Eating Disorder Treatment Centers - When Food is the Enemy
Eating disorders are both a psychiatric illness and an addiction problem at the same time. These types of disorders most often affect women between the ages of 14 and 35. It is a problem when women’s daily lives are affected by dominating and overwhelming thoughts of food, of their bodies and of perceived weight issues. Eating disorders can be life threatening if not addressed in the early stages before irreparable harm is done to the body. Eating disorder treatment centers specialize in quality, nurturing and healthy care for patients needing to recover.
Eating disorders come about as the result of a lifelong problem with food being used in the place of emotional satisfaction. Many times, those afflicted with the eating disorder do not even realize they are doing it and that is where the challenge comes for those professionals asked to help. The doctor or counselor must work very closely with the patient in trying to discover where the problem associations began before effective treatment can begin.
There are several types of eating disorders, all of which are dangerous and can be life threatening. The two most well known and widely spread types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Anorexia Nervosa- is the eating disorder in which the person determinedly believes she is fat and must lose weight. There is no such thing as enough weight lost to a person suffering from anorexia. Weight loss strategies such as excessive exercise, laxative use and starvation are regularly used to fight this intense fear of becoming fat. The anorexic will literally starve to death, still believing she is overweight. This particular eating disorder is the one that often affects those in the dance community or in athletics such as running where weight is a critical component of competitiveness. The treatment for anorexia involves inpatient hospitalization, psychotherapy techniques and medications to bring about success in recovery. The key in this eating disorder is that it must be caught in time, for if the body suffers too much damage it cannot recover. This is why anorexia treatment almost always involves intensive inpatient hospitalization to save the life of the person first before addressing the other issues involved. Many anorexia patients die from complications of this eating disorder.
Bulimia Nervosa- those suffering with this particular eating disorder do not starve, but instead binge on foods. They often consume thousands and thousands of calories in one sitting, then purging the food from the body by methods such as vomiting, taking laxatives, fasting, exercising compulsively or using diuretics. This binge-then-purge cycle is repeated many times during the course of a week, sometimes even several times in one day. Bulimia is typically a response to self esteem problems, stress factors or depression issues. During a typical binge-then-purge session, the patient goes through several stages. In the midst of the bingeing, there is an absolute loss of control where a baffling amount of food and calories are consumed in a short period of time. When that moment of bingeing the food has passed, there is an eerie calm where the person is momentarily satisfied and relieved to have gotten what they apparently craved. That calm does not last long before it turns into feelings of self hatred and guilt only to begin the binge-then-purge process all over again. It can be astonishing how often a person sick with bulimia can eat then purge. These eating disorder sufferers are not as easily noticed as those with anorexia because bulimics do eat and are not typically too skinny. In fact, many of them are within a normal range of weight or even somewhat overweight. There is irony in a healthy weight person battling an eating disorder, but it certainly does happen.
The treatment for each of these eating disorders must be highly specialized to the individual patient that is why treatment is so complicated and often very long term to get a person well. Most eating disorder sufferers do not seek treatment on their own but either become terribly ill and die or become ill and seek treatment for medical issues that leads to treatment for the eating disorder as well. Because eating disorders are a psychiatric illness coupled with addictive issues, they must be treated by a team of experts that includes doctors, dieticians, addiction specialists and mental health professionals. This is an intense recovery process that can take years to really take effect.
When treating eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, there are several things, both physical and psychological, that must be addressed:
- First, any medical concerns or emergency situations must be effectively addressed and treated. This is often how eating disorders are discovered, by the patient becoming very ill and needing medical attention.
- Psychotherapy- including family counseling, group counseling and one-on-one therapy, this is where the patient and the counselor try to go back in time in the patient’s life and find out where the root of the eating disorder began. Where the association of food with the destructive behavior first started. This can be a long and arduous process, but it is necessary for the patient to begin healing from the eating disorder that has plagued them.
- Nutrition- proper nutrition and management of food needs to be taught from the ground up. The patient, at the point of crisis, often has zero interest in food and in dealing with food, but must learn the basics of nutrition and go from there.
- Promoting a healthy relationship with food is essential before the nutrition counseling can really take hold. The disdain and even hatred of food must be overcome and a slow but sure process to enjoying food and fueling the body in a healthy way must begin.
Emergency hospitalization must happen if the patient is suffering from severe emergency medical issues, is declining rapidly, very malnourished or suicidal. It is a long road to recovery from the brink of death due to eating disorders, but there is success when the patient is willing and the family is a solid support.
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