How Emily Formea is Helping Women Recover from Trauma Caused by Eating Disorders and Balance their Relationship with Food

According to a recent study, out of thirty million people in the US, twenty million are women who have been diagnosed with some form of an eating disorder. This statistic sheds light on the severity of the health issue and shows the great challenge many women have when it comes to having a balanced and healthy relationship with food. Unless more is done, these increasing numbers will mean even greater numbers of individuals suffering. 

Eating disorders often result in women due to low esteem, feelings of being insecure, and can lead to suicidal cases among countless other negativities. However, it doesn’t have to remain like this. Recovering from this disorder is possible, especially if guided by someone who knows firsthand this type of suffering and who found healing within their own life. Emily Formea, is an expert in this field and from her experience, she has come on board to help women live a life free from disorderly eating and also, help every girl who thinks she can never live without her food or body insecurities.

Helping them Understand the Cause

After setting herself free from 9 years of an eating disorder, Formea couldn’t just let what she had learned through the healing process herself go to waste. She has come out to help all women willing to take steps toward recovery and to help them find their way to freedom. Formea knows that a key is for women to learn how to balance the relationship between themselves, their food, and their plates. “At first, it’s frustrating and somewhat unsettling because your food struggles have become your coping mechanism, but for my clients, I help them realize how to release that control/perfectionism around their food and also how to become their own cheerleader when it comes to recovery and wanting a better life for yourself,” Formea stated. 

Many women seek medical attention, spending a lot of money in hospitals while trying to find a solution, but they end up going back to square zero and often feel more defeated than before. She also passionately noted, “I think this is no fault to the medical professionals! I think there is a major misconception with eating disorders being that food is the problem, so let’s just keep manipulating and talking about food. When for myself and millions of others, the problem was never with food, it was much deeper, and no matter how many meal plans or nutritionists or specialists I saw, three weeks after I would end up struggling with food again.” With the guidance of Formea, women are able to have an entirely different kind of recovery – one that is lasting and meaningful.

Though Formea is only 23-years old, she has much wisdom to share and is using sure ways to help women recover while helping them accept themselves for who they are and not what people perceive them to be. She also brings them into an understanding that in most cases the disorder originated from an incident occurring within childhood. This crucial understanding helps start the process for them to heal from the trauma. Usually, understanding where the problem comes from is the easiest way to find solutions. Formea helps them do exactly this as the first recovery step.

Overcome Perfectionism

Seeking perfection in any form is more harmful than meets the eye, especially when it comes to recovery. More specifically, women/girls tend to hold so much onto perfectionism without knowing that it highly contributes to continued suffering. In most cases, the women Formea works with try to be perfect in almost all the areas of their lives and that leads to them suffering from an eating disorder. It has been confirmed that women concentrate more on their physical appearance than men, which also leads to them not being satisfied with their body sizes, among other societal influences and media impacting their mindset of what is needed to have the ideal body figure and ideal lifestyle with it. Formea explained, “If you believe that you MUST look a certain way to be loved then you will do anything to achieve that certain image, which is how eating disorders start out, but what if we can change how you believe you MUST be to matter and to be loved and to be accepted? Then there is nothing to change in terms of food or your body size.”

Always trying to fit in, striving to be accepted by others, and the fear of ‘never being good enough’ has led to many women suffering from eating disorders. Sometimes it may have been caused by a comment that was made when one was a child and has now stretched to adulthood, which now comes at the worst times when having to fight a disorder many are not even aware of or certainly can struggle to be aware of the root ‘why.’ Formea, having healed from perfectionism among other contributing factors has been coaching women how to overcome these inner battles, and gives them tips on how to balance their relationship with food, fall in love with their bodies, and gain a sense of self-worth outside their diets and scales.

Gain Freedom From Food

Eating disorders are challenging and complex, but Formea also wants women to learn that they are often based on falsehood, “Eating disorders tell a lie. They make you believe that you are in complete control of your food, which means you are in complete control of your body, which means you are in complete control of your life. What I never realized in the depths of my food struggles was that I was never the one in control, I was the one being controlled,” Formea elaborated.

Reaching that low point is easier than most can imagine, but things get tougher when one realizes that they are living a life without freedom. “Falling into the fairytale of ‘my life will be so much better once I am this size’ is easier than I wish it was thanks to diet culture and our society today, however, it’s awareness that got me out of my disorder. Awareness around what my poor food relationship was truly bringing me, what sort of life it would provide me and how I didn’t want to be controlled forever,” Formea recalled.

 “The only way to gain freedom is by changing how much power and meaning we give food as women. And, knowing yourself deeply and focusing on fighting for the freedom you have been longing to have can help you achieve more than many thought you would,” explained Formea.

All of the strategies and advice Formea gives while coaching others are rooted in her own personal experiences. She successfully gained her freedom from food and learned many lessons worth sharing along the way. She continues to be of great help to women and she is not about to stop. She finds fuel through her strength to continue, and she is committed to helping millions of women out there. Reach out if you or someone you know is struggling. Formea might just be the very coach needed to help you live a life of food freedom and acceptance for the incredible woman you already are.