This week marks the start of Eating Disorders Awareness Week, run by Beat, a Charity specifically designed to raise awareness of the difficulty and danger of these illnesses. For Health Psychologist James Lamper who suffered from Binge eating disorder, one of the lesser known eating disorders, the work done to raise awareness is crucial to help people to take the steps towards recovery and give them the confidence to speak out and seek help.
“For men to speak about their eating disorders is still very much a taboo subject. Men live in a world dominated by weight and appearance orientated media just as much as women, and images of models and sports stars in advertising can lead to body dissatisfaction and negative comparisons if men feel inadequate in comparison” explains James.
Eating disorders amongst men are becoming more and more prevalent, but still are often not spoken about. James is open about his own experiences with an eating disorder which he hopes will inspire others to speak out.
“My personal struggle with binge eating disorder began when I was just 8 years old, triggered by troubled relationships in his early life, this started a distorted relationship with food and eating” explains James. “I discovered I could lose my pain, temporarily, by eating cakes and deserts and, well, anything sweet. I would eat large quantities of food very fast, in secret, feel over-full, and feel guilty and ashamed afterwards. Bullying at school about my size began shortly afterwards, and soon binge eating became a way of surviving when life got tough. By 17, I weighed 19 stone and was still desperately unhappy”.
Although his recovery took many years, James sought help with his disorder, and persevered till he found the right help. “I saw a specialist eating disorder therapist, who helped me understand how my eating behaviour was a mechanism to deal with stress and difficult emotions. My binge eating had been a symptom all along, a survival mechanism to use in place of my missing social and emotional development. Once I began to understand the psychology behind my own eating disorder, it inspired me to begin a new career which would allow me to help others who were suffering in the same way I had.”
James now works as a lifecoach, dietician and nutritionist, running his own practise through which he offers eating disorders sufferers a combination of nutritional, psychological and physical therapies to help them to overcome their difficult relationships with both food and themselves.
“I love helping people to take back control of their life in the way that I was taught to” says James. “My Weightmatters practise was a natural progression in my own journey, and I am passionate about helping those who begin their journey when they walk through my door. Eating Disorders are a severe and life threatening problem which can ruin the lives of sufferers and those around them, and it is important to keep talking about these problems to ensure misconceptions and stereotypes are dispelled, and those will eating disorders know that they are not alone.”
To coincide with National Eating Disorders Week and to encourage those who are suffering to seek help, James is offering new clients an exclusive discount on bookings of block sessions. For more information please visit http://www.weightmatters.co.uk/eating-disorder-awareness-week/
article also posted on http://www.realwomentoday.com/
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