Liv Label Free

Trust is one of the most important things in eating disorder treatment.

And when I was doing MFT for my eating disorder, that trust was nowhere to be found.

On the first day, all of the girls in the group were asked to make a list of our fear foods. But none of us wrote anything down because we knew they would probably serve us the foods we put on our lists.

The therapist assured us that the lists were just for us and wouldn’t be used against us. But when one of the girls asked if she could write down a breakfast food – because breakfast was the only meal we didn’t eat in treatment – the therapist immediately said no.

In the end, none of us wrote anything down and the exercise failed.

But the problem wasn’t the exercise itself. Making a list of your fear foods – if you have them – can be a helpful way to challenge them.

What bothered me was that it made me lose trust in the treatment team. If they weren’t being honest about this, what else weren’t they being honest about?

Instead of helping me open up, the experience caused me to retreat even further into my eating disorder because I no longer felt safe.

That’s why I’m incredibly grateful that I chose to leave that treatment and find support elsewhere. Looking back, I believe trust and safety are essential in eating disorder recovery, especially as an autistic person.🌟

And when I started looking for different support, I found Liv Label Free! During my 1:1 coaching with Livia, she never invalidated my concerns or used my words against me. Instead, she worked with me and encouraged me to take steps at a pace that felt safe and sustainable.🫂

If you’re looking for support in a safe and compassionate environment, you can secure a 1:1 coaching spot with Livia at livlabelfree.com/coaching!🌈

When you listen to your soul and channel its energy, you begin to realize that the boundaries you’ve been living by were never really yours to begin with.

That’s why I love the term “discovery” when talking about eating disorders.

Because recovery is often framed as going back to who you were before the eating disorder. But what if the version of you before the eating disorder was already struggling? What if the eating disorder developed because you were trying to cope with a life that never truly felt aligned?

Discovery is different.

It’s not about going backwards. It’s about discovering who you are beneath the fear, the masking, and the adaptations you’ve used to survive. It’s about learning to listen to what your soul has been trying to tell you all along.

When you approach freedom through discovery, you’re not trying to return to an old version of yourself. You’re creating a life that actually aligns with who you are.🌟

If you’d like to explore this approach further, you can join my Autistically ED-Free Academy. In this 8-week program, neurodivergent individuals and caregivers learn how to support complete freedom while embracing neurodivergent traits.🫂

And for the first time ever, I’m also offering the Academy as a 1:1 experience, meaning you can start your discovery journey immediately with personalized coaching from me! Spots are limited, so you can secure yours at livlabelfree.com/coaching!🌈

My autism discovery made it harder to just push through.

Don’t get me wrong, discovering that I’m autistic improved my life in so many ways. For the first time, I understood why I felt the way I did and could finally start accommodating my needs.

But it also challenged a big part of my identity.

I’ve always been someone who never gives up. If I set my mind to something, I would do it no matter what. Whether it was school, sports, social events, or work, I always pushed through.

Before I knew I was autistic, I could ignore my struggles because I didn’t understand where they came from. I knew something felt “off,” but I convinced myself to keep going anyway.

After my autism discovery, that became much harder.
Once I understood that my exhaustion, overwhelm, and struggles were connected to being autistic, I couldn’t unsee it anymore. Things that I used to force myself through suddenly felt impossible to ignore.

And that was difficult, because it felt like I was losing a part of myself. For a long time, I thought my ability to push through anything was one of my greatest strengths.

Now, I’m learning that I’m so much more than my ability to ignore my own needs.🩷

I’m learning to value the autistic traits I love about myself: my compassion, my deep feelings, my creativity, and my love for animals. And while I’m still navigating this journey, I’m slowly realizing that honoring myself is not the same as giving up.

This is something Livia and I talk about in the latest episode of the Liv Label Free Podcast: “Grieving Your Autism Discovery (with Julia).” If you’ve ever struggled with the grief that can come after discovering you’re autistic, this episode is for you!🎧

You can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform and let me know what you think of it!🌈

“I thought I was the problem.”

Before I knew I was autistic, I was constantly told to “stop being sensitive,” “just suck it up,” or “stop being so dramatic.”
And because no one around me seemed to feel the same way, I genuinely believed I was too sensitive. I thought I just had to push through experiences that overwhelmed my nervous system.

Then I discovered that I’m autistic, and I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

I realized that I wasn’t too sensitive or dramatic. My brain and nervous system simply work differently. So when something feels like too much, or I go into fight-or-flight mode over something that seems “small” to others, I’m not overreacting.

This realization changed my life.

But discovering I’m autistic wasn’t only positive. It also brought a lot of grief. And that’s exactly what Julia and I talk about in the latest episode of the Liv Label Free Podcast: “Grieving Your Autism Discovery (with Julia).”💛

You can listen on your preferred podcast platform!🎧

And if you relate to Julia’s and my experiences and would like support navigating your own discovery journey, you can secure a 1:1 coaching spot with me at livlabelfree.com/coaching.🌈

My eating disorder was never about weight loss.

On the outside, it looked like it was. I was terrified of gaining weight, restricting my food intake, and exercising excessively.
But when I discovered that I’m autistic, I realized my eating disorder was actually a way to suppress my autistic traits.

It numbed my existential fear, gave me structure in a chaotic world, and helped me cope with the discomfort of being in my body.

