important it is to have access to an eating disorder therapist who specializes in eating disorders and knows how to help you through eating disorder recovery. I realize Utah has many parts of the state without an eating disorder therapist, and this is why I offer eating disorder therapy through online therapy in Utah.
Online counseling means that no matter where you are in Utah, I can help you. This means if you are located in Heber, Logan, Salt Lake City, St. George, Cedar City, and more, we can work together.
Other mental health services provided by Maple C/anyon Therapy
Eating disorder therapy isn’t the only mental health service provided here. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include binge eating disorder treatment, anxiety therapy, body image therapy, birth trauma, and EMDR therapy in Utah.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt, LCSW, is an eating disorder therapist serving adults in Salt Lake City, Utah, through Maple Canyon Therapy. She specializes in binge eating disorder, emotional eating, and body image distress. Ashlee earned her Master of Social Work from Utah State University and has worked in eating disorder treatment at all levels of care. She now focuses on outpatient therapy for women who are tired of fighting food and their bodies..