What is an Eating Disorder?
Who gets Eating Disorders?
How do you get an eating Disorder?
Why does someone develop an Eating Disorder?
Are there different kinds of eating disorders?
Is there a cure for eating disorders?
What kinds of help are available?
What is an Eating Disorder?
An eating
disorder is a condition that develops involving ones thought process
(cognitions) and resulting behaviors. The thought process,
over time, becomes very specific and complicated, directing the
individuals behavior. It often times will distort the way
an individual sees him or herself in the mirror. The eating
disordered thinking process becomes a preoccupation in one’s
mind to the exclusion of other thoughts.
There
are different sub-types of eating disorders that manifest certain
specific behaviors. When an individual with an eating disorder
tries to counter their thoughts and do a different behavior, it
is always distressing to him or her, compelling the individual to
go back to following the eating disordered thinking.
An eating
disorder almost always emerges as an individual is going through
a crisis of some sort in their life. The eating disorder is
an attempt at a solution to a problem at the time that arises from
the subconscious mind.
Who
gets Eating Disorders?
As our
culture becomes more and more inundated with media generated icons
depicting a certain rarely achievable “look”, it becomes
more appealing to certain vulnerable individuals to try to emulate.
The western culture has sold the message that you can be happy
and satisfied with yourself if you are at a certain weight. The
messages are rampant in our culture. You don’t need
to pick up a magazine---you can be talking with your next door neighbor
and they talk about what diet they are on.
The statistics
on the growing number of individuals appearing at treatment centers
for eating disorders is growing at an alarming rate. There
are many factors that make one vulnerable for an eating disorder;
they are as follows:
• living in a culture who idealizes
thinness
• feeling depressed
• having low-self-esteem
• having a parent or family
member who has suffered or is suffering with an eating disorder
• having been teased in one’s
life about one’s body shape
• a person who feels isolated
from peers or someone they could talk with about their feelings
• living in a family system
where problems are not discussed, rather swept under the rug.
How
do you get an eating disorder?
Almost
all individuals who get eating disorders start by beginning to change
their eating patterns. Some people will cut back on certain
foods and others will stop eating all together. As the individual
is reinforced through compliments from friends/family members, and
they feel a sense of accomplishment when the scale goes down, they
become more committed to the practicing of this behavior. The
longer the behavior goes unchallenged, the more risk of entrenchment
in the behaviors.
Other
individuals will get an eating disorder through the influence of
the media and certain books that describe the practices of individuals
who have eating disorders. Many times individuals will learn
how to develop an eating disorder through friends.
Over-time an individual might try to
stop doing certain behaviors and is unable to do so due to enormous
fear. When it becomes impossible to challenge the behaviors
an eating disorder has set in.
Why
does someone develop an Eating Disorder?
An eating
disorder is an attempt, in the absence of adequate resources, to
solve a problem for an individual. For example, someone may
have lost a family member suddenly and is unable to talk about their
feelings and go through the normal grief process. The eating
disorder will give a person a task to do: lose weight; this will
give the mind something else to think about other than the pain
of the loss.
Eating
disorders are a developmental phenomena which conflict in growth
and mastery of developmental challenges are at the core of eating
disorders. Eating disordered behavior has served the purpose
of reduction of anxiety associated with emotional dysregulation.
Are
there different kinds of Eating Disorders?
At the present time there are three
sub-types of eating disorders:
• bulimia nervosa
• anorexia nervosa, restricting
type and purging type
• and eating disorder not otherwise
specified
There is a new classification of eating
disorders called binge eating disorder.
Is
there a cure for Eating Disorders?
Since eating disorders are influenced
and affected by biological factors, psychological factors, and social
systems, they are challenging conditions to treat.
What
kinds of help are available?
There
are different levels of treatment for eating disorders. The
first is individual psychotherapy where a client meets with a therapist
for one hour a week. The treatment may or may not be augmented with
dietary counseling sessions with a dietician. In some cases
a physician is involved to monitor the client medically.
Another
form of treatment when an individual needs more structure and support
to change behaviors, is an intensive out-patient program where the
individual will come to therapy a few times a week and will include
different forms of therapy including individual psychotherapy, family
counseling, and possibly group therapy.
The most
intensive type of treatment available is residential or inpatient
hospitalization where the patient is in a facility for a period
of time. This is when medically the client is not stable and
is needing a more structured environment to assist in recovery.
The therapeutic relationship provides the interpersonal context in which the individual can begin to develop their authentic self and move past the limitations of the Eating Disordered thought process.
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