The problem was that nobody knew I was autistic during treatment. So all of my therapy focused on improving my body image and getting me to eat more, because that was supposed to “cure” my eating disorder.

Unfortunately, it didn’t help me at all. If anything, it made me feel even more misunderstood.

That’s why my parents and I decided to step away from traditional eating disorder services and look for a different approach.

That’s how I eventually found Livia and started 1:1 coaching with her. And honestly, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.🩷

She was the first person who truly understood my experience as an autistic person struggling with an eating disorder, and I’ll always be grateful for that.☀️

If you’re looking for support from someone with lived experience, you can learn more about working with Livia at livlabelfree.com/coaching!🌈

“I started listening to your podcast at 65, and that’s when I realized my eating struggles were rooted in neurodivergence.”

These are the words of someone who reached out to me after discovering they were neurodivergent later in life. And this kind of discovery often comes with very mixed emotions.

On the one hand, there’s immense grief. You’ve spent your whole life believing there was something wrong with you, that you were broken, lazy, difficult, or simply not trying hard enough. On the other hand, there’s immense relief, because you realize you were never broken in the first place.

There are other people like you. There’s a reason for your struggles. There’s an explanation for why life has felt so hard.

But no matter how much relief and self-compassion this discovery brings, it’s also heartbreaking that so many people spend decades believing they’re the problem simply because there is still so little awareness of neurodivergence and its connection to eating struggles.

That’s exactly why I created Liv Label Free: to help people discover freedom from eating struggles while honoring their neurodivergent needs.🫂

If you recognize yourself in this story or feel like traditional therapy never fully understood you, you can secure a 1:1 coaching spot with me at livlabelfree.com/coaching!🌈

“Every single bit of my desire to binge had gone away.”

In our podcast episode “The Neurodivergent Connection to Binge Eating, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and Body Image”, Kory shares her experience with binge eating and how she eventually discovered there was a connection between her binge urges and her neurodivergence.

When she started ADHD medication, something unexpected happened: her desire to binge almost disappeared overnight.

This conversation reminded me of an email I recently received from someone interested in coaching. When I asked her to share a little about her story, she told me she had spent hours searching the internet for information about the connection between autism and overeating, only to find very little that resonated with her.

“It’s all about anorexia and ARFID,” she wrote.

And she’s right. While more people are starting to talk about autism and restrictive eating disorders, there is still very little discussion about the connection between autism, ADHD, and binge eating.

That’s exactly why conversations like this matter.☀️

If you relate to the experience of being a neurodivergent person who struggles with binge eating, you can listen to the full episode “The Neurodivergent Connection to Binge Eating, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), and Body Image w/ Kory Andreas” on your preferred podcast platform.🎧

And if you want to learn even more about the connection between autism and overeating, you can read my Autism and Binge Eating Series on my blog at livlabelfree.com/blog/autism-and-binge-eating-part-1 🌈

“I spent so many years of my life feeling like an alien.”

In the latest episode of the Livlabelfree Podcast, Kory shares how, for years, she felt different from everyone around her. She was convinced that other people were fun, easy-going, and naturally knew how to navigate life, while she felt like she was constantly struggling to fit in.

But everything started to change when she met other neurodivergent people. For the first time, she realized there was nothing wrong with her.

In fact, when she looks at the neurodivergent people in her life, she doesn’t see people who are “too much,” “too rigid,” or “too weird.” She sees people who are honest, authentic, and unapologetically themselves. And that inspired her to do the same.

I think that’s the power of finding people who truly understand you. It can feel incredibly lonely when you believe you’re the only person who experiences the world the way you do. But discovering that there are others like you can be life-changing.🌟

That’s exactly why I created the Autistically ED-Free Academy: a safe space where neurodivergent people and caregivers can learn how to create their own unique version of freedom while honoring neurodivergent needs.
The Academy is more than a program – it’s a community of like-minded people who support each other.🫂

The next Academy starts on 4 September. If you’d like to join us, you can secure your seat at livlabelfree.com/group!🌈

“I want to go back to anorexia, because this is horrible.”

That’s what I thought after I had gained 30 pounds in 3 months and got my first period at almost 19.

Everyone around me assumed that this meant I was going to relapse. But that wasn’t what was happening. In fact, my desire had very little to do with an “eating disorder.” What I was actually longing for was an adapted version of myself that felt better able to handle the world and all the challenges that come with it.

As a neurodivergent person, everyday life can be incredibly hard – and, to be honest, quite painful at times. To cope with that, I developed an eating adaptation in an attempt to survive in a world that often felt overwhelming.

An eating disorder turns you into a shell of yourself, but that also means that sensory sensitivities can become numbed and you don’t have to fully experience everything that comes with being alive.

So when I gained weight and got my period back, the awareness of being trapped in a physical body came rushing back. In that sense, it makes sense that I longed for anorexia at that moment, because it had once allowed me to escape that existential discomfort.

So no, I wasn’t relapsing. And I think it’s incredibly important that we learn more about the connection between eating disorders and neurodivergence, because neurodivergent people often need a different kind of support than neurotypical people do. That’s one of the reasons I started Liv Label Free: to support people like me.

One of the resources I’ve created is a FREE audio training. In it, you’ll learn how to transform your neurodivergent traits from perceived “obstacles” into powerful tools that can support your freedom journey. It’s like having a coaching session with me – completely free.☀️

You can listen to the audio training at livlabelfree.com/free-audiotraining!🌈