Breaking Free: Hope for the Christian Struggling with an Eating Disorder
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Psalm 34:18
More Than Just Food: The Deeper Struggle.
Every 52 minutes, someone loses their life to the devastating effects of disordered eating. That’s more than 27,000 lives every year—stolen by a culture that tells us we are never thin enough, never perfect enough, never enough.
And the most heartbreaking part? It starts young.
A study from the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders revealed that more than half of 9- and 10-year-old girls already feel negatively about their bodies. Many believe that dieting and restriction will make them feel better about themselves. At an age when they should be carefree—playing, dreaming, and discovering who they are—they are already at war with their own reflection.
By adolescence, the numbers become even more alarming. A survey by the National Eating Disorders Association found that 92% of girls between 14 and 19 want to change their appearance through dieting or exercise. More than half reported feeling disgusted and worthless because of their body size, shape, or weight.
Think about that. Worthless.
We live in a world where young girls are taught to measure their worth in pounds and inches, where self-love is replaced with self-criticism, and where disordered eating is disguised as “health” and “discipline.”
It’s not just a phase. It’s a crisis. And it’s time we start paying attention.
Because every 52 minutes, someone pays the ultimate price for a battle they should have never had to fight.
Who Really Struggles? The Truth About Eating Disorders
When most people picture someone with an eating disorder, they imagine a thin, young, white girl—but that image barely scratches the surface of reality. In truth, less than 6% of those struggling with an eating disorder are underweight.
Eating disorders don’t always look the way we expect. They hide in plain sight, affecting people of all ages, backgrounds, and body types. They could be the straight-A student who seems to have it all together. The mom of three who appears to eat “normally.” The fitness enthusiast who never misses a workout. The coworker who either refuses dessert at every gathering or seems to lose control around food. The senior citizen who never skips her morning walk. The quiet child who avoids the pool, not because they don’t like swimming, but because they don’t like being seen.
Eating disorders don’t have a single face, and they don’t fit into one neat category. They are everywhere woven into the lives of people who seem "fine" on the outside but are silently struggling within.
It’s time we stop assuming who is and isn’t affected. The truth is, struggles with food and body image are far more common than we realize, far beyond the narrow examples we’ve been shown.
From personal experience, I know this journey all too well. My path to recovery from an eating disorder has been anything but linear. I’ve been overweight, underweight, and everything in between, wrestling with how I see myself and how I relate to food. Doctors have praised me, scolded me, and sometimes not even noticed my struggles. I’ve hated my body, obsessed over every calorie, and let the number on the scale dictate my worth deciding whether I deserved to enjoy time with friends, whether I should feel proud or ashamed, whether I was "good enough" for the day.
But the truth is, no number, no diet, and no body size could ever determine my value. And it wasn’t until I truly surrendered my struggles to Christ that I began to find real freedom.
By the grace of God, through His strength and the people and resources, like faith-based treatment, He has provided me freedom. My relationship with food and my body isn’t perfect, but it is no longer my master. Jesus is.
The battles I’ve fought and the healing I’ve experienced have ignited a deep calling in me—to help others break free from the chains of disordered eating and negative body image. My heart is especially burdened for Christian women who struggle with body image, body dysmorphia, and disordered eating, and I am passionate about walking alongside them through Christian counseling and faith-based healing.
If you’re struggling, you were never meant to fight this battle alone. There is hope, there is healing, and it is found not just in recovery—but in Christ Himself.
Eating disorders and body image struggles are about food—and yet, paradoxically, they are not about food at all. At their core, they often stem from something much deeper: a longing for love, security, and acceptance. Many of us have experienced moments where rejection, conditional love, or a sense of unworthiness became subtly (or blatantly) linked to our weight or appearance.
Maybe it was a careless comment from a family member that planted a lie in your heart—that your body determined your worth. Maybe you remember the moment you felt the need to control, punish, or change your body to feel loved or accepted. Maybe food became either the enemy or the obsession, dictating how you felt about yourself each day.
But food was never meant to be the battleground for our self-worth. God never intended for our value to be measured by a number on a scale or the reflection in a mirror. Scripture reminds us that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14), created in His image, and deeply loved—not because of how we look, but because of who He is.
Hopefully, you have memories of enjoying ice cream straight from the carton or savoring pizza as the cheese melted—moments of simple, joyful connection with food, rather than fear or guilt. And even more, I pray you’ve experienced the joy of noticing what your body can do—how it moves, breathes, dances, runs, and carries you through life.
True freedom isn’t found in controlling our bodies—it’s found in surrendering them. Christ didn’t come to give us a life of obsession, shame, or striving. He came to set us free. If you’re struggling with disordered eating or body image, know this: Your body is not the problem. Your weight is not your worth. And in Christ, there is healing, hope, and wholeness waiting for you.
In a world that constantly bombards us with impossible beauty standards, it’s easy to believe that our worth is tied to how we look. But that is a lie. The deep, unshakable truth is that our bodies are a gift from God, and our true value has nothing to do with a number on the scale, a dress size, or how we compare to the images we see online.
Yet, so many of us fall into the exhausting cycle of chasing approval through our appearance, believing that if we could just lose weight, tone up, or fit a certain ideal, we’d finally feel worthy. But this strategy never leads to freedom—it only leaves us feeling more trapped.
Freedom Through Christ: Healing Is Possible
When we take the time to understand why we feel the way we do about our bodies, food, and exercise, we can begin to replace shame with God’s Truth, fear with faith, and control with trust. This is where real change happens.
Lasting struggles with food and body image often require more than just knowledge—they require healing in community. God created us for connection, and sometimes, we need a caring, supportive person to walk with us through the journey of understanding ourselves and creating a healthier relationship with food. Faith-based treatment from an eating disorder allows you to not only know the why behind your behavior but the One who can set you free.
Whether you feel completely trapped by an eating disorder, believe you’re "not sick enough" to need help, or are somewhere in the middle, I’ve been there. And I want you to know:
💛 Recovery is possible.
💛 Freedom is waiting for you.
💛 You are worth more than a life spent counting calories and fearing food.
If you or someone you love is struggling with disordered eating, negative body image, or compulsive exercise and is looking for Christian counseling—and lives in Illinois—please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can contact me at Tessa@finishwellgroup.com or call me directly at 331.267.5005.
Life is too short to count almonds. True freedom comes not in perfecting our bodies, but in surrendering them to the One who created them. Please contact me if this blog resonated with you, I'd be honored to walk this journey with you and witness the love and power of Christ break the chains of diet culture in your life.