HALIFAX -- Isolation, food stockpiling, and societal stress have become a part of our every day lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These factors can have a major impact on a person’s mental health, including those who are living with an eating disorder.
“It does create the perfect storm in many ways,” says Shaleen Jones, the executive director of Eating Disorders Nova Scotia.
“Anyone who is experiencing any kind of mental health challenges, certainly these times can exasperate the symptoms they might have. For folks who are living with an eating disorder, they may use exercising, food restriction, or binge-eating as a way of coping with these stressors.”
Jones says one of the signs someone could be experiencing a relapse is an increase in negative thoughts.
“The negative thoughts are called eating disorder thoughts. So things like becoming more rigid in your thinking, using food, eating, not eating, and exercising as a way of coping. So any kind of increase in those. If you are living with someone who has an eating disorder, you may notice more distress emotionally for the person you’re supporting,” says Jones.
“We’re finding that a lot of folks are really experiencing a lot of challenges during this time when their natural ways of coping are being taken away.”
Eating Disorders Nova Scotia is now offering support online for those in need.
“We were in an interesting position before this all happened, because we had started a amalgamating all of our programs to be available online. We recognized that we are a tiny organization, so we were trying to figure out how we could support more people across the province with the limited resources that we have,” says Jones.
“We were hearing themes around people having trouble accessing services from remote or underserved areas and a lot of stigma and shame associated with reaching out and asking for help. So we started migrating all of our programs to be available online to address those two issues. So now we’ve been able to ramp up all the programs that we have. We were running a peer support group once a month and now we are running four per month and they are all filling up. So we are seeing a tripling or quadrupling of folks reaching out for help.”
Jones says the organization also provides support for those who have a loved one struggling with an eating disorder.
“Part of what we have been able to provide to our community is a sounding board and a place to get resources. I encourage anyone, if you feel like you are concerned about a loved one or a family member, to reach out. We have a family member support group that meets online now. We can help navigate those conversations and determine where they can best support that loved one.”
