988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Free, confidential crisis support for anyone in distress — not only for suicidal thoughts. Call, text, or chat online. Veterans can press 1 after dialling.
Resources
Everything we know of, in one place.
None of it is ours, none of it pays us, and most of it costs nothing.
Helplines
Someone to talk to today.
Crisis lines first, then eating-disorder-specific support lines. The two are different: a crisis line is staffed around the clock for immediate danger, and an eating disorder helpline is not.
Crisis Text Line
Text-only crisis support with a trained volunteer counsellor. Useful if you cannot speak out loud, or cannot be overheard.
Text HOME to 741741crisistextline.org
ANAD Helpline
Eating-disorder-specific support, staffed by trained volunteers with lived experience. Not a crisis line, but the closest thing to one that understands this illness specifically.
1-888-375-7767Mon–Fri, 9am–9pm CTanad.org
The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness
A helpline answered by licensed therapists, who will also help you find treatment in your area through their free FREED referral service.
1-866-662-1235Mon–Fri, 9am–7pm ETallianceforeatingdisorders.com
SAMHSA National Helpline
Free, confidential treatment referral and information for mental health and substance use, in English and Spanish. They will not turn you away for not having insurance.
NAMI HelpLine
General mental health information, navigation, and support for you or a family member — including help understanding insurance and levels of care.
The Trevor Project
Crisis support for LGBTQ+ young people under 25, by phone, text, or chat.
1-866-488-7386Text START to 678-678thetrevorproject.org
Trans Lifeline
A peer support line run by and for trans people. No non-consensual active rescue — they do not call emergency services on you.
Outside the United States
Find a Helpline
Search verified free crisis and support lines in more than 130 countries. The right starting point if you are outside the US.
Beat
The UK eating disorder charity. Helplines for adults and for under-18s, plus online one-to-one chat and support groups.
NEDIC
The National Eating Disorder Information Centre — helpline, instant chat, and a searchable directory of Canadian services.
Butterfly Foundation
National eating disorder support line, webchat, and email, plus resources for families.
Bodywhys
The Irish eating disorders association — helpline, email support, and online support groups.
EDANZ
Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand, with a focus on supporting families and carers.
Samaritans
Round-the-clock listening support for anything at all, free from any phone.
Organisations
Who is actually doing something.
Nonprofits and professional bodies with free services attached — support groups, mentoring, insurance navigation, and treatment funding. Several of these will do more for you in a week than we can.
ANAD
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Free peer support groups, a free recovery mentor program that pairs you with someone further along, and a treatment directory.
The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness
Runs dozens of free, therapist-led virtual support groups every week — for people with eating disorders, for loved ones, and for specific communities. One of the best free resources that exists.
Project HEAL
Works on the actual barrier for most people: cost. Insurance navigation, free clinical assessments, cash assistance, and treatment placement for people who cannot pay.
NEDA
The National Eating Disorders Association. Its phone helpline closed in 2023, but the free online screening tool and the resource and treatment directories remain useful.
F.E.A.S.T.
Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders. Free, evidence-based information written for parents and carers, plus a global peer forum. No fees, no advertising.
Academy for Eating Disorders
The international professional body. Its Medical Care Standards guide is free, and it is the document to hand a GP who is not sure what to check for.
MEDA
The Multi-Service Eating Disorders Association — referrals, free support groups, and education across New England and online.
FEDUP Collective
A trans, intersex, and gender-diverse collective working on eating disorder access and advocacy for people the mainstream system routinely fails.
Nalgona Positivity Pride
Eating disorder education and support centred on QTBIPOC and Indigenous communities, including a fund for treatment costs.
Eating Disorders Coalition
Federal policy advocacy on eating disorder research, treatment access, and insurance parity. Where to go if you want to do something about the system rather than only survive it.
Free & low-cost
If money is the reason.
It usually is. Everything in this section is free or under $80 a session, and none of it requires a diagnosis, a referral, or insurance.
Alliance virtual support groups
Free, therapist-led, online, and running most days of the week. Separate groups for eating disorders, for loved ones, for men, for LGBTQ+ people, and for people in larger bodies.
ANAD peer support & recovery mentors
Free virtual peer groups, plus a mentor program that pairs you one-to-one with someone in sustained recovery. Waitlists happen; join anyway.
Eating Disorders Anonymous
Free peer meetings, online and in person, built around recovery rather than abstinence or weight. No dues, no fees.
Open Path Collective
A nonprofit that connects people without adequate insurance to therapists charging $40–$80 a session, for a one-time membership fee.
University training clinics
Most universities with a clinical psychology or counselling program run a public clinic staffed by supervised trainees, often on a sliding scale down to almost nothing. Search your nearest university plus “psychology training clinic.”
Recovery Record & Rise Up + Recover
Self-monitoring apps built for eating disorder recovery rather than for dieting. Both have free tiers and neither tracks weight by default. Turn off anything that starts to feel like a score.
Finding treatment
Levels of care, plainly.
Treatment is not one thing, and knowing the words makes it much easier to ask for the right one.
Outpatient is a weekly therapist, often alongside a dietitian and a GP. IOP (intensive outpatient) is roughly three hours a day, three to five days a week, with meals supported. PHP (partial hospitalisation) is most of the day, most days, and you sleep at home. Residential is living at a facility with 24-hour support but no acute medical care. Inpatient is a hospital, for medical instability — heart rhythm, electrolytes, refeeding risk.
You are allowed to ask a provider directly which level they think you need and why, and to ask what happens if you cannot afford it. A good clinic answers both without flinching.
FindTreatment.gov
The federal treatment locator, covering mental health and substance use facilities including those that take Medicaid or offer sliding-scale fees.
