Canberra unveils new signs of eating disorders amid wellness culture warnings

Health professionals in Canberra highlight how behaviours celebrated as discipline or self-care can signal early signs of eating disorders, amid rising concerns and new specialist treatment facilities.

In Canberra, health professionals are warning that behaviours often celebrated as discipline or self-care can, in some cases, be early signs of an eating disorder. Vivienne Lewis, a clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at the University of Canberra, says modern wellness culture can make it harder to spot when food rules, exercise habits and body concerns are becoming harmful.

Lewis says the problem is not simply what someone is doing, but how tightly those habits begin to control daily life. Skipping meals, exercising to compensate for eating, obsessing over calories or feeling unable to rest can all look like commitment from the outside. In practice, they may signal distress, rigidity and mounting anxiety. Public health guidance from Medicare Mental Health also notes that early warning signs often appear in changes to eating patterns, exercise, mood and social behaviour rather than in weight alone.

That message lands in a wider crisis. The Eating Disorders Alliance says more than 1.1 million Australians are thought to be living with an eating disorder, yet many never get treatment. The coalition is urging the Commonwealth to invest $28.7 million to strengthen prevention, support and care. It argues that body dissatisfaction remains the biggest changeable risk factor and that the rise of unregulated weight-loss injectables and online peptides, alongside increasingly narrow beauty ideals promoted by celebrities and influencers, is making the environment more dangerous.

Canberra has built some specialist capacity of its own. Canberra Health Services opened the city’s first publicly funded residential eating disorder treatment centre in September 2024. The 12-bed facility has taken 94 admissions since it began operating, and the health service says there is currently no waiting list. Average occupancy has been 43 days, even though treatment is usually planned to last about 12 weeks.

For people who do not need residential care, the ACT Eating Disorders Clinical Hub is the main entry point to specialist services. Canberra Health Services says people can refer themselves or someone they are worried about for assessment, after which they may be offered community treatment, the STRIDE programme of up to 10 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy, or support for parents and carers of children under 18. The system still has gaps, however, including the lack of a dedicated acute inpatient unit for eating disorders and an intermediate level of care between outpatient support and hospitalisation.

Lewis says families should focus less on appearance and more on the loss of freedom that often comes with disordered eating. If choices about meals, rest, social plans or exercise become increasingly ruled by fear and rigid habits, she says, it is time to pay attention. The clearest early clues, she adds, are often food anxiety, withdrawal from others and compulsive exercise, not a dramatic change in body size.