16 Jul 2026 · Publication · 1 min read
The Times: I cured my eating disorder using virtual reality
A pioneering project puts people with anorexia and bulimia in a room with a digital avatar of the demon voice inside their head. But will it work for everyone?
The Sunday Times has published a long-form feature by Jenny Kleeman on the use of VR-based avatar therapy for eating disorders — putting people living with anorexia and bulimia face to face with a digital avatar of the critical inner voice that drives their illness.
The piece follows the therapeutic dialogue at the heart of the approach: patients give the voice a face and a sound, then — with a clinician seated beside them throughout — practise answering back. It is the same externalising mechanism validated in avatar therapy for auditory hallucinations, adapted here for the intrusive thoughts that characterise eating disorders.
Alongside patient accounts, the article weighs the open questions: who the intervention helps most, how it fits into existing eating disorder services, and what evidence is still needed before wider rollout. The full article is available to Times subscribers.
