Psychotherapist
Chrisanna G. Harrington
MA, RD/LD, LMHC
941-613-1790
Depression Anxiety On-Line Therapy
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Eating Disorders
familyAnorexia is the refusal to maintain weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height. This is also combined with an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight. There is also a disturbance in how the person experiences their own body; self evaluation is based on body weight and shape, denial of seriousness of the symptoms and experience of missed menstrual cycles.


familyBulimia Nervosa is a pattern of recurrent binge eating. A binge is defined as eating an abnormal amount of food within a limited amount of time for example a two hour time fame. Purging can be experience by vomiting, laxative use or exercise to purge the body of excessive calories that were ingested. The binging and purging behaviors occur on average at least twice per week over a 3 month time frame.


familyNight Eating Syndrome is a newly discovered eating disorder in which the person has little or no appetite for breakfast. They delay their first meal for several hours after waking up. In this eating disorder the majority of food is eaten in the evening hours, not limited to a 2 hour time frame. The foods consumed are usually sweets or carbohydrate rich foods and guilt around food consumption is common. This pattern has persisted for at least two months to classify as an eating disorder.


familyBinge Eating Disorder is recurrent episodes of binge eating as described above without trying to rid of the calories through vomiting, laxatives or other compensatory method.



International Eating Disorders Association
Eating disorders are triggered by many different aspects in the person’s life. Certainly the media with emphasis on air-brushed beauty and unnaturally thin models do not provide girls and women with realistic role models to know what is healthy. Treatment for eating disorders is very complex starting with a team approach including a physician, dietitian and therapist. Eating Disorders are a mental health illness with physiological consequences that need to be monitored closely by a health care team to include the physician, psychotherapist and dietitian. Read More...
Anorexia Nervosa
The main feature of Anorexia is that the person refuses to maintain a minimally normal body weight. This person may refuse to eat a sufficient amount of food to maintain their health. In so doing, the body starts to shut down. Without energy (calories) supplied by food the body preserves itself to prevent death by decreasing the metabolism, decreasing the heart rate and growing Lanugo (soft, downy hair covering the body to keep it warm.) The body uses all these compensatory mechanisms to preserve life. Do you want to preserve your life?

If you or someone you know is suffering with Anorexia call to seek help… 941-613-1790

Bulimia Nervosa

Someone who has Bulimia may or may not be thin.  Many people with Bulimia may be of normal weight, overweight or obese.  I have had many clients who have mustered their courage to tell a friend or family member about their suffering with Bulimia.  Many have received indifferent comments such as “Bulimic? You don’t look thin enough to be Bulimic!”  There is the double cross.  Already suffering with problematic body image, the Bulimic is crushed first for not appearing sick enough to have an eating disorder and second for opening up to be vulnerable.  Raising once again their shield to the world the Bulimic can retreat back to their safe, yet tortured world.  They go back to their relationship with Bulimia.  You do not have to continue dancing with death.

If you or someone you know is Bulimic, call to seek help… 941-613-1790

Binge Eating
This is a newly recognized Eating Disorder. Binge eating typifies many people of the obese population. Unlike Bulimia the binge is not limited to a two hour period and then purged. In Binge eating, the person continues to eat large portions throughout the day or evening. (Night Eating Syndrome). Eating may even take place in the middle of the night. The eating is not triggered by hunger, however, it is triggered by an addiction to the soothing feeling that eating provides.

If you or someone you know is suffering from Binge Eating Disorder call… 941-613-1790