3. Help must have a spiritual component. Much of the help available today primarily addresses the psychological and physical aspects of eating disorders. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough. People spend years in therapy and working with dieticians yet continue to harm themselves with food. Their brains are filled with sound psychological insight as well as information about calories, exercise, eating schedules and nutrition, yet they continue to give in to cravings for hamburgers and ice cream!

The truth is that eating disorders, emotional eating and addictions are driven by a soul-sickness that no amount of intellectual understanding or personal will power can heal. A person must be given spiritual tools they can use and rely on when their own personal resources fail. It’s important to note that there is a difference between spirituality and religion, and in this case I’m suggesting the use of the former. By being encouraged to cultivate a belief in a higher power that is loving and ever-available for support and strength, a person can begin to depend on that power for the intervention and grace that can help them stop their destructive behavior.

4. The solution must address the underlying causes. There is no hope of overcoming an eating disorder without looking beyond the eating disorder. Obsession with food and weight and other addictions are symptoms of deeper problems. They conveniently distract us from extreme unhappiness and self-loathing that lie underneath the surface. Any treatment program that focuses on primarily on food, body image and weight management is missing the point.

A person must be supported in looking at the cause of the self-loathing and subsequent self-destruction. (We don’t ever just happen to hate ourselves.) We are engaging in destructive thoughts and actions that cause us to believe we deserve punishment. By changing these thoughts and actions (most of which have little to do with food and body) we can feel deserving of better self-care. Anyone who has struggled for more than a few years with an eating disorder, if honest, will be able to admit that their problem really isn’t about food. Finding a program that reinforces this and addresses the real problem is essential.

5. Recovery includes changing your life. How we live determines how we feel about ourselves. How we feel about ourselves determines how we eat. Therefore, in order to eat differently we have to live differently. Many treatment centers consider a person to be "cured", or well on their way, if their symptoms of anorexia, bulimia or obesity lessen while in treatment. (If anorexic, they gain a few pounds; if bulimic, their episodes decrease or stop; and if obese, they lose some weight.) The problem is that they eventually have to leave treatment and return to the same life that perpetuated or caused their problem in the first place. This is why relapse is so common.

Eating disorders are a symptom of living a life that is severely out of balance. Recovery comes when a person makes concrete, significant changes in her life. Change must be deeper than body behavior and diet. Change includes communication, thoughts, relating to people, priorities and attitude. There is no 30 day program that will automatically cause a person to overcome an eating disorder or help a person lose weight for good. It is the hard, but necessary, ongoing changes in one’s life that enable a person to break free. Be sure that the help you seek isn’t skin-deep. There is no success without a commitment to real life change.

Page 2 of 3 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 | Next