Facing Fear Foods and Finding Freedom: How Exposure Therapy Supports Eating Disorder Recovery
When people hear “exposure therapy,” they often imagine something harsh or intimidating, like being forced to face your biggest fears before you’re ready. But that’s not what healing looks like. In eating disorder recovery, exposure and response prevention (ERP) is actually about gentle courage. It’s about slowly reclaiming your freedom, step by step, with the support of someone who’s in it with you.
What The Heck Is ERP?
ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) helps you face the things that trigger anxiety or distress and teaches your brain that you can handle them without falling back on old coping patterns.
In eating recovery, that might look like trying a fear food, eating out with friends, or sitting with the discomfort that comes after a meal instead of trying to fix it.
The “exposure” part means intentionally facing the feared food or situation.
The “response prevention” part means practicing not engaging in the behaviors that give temporary relief, like restriction, avoidance, or compensatory habits.
With time, your brain starts to learn that the situation isn’t dangerous. You begin to trust yourself again, to eat, to feel, and to live without fear steering the wheel.
It Takes a Community!!
Exposure work doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s something we do together. My job isn’t to push you into something you’re not ready for, it’s to walk beside you as you build confidence and safety along the way. I like to give this example: if you throw a new swimmer into the deep end of a pool and expect them to swim, they are actually going to sink and probably choose to never swim again. Instead you must start them in the shallow end and slowly teach them the skills to get to them to the deep end. In the same way I strongly believe that exposures to internal and external stimulus that we have fearfully avoided takes slow and intentional steps.
Here’s what it often looks like:
We start with trust. Before doing any exposures, we build grounding skills and talk through what feels safe and what doesn’t. You’re always in control of the pace.
We make a plan together. We’ll create an exposure hierarchy that starts small, maybe with something that’s a 3 out of 10 on your fear scale, and build up from there.
We process as we go. During exposures, I help you tune into your body, notice what’s coming up, and respond with compassion instead of panic or judgment.
We celebrate the little wins. Every single step counts. Sometimes the win is just showing up. Other times it’s taking that first bite or trying something new and realizing the world didn’t fall apart.
ERP isn’t about being perfect or getting over your fear overnight. It’s about learning that you can feel discomfort and still be okay. You can handle it. You can trust yourself.
The Big Beautiful Picture
Ultimately, ERP is about building trust, trust in your body, your hunger cues, your emotions, and your ability to move through fear without letting it run your life.
Each small exposure becomes a message to your brain that says, “See? I can do hard things.” Over time, that trust expands beyond food and into your relationships, your sense of self, and how you show up in the world.
Instead of simply focusing on the messy and hard exposure steps, let's shift our view broader to our "why". You don't put a book down when the main character is experiencing suffering, you stay with the story line with the hope that there is restoration.
Final Thoughts
If the idea of exposure therapy sounds scary, I get it. Most people feel that way at first. But it’s not about diving in before you’re ready, it’s about finding safety in the process and compassion in the discomfort.
Therapy gives you a space where fear is met with empathy and where you learn to take back your life from the eating disorder’s rules, one brave, grounded step at a time.
You don’t have to face fear foods or anxiety alone. With support, patience, and practice, healing really does become possible, and it starts with one small, courageous step.
Comments
Post a Comment