Alliance FREED referral
A free, no-obligation conversation with a licensed clinician who will find treatment options near you at the level of care you actually need.
Project HEAL treatment access
Applications for insurance navigation, a free clinical assessment, or funded treatment placement if cost is the reason you are not in care.
Psychology Today
The largest therapist directory. Filter by “eating disorders,” then by insurance and by telehealth. Read the whole profile — specialising in this is not the same as listing it.
iaedp provider directory
Clinicians who hold a certification specific to eating disorders, rather than a general licence with an interest.
IFEDD
The International Federation of Eating Disorder Dietitians — the place to find a dietitian who works with eating disorders specifically, not a nutritionist who works with diets.
Screening
Tools that tell you whether to ask.
A screen is not a diagnosis and it cannot rule anything out. What it can do is give you a sentence to open with when you sit down in front of a doctor.
NEDA Screening Tool
The most widely used free online screen, appropriate for age 13 and up. It tells you whether it is worth speaking to a professional. It does not diagnose anything.
EAT-26
The Eating Attitudes Test, in use since 1982 and still the standard self-report screen in research and clinics. Scored instantly, free.
The SCOFF questionnaire
Five questions used by GPs as a first pass. Two or more “yes” answers suggests a likely eating disorder and is a reason to see a doctor: Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full? Do you worry you have lost Control over how much you eat? Have you recently lost more than One stone (14lb) in three months? Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are thin? Would you say Food dominates your life?
AED “Nine Truths”
A one-page, evidence-based corrective to the most common myths — including that eating disorders are a choice, are about vanity, or only affect thin young women. Useful to send to someone who does not get it.
Reading
Books worth your time.
Most are available second-hand for a few dollars, and every one of them is in public libraries. We earn nothing from any of these — there are no affiliate links anywhere on this site.
Restriction & anorexia
Life Without EdJenni SchaeferThe book most people are handed first. Treats the eating disorder as a separate voice you can argue with — simple, and it works for a lot of people.
8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating DisorderCarolyn Costin & Gwen Schubert GrabbWritten by two therapists who both recovered themselves. Structured, practical, and the closest thing to a workbook on this list.
Sick EnoughJennifer L. Gaudiani, MDA physician explaining, plainly, what an eating disorder does to a body at any size. The book to read if you have decided you are not ill enough to count.
Eating in the Light of the MoonAnita Johnston, PhDUses story and metaphor rather than clinical language. Divides opinion; the people it lands for tend to keep it for years.
Rehabilitate, Rewire, Recover!Tabitha FarrarFocused specifically on the part nobody prepares you for — what happens after weight restoration, when the rules are still running.
Decoding AnorexiaCarrie ArnoldWhat the neuroscience actually shows, written for a general reader. Useful against the idea that this is a choice or a phase.
Almost AnorexicJennifer J. Thomas & Jenni SchaeferFor the very large group who never met diagnostic criteria, or met them once and were quietly discharged.
GainingAimee LiuInterviews with people years past treatment about what recovery actually looked like over a lifetime, including relapse.
Bingeing & the restrict-binge cycle
Overcoming Binge EatingChristopher G. FairburnThe standard self-help text, written by the researcher behind CBT-E. Clinical in tone, genuinely evidence-based, and available second-hand everywhere.
Brain over BingeKathryn HansenA specific, contrarian model of bingeing as an urge you can decline to act on. Not for everyone, but for some people it is the one that clicks.
Intuitive EatingEvelyn Tribole & Elyse ReschBest used later in recovery rather than at the start. Ten principles for getting out of the restrict-and-rebound cycle.
Anti-DietChristy HarrisonThe cultural context: why the behaviour you are trying to stop is praised everywhere outside your own kitchen.
Reclaiming Body TrustHilary Kinavey & Dana SturtevantWritten for people whose relationship with food was shaped by weight stigma and years of being told to shrink.
For families & partners
Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating DisorderJames Lock & Daniel Le GrangeBy the two clinicians behind family-based treatment. If you are a parent, start here.
Skills-based Caring for a Loved One with an Eating DisorderJanet Treasure, Gráinne Smith & Anna CraneThe New Maudsley method — what to say, what not to say, and how to stay in the room without becoming part of the illness.
When Your Teen Has an Eating DisorderLauren MuhlheimA practical parent's manual for refeeding at home with professional support.
Sick EnoughJennifer L. Gaudiani, MDAlso worth reading as a family member, so you know what the medical risks look like from the outside.
What we have left off, on purpose
There is a whole genre of eating disorder memoir that reports weights, calorie counts, and lowest points in detail. Some of it is beautifully written. It is also, for a lot of people in the middle of this, instructional — and it is the most reliably reported trigger for relapse we know of. None of it is on this page, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight.
The same goes for anything that ranks bodies, publishes before-and-after photographs, or treats a number as an outcome.
For other people
If you are not the one who is ill.
For families & partners
What helps, what makes it worse, and what to do when someone you love will not talk about it. Written for the person standing next to it.
If you are worried right now
Crisis lines, what counts as a medical emergency, and what to do tonight if waiting until Monday does not feel safe.
About this list
Listing an organisation here is not an endorsement of everything it does, and it is not a clinical recommendation. We are not qualified to make one. What these have in common is that they are established, they are reachable, and most of them cost nothing.
We take no referral fees and pay none. Nobody on this page has paid to be here, and no link earns us anything.
Phone numbers, opening hours, and web addresses change. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us at hello@joinovercome.com and we will fix it.
Nothing on this page is medical advice, and none of it replaces seeing a doctor who can examine you.