What is an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are about a person's relationship to food, body image, and oneself. They may take the form of restricted eating, compulsive over-eating, and/or binge-purge episodes. They always involve intense dissatisfaction with body image, distorted and highly negative cognitions, self-punishing attitudes and behaviors, unrealistic fears, compulsive and ritualized behaviors, and disconnection from one's body and one's self. Similar to other addictions, eating disorders become stronger and more overwhelming the longer the person engages in eating disordered behavior making early intervention and treatment critical. Ironically, friends and family are often unaware of the internal world of the eating disordered individual as she or he strives to project a perfect world out to others.
Therapy Works!
Eating disorders are serious and can be life-threatening. When the body is abused by either restricting or engaging in binge eating or binge-purge activities, the body's ability to heal and recover is compromised.
We offer individualized programs for recovery. Depending on your needs and level of care, your therapist and you will determine a program that can work for you. This may involve weekly to twice-weekly psychotherapy sessions that focus on positively changing your relationship with food and body image, rebuilding self-esteem, self-soothing skills, staying present and connected with oneself, managing stress, working with anger, developing your inner resources, trauma resolution, and helping you eat normally. It is not uncommon to also be dealing with substance abuse, having relationship difficulties, experiencing anxiety and depression, experiencing other medical complications, and/or carrying old trauma that interferes with your ability to be present in your life. Nutritional and medical support is highly recommended as you learn new ways to eat and care for yourself. Your therapist will help you coordinate this care.
We can help you with:
- Understanding why eating disordered behavior and attitudes are damaging and potentially life-threatening.
- Identifying if you have an eating disorder.
- Treatment for your eating disorder.
- Nutritional counseling.
- Medical support - we either work with your current doctor or refer you to a doctor knowledgeable in the treatment of eating disorders.
- Finding support groups.
- Education for family members - what you can do and what you cannot do.
- Family therapy if appropriate.
- Treatment available for restricted eating, binge-purge behaviors, and compulsive over-eating.
- Treatment available for Adolescents and Adults.
It is important to understand that an eating disorder is never about food and weight. However, it is important to first address these issues so that your health is not increasingly compromised. We next address underlying issues of depression and anxiety which often are present. Psychotherapy for eating disorders may include cognitive work, behavior management, stress management, psycho-educational, psychodynamic, experiential therapies including imagery and relaxation, hypnotherapy, EMDR, and energy psychology.
Factors influencing the development of eating disorders
It is understood that many factors influence the development of eating disorders. Childhood experience plays a vital part in this determination as well as the individual personality of the child, biological factors, and social-cultural values and norms. With the help of the media, girls and young women are encouraged to view their bodies negatively and to hold unrealistic expectations of their bodies and themselves adhering to a thin-ideal that is impossible to achieve. In addition family history plays a significant part, especially families with a history of anxiety, depression and/or untreated eating disordered attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, families that tend to be more disconnecting, hold critical attitudes of family members, employ guilt and shame may be at risk for their daughters developing eating disordered behaviors. Parents may employ a number of strategies learned from their own childhoods such as using control as a means to express love, using food as a way to teach self-comfort, and having unrealistic and demanding expectations of themselves and ultimately of their children.
Tragically, our society has normalized dysfunctional behavior to such a high degree that many families are uninformed of how their behaviors negatively impact the psychological development of their children. They may have difficulty expressing empathy and sensitivity towards their children when their children's personalities are markedly different from their own. Children who tend to be more sensitive will internalize negative messages more profoundly than other children. These children experience more distress as they strive to be perfect, desire to please others, and spend a great deal of time feeling anxious or worried. These children are more at risk for the development of eating disorder symtomatology as they turn towards adolescence with the developmental challenge of identity formation and separation from one's family.