SPECIALTY · ORTHOREXIA
When healthy becomes harmful, that is worth paying attention to.
You may have noticed that what started as a desire to eat well has slowly become something more consuming. Thoughts about food, ingredients, and what is "safe" to eat may be taking up more space in your mind than you would like. It may have started to affect your relationships, your daily routines, or simply your ability to enjoy life.
Whether you are here for yourself or someone you care about, you don't have to navigate this alone.
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What orthorexia and compulsive exercise feel like
What started as wanting to feel well has quietly taken over. The behaviors look healthy from the outside. Inside, they are driven by anxiety, not wellness.
Eating anything outside your defined parameters triggers intense anxiety or guilt, sometimes for the rest of the day.
Missing a workout, even due to illness or injury, ruins your mood or fills you with dread.
You spend significant time planning, researching, or thinking about food and exercise. This is often more than feels comfortable.
Dining out, traveling, or eating food you did not prepare yourself is deeply uncomfortable or avoided entirely.
The rules feel protective, but they are also shrinking your world, your social life, your spontaneity, your ease.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONDITIONS
What are orthorexia and compulsive exercise?
Orthorexia is an obsessive preoccupation with eating correctly or cleanly, to a degree that interferes with quality of life, relationships, and wellbeing. Unlike anorexia, the focus is on the quality and purity of food rather than the quantity, though restriction is often present in both.
Compulsive exercise involves using movement in a driven, obligatory way that is disconnected from enjoyment or genuine health. It continues through injury, illness, exhaustion, and despite negative consequences. Exercise feels less like a choice and more like a requirement.
Neither orthorexia nor compulsive exercise is currently a standalone diagnosis in the DSM. That does not mean they are not real, and it does not mean they do not cause real suffering. Both respond well to treatment, and both deserve to be taken seriously.
Signs that food or exercise may have become problematic:
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Intense guilt after eating "impure" foods
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Significant time spent on food research or planning
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Extreme distress when unable to exercise
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Relationships or responsibilities affected by food or exercise rules
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Rigid, inflexible food rules
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Avoiding social situations involving food
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Exercising through pain or illness
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Exercise used primarily to compensate for eating
TREATMENT
How I treat orthorexia and compulsive exercise
Treatment focuses on loosening the grip of rigid rules, understanding what function they are serving emotionally, and gradually building more flexibility and freedom. We work at the behavioral level and underneath it where the anxiety and meaning live.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E)
We identify and challenge the beliefs that drive rigid food and exercise rules, including perfectionism, black-and-white thinking, and the overvaluation of control. CBT-E provides a structured framework for change.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
We explore what the rules have been doing for you emotionally, what they protect, what they organize, and what a life with more flexibility might require you to feel. This deeper work addresses the roots, not just the surface.
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)
Gradually and collaboratively, we practice eating outside the rules and tolerating the anxiety that follows, building evidence that flexibility is survivable and, eventually, freeing.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently Asked Questions
01
Is it really a problem if I just want to eat healthy?
Wanting to eat well is not a problem. Orthorexia becomes a concern when the pursuit of healthy eating causes significant anxiety, limits your social life, or takes up a disproportionate amount of your mental energy. The question is not what you eat, but how much control the rules have over your life.
02
I exercise a lot, but I am also an athlete. How do I know if it is compulsive?
The key distinction is the relationship with exercise, not the volume. If rest feels terrifying, if missing a session ruins your day, or if exercise is primarily driven by anxiety or compensation rather than performance or enjoyment, those are signs worth exploring.
03
Will you tell me to stop exercising or eat foods I am uncomfortable with?
No. Change happens collaboratively and gradually. We build toward flexibility together, at a pace that feels manageable. Nothing is forced or prescribed without your input.
04
Do you take insurance?
I am an out-of-network provider and do not bill insurance directly. A superbill is provided, which you can submit to your insurance for possible out-of-network reimbursement. I recommend contacting your insurance provider to understand your out-of-network benefits before we begin.
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SESSION LENGTH
SESSION FEE
$250
per session
PAYMENT
Credit & debit
cards accepted
INSURANCE
Out-of-Network
Superbill provided
READY TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP?
The first step is just a conversation.
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