What happens when chronic illness meets wellness culture, diet culture, and the desperate search for answers in a system that continues to fail so many people? In this episode, I talk with Abbie Attwood, MS, @abbieattwoodwellness, an anti diet, weight inclusive nutrition therapist and host of the Full Plate Podcast.

Abbie and I explore how chronic illness, medical gaslighting, and the pressure to find a cure can intersect with disordered eating. We talk about the ways wellness messaging pushes restrictive food rules, how OCD and anxiety deepen vulnerability to this messaging, and how food fear can feel like control when life feels unpredictable.

We also discuss athlete identity, compulsive exercise, thin privilege, masking, neurodivergence, and the grief that comes when illness or injury forces people to rethink who they are. This conversation opens space for nuance, compassion, and the reality that healing happens inside context, not perfection.

We talk about chronic illness, disordered eating, exercise compulsion, and food restriction. Please take care of yourself as you listen.

Abbie discusses how chronic illness created a perfect storm for disordered eating, especially when wellness messaging promised control, cures, and answers that science did not support.

We talk about how desperation, medical dismissal, and misinformation make people more likely to turn to restrictive food rules and elimination diets.

Abbie shares how her undiagnosed OCD and lifelong anxiety made the rigid, all or nothing tone of wellness culture feel reassuring, while actually deepening harm.

We explore how losing movement due to chronic illness or injury can destabilize identity, trigger grief, and reignite disordered behaviors around exercise.

We discuss how neurodivergent masking can hide exhaustion and overwhelm, and how the pressure to perform health or discipline can push people deeper into food and exercise rigidity.

We look at how chronic illness culture and wellness culture both place responsibility on the individual, leading to shame and self blame when bodies do not behave as expected.

Abbie talks about the need for compassion, ease, adding rather than restricting, and honoring energy limitations instead of forcing strict food rules.

People navigating chronic illness and food anxiety

Listeners recovering from eating disorders

Neurodivergent folks who feel pressured to mask or follow rigid health rules

Athletes or former athletes grieving changes in movement

Anyone tangled in wellness culture messaging

Clinicians who want a deeper understanding of how chronic illness intersects with disordered eating

People who struggle with shame when illness reduces their capacity

Abbie Attwood, MS, is an anti diet, weight inclusive nutrition therapist, writer, and host of the Full Plate Podcast. She provides virtual nutrition therapy and body image support through Abbie Attwood Wellness and writes a widely loved Substack newsletter on healing our relationships with food and body. You can find her at @abbieattwoodwellness and abbieattwoodwellness.com.

Abbie Attwood Wellness Substack: abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com

Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

If you want support for binge eating disorder, ARFID, chronic eating struggles, or complex eating disorder patterns shaped by trauma, neurodivergence, or chronic illness, you can connect with me at drmariannemiller.com for therapy in California, Texas, or Washington D.C. I also offer global coaching and specialized courses.