Eating disorders are treatable and long term recovery is reality


Is long-term recovery from eating disorders possible? Yes, eating disorders are treatable, reports the International Journal of Eating Disorders. The folks who do best work with physicians and counselors who help them resolve both the medical and psychological issues that contribute to, or result from, disordered eating. In other words, a healthy relationship with food is about more than eating habits.

People in recovery from eating disorders also find some surprising challenges - and rewards - that have nothing to do with food. For instance, they say that learning to communicate can be the hardest part of the process. And not just learning to express emotions, but to feel them at all. But they also discover that the very emotions they were hiding from through food behaviors become some of the greatest adventures of their lives.

As one of those in recovery from eating disorders explains, "One of the things we will need to learn to do is to find better ways to cope with emotions. We have learned that our behaviors were good ‘emotion blockers.' It is easier to think about eating, not eating, eating too much, how many calories we just had or will avoid . . . than it is to deal with our feelings and emotions."

It was once thought that family conflicts and inadequacies set eating disorders in motion. Now it appears that the media contribute as well. For instance, all those diet-pill ads, "six-pack abs" promotions and the like. Every week there seems to be a new breakthrough diet, and every week at least a few bestseller lists are related to diet, while some of the most popular channels on TV are about food and cooking. It would seem that not just eating gets disordered, but the emphasis on weight, looks, and meals can be confusing.

There's no such thing as a "small change" in managing eating disorders. For just as treatment for eating disorders involves a lot more than regulating food intake, so learning to live without the eating disorder requires changes that are deeper than many realize. Eating disorders are not just "bad habits." The feelings run deep. When young people are able to explain what it feels like to have an eating disorder, and to break free from it, the power of the disorders becomes clear.

Given all the challenges that daily management of eating disorders brings, it's not surprising that there are setbacks. Relapses happen: Someone binges briefly, or goes back into diet mode. Relapses can frighten the person with the disorder and those around them. So keep in mind that these "lapses" can be expected and can educate. All that's needed is to review the positive skills learned and practice them again.

ANRED has a lot of suggestions for relapse prevention. Another way to view this advice is that these are suggestions simply for living well. To someone without an eating disorder, it seems like simple common sense.

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This article was sent to us by: Victoria Patsen at 09302010

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