Therapy for Atypical Anorexia
Specialized therapy for Atypical Anorexia with a Certified ED Specialist
Looking to find a therapist for atypical anorexia?
Serving clients looking for therapy for eating disorders in Florida, New Jersey, and 40 other states.
Let’s find your spark again. Work with a therapist for Atypical Anorexia today.
You Are Sick Enough - You Need Support
I see you.
Standing in the mirror, picking yourself apart.
Getting on the scale everyday, unsatisfied with the results.
You’re dizzy, you’ve lost weight, but it just never feels like enough.
Society doesn’t help, either.
You don’t fit “the part.”
You feel guilty even insinuating that you’re struggling.
But you are - and it’s debilitating.
You feel overlooked.
Invalid.
Minimized.
You’re so afraid to be shamed that it’s hard to even let people know what’s going on for you.
It’s like somehow you feel too big - but invisible at the exact same time.
And I see the furthest thing from it.
I see the girl who has empathy than she knows what to do with.
Who so freely gives to others but expects nothing in return.
Yet you deserve to take up space.
You are the furthest thing from “too much.”
And you are so worthy of love.
So get the help you deserve. The help you NEED.
Call me.
Today.
Compassionate, Specialized Support for Atypical Anorexia Recovery
Reclaim your body, your voice, and your life with therapy grounded in validation, compassion, authenticity,
and lived experience.
What Is Atypical Anorexia?
Atypical anorexia meets all the psychological and behavioral criteria of anorexia nervosa, with one key difference: the person is not considered “underweight.” More about this in a second..
That difference, however, is often what delays or denies people the help they need. You may appear "fine" to others—maybe even praised for your discipline or weight loss—while secretly battling intense food restriction, fear of weight gain, and a harsh inner critic.
Atypical anorexia is not less serious than anorexia nervosa. In fact, the emotional and physical risks are just as severe, if not more, and the invisibility of the disorder often compounds the shame.
Signs of Atypical Anorexia
You may be struggling with atypical anorexia if:
You follow strict food rules or severely restrict intake
You feel intense guilt after eating
You constantly think about calories, weight, or body image
You experience anxiety or panic at the thought of gaining weight
You feel safer or more in control when you're hungry
You avoid social events that involve food
You believe you aren’t "sick enough" for help
You might also experience fatigue, hormonal disruptions, obsessive thoughts, and deep emotional numbness—even if your body doesn’t show it on the outside.
BMI is Bullshit.
Back to not being “underweight.” Why is this a problem?
Because what are we using to determine if someone is “underweight?”
A system that was developed in the 1800s.
Yes. You read that right. The 1830’s to be specific. BMI (Body Mass Index) was developed in the 1830s by a Belgian mathematician and statistician named Adolphe Quetelet. He introduced it as the Quetelet Index, not as a health or medical tool, but as a way to describe the “average man” in population studies during his work on social physics.
It wasn't until the 1970s that Ancel Keys, an American physiologist, popularized the term Body Mass Index (BMI) and advocated for its use as a proxy for body fat in population-level health research—not for individual diagnosis.
Despite its widespread use, BMI has been heavily criticized for being:
Inaccurate at measuring individual health
Not accounting for muscle mass, bone density, or fat distribution
Culturally and racially biased
Originally rooted in statistical averages of European men, excluding most of the global population
The Trap of "Not Sick Enough"
Atypical anorexia often goes undiagnosed or untreated because of the cultural bias that equates severity with thinness. Many people feel they have to prove their pain, or worse, get sicker to earn help.
But the truth is: your suffering is real. You don’t have to be underweight, hospitalized, or in crisis to deserve treatment. Early intervention is not only valid—it's life-changing.
You’re Weight Suppressing.
Weight suppression is the gap between a person’s natural weight set point—the weight their body would biologically settle at without chronic restriction or compensation—and their current, artificially maintained weight.
It’s not just the difference between someone’s highest and current weight.
Rather, it’s the physiological cost of pushing the body below its natural range, often through restrictive eating, overexercise, or compensatory behaviors.
For some, their highest weight may not even reflect their true set point (e.g., due to medications, puberty, trauma). What matters more is where their body wants to stabilize when left alone—and how much energy is being used to fight that.
Why Weight Suppression Matters in Atypical Anorexia
People with atypical anorexia often expend enormous energy keeping their weight below that natural range—even when their weight looks “normal” or “healthy” externally.
High weight suppression in this context contributes to:
Persistent food obsession and mental preoccupation
Biological cues to binge, even if it’s resisted
Emotional dysregulation, anxiety, and irritability
Metabolic adaptation (e.g., low energy, cold intolerance)
Shame, especially when their body “doesn’t show it”
It explains why someone can feel just as sick—or even more tormented—than someone with lower weight anorexia, despite appearing stable on the outside.
Clinical Relevance
Clients often think:
“I’m not sick enough.”
“Why is recovery so hard if I’m not even that thin?”
Understanding weight suppression helps validate:
Why symptoms persist
Why restriction feels “necessary” to stay in control
Why recovery may involve weight gain, even when it feels terrifying
Healing begins with one small step of courage. Begin your recovery from anorexia today.
A Weight-Inclusive, HAES-Aligned Approach
Bloom is firmly rooted in the principles of
Health at Every Size® (HAES).
That means:
We do not use weight as a proxy for health.
We affirm all bodies — all sizes, all shapes, all lived experiences.
We do not push weight loss as a treatment goal.
We challenge the internalized and systemic weight stigma that often fuels eating disorder behaviors.
Our goal is not to “fix” your body — it's to help you heal your relationship with it. We work with clients in thin bodies, fat bodies, disabled bodies, queer bodies, neurodivergent bodies, and bodies that have felt at war with themselves for years.
Eating disorders do not discriminate — and neither do we.
