Eating Disorder Counseling

Our Eating Disorder Recovery Programs are available for those seeking healing from anorexia, bulimia, compulsive overeating, food addiction, emotional eating or recovery after gastric bypass surgery. There is a future and a hope for you to find a life worth living – our comprehensive recovery programs include the latest in advanced treatment and exceptional quality of care.

Due to cultural ideals of feminine beauty, young women feel a strong desire to be thinner than their bodies naturally tend to be. As a result, they change their eating patterns and they may develop eating disorders. The most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia. Both eating disorders are more common among young adults than at any other age.

What are the signs of an eating disturbance or disorder?

Some common physical, emotional, and spiritual signs are:

Significant weight loss or gain
Menstrual cycle irregularities
Dental problems (such as loss of enamel)
Unexplained dizzy or fainting episodes
Chronic fatigue
Facial swelling
Preoccupation or distorted body image (when overweight seeing self as thin beneath a layer of clothes; when thin seeing fat that others do not see)
Dehydration
Preoccupation with food
Eating consumes a great deal of time
Consumed with calorie counting
Obsessive fear of eating foods that contain fat
Lost in a constant dream of "diet cures"
Overwhelming fear of gaining weight
Avoiding situations where food is served
Needing to weigh oneself frequently
Purging behaviors through the use of: vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, exercise, enemas, starvation
Loss of hope for gaining control over weight, food, or body
Social and emotional withdrawal related to body image
Low self-esteem, agitation, depression, and mood swings associated with weight gain or loss

What is Anorexia Nervosa?

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious psychological and physiological disorder. Anorexia Nervosa has the following characteristics:

The anorexic restricts eating to the point of emaciation.
The anorexic may exercise constantly and take laxatives or diuretics to lose weight.
The most common ages of onset are 11 and 18, the beginning and ending of adolescence.
The disorder is mostly diagnosed in the upper middle class. However, both rich and poor can develop the disorder.
Even though anorexics are extremely thin and underweight, most insist that they are not hungry or thin.
With psychological help about 1/3 of all anorexics get better. About 20% die of the disorder.
Approximately 60% of all anorexics also develop bulimia.

What is Bulimia?

Bulimia is binge-eating followed by self-induced vomiting or the use of laxatives. Bulimia has the following characteristics:

The disorder usually begins in late adolescence and early adulthood.
It is not easily recognized by others because bulimics may be of normal weight or a little overweight.
Bulimics are aware of the problem and try to keep it a secret.
Bulimics may become depressed, guilty, and disgusted with their binge-purge cycles. Yet they will not stop the behavior.

The Risks of Anorexia Nervosa & Bulimia
How we think affects the way that we feel and so by identifying the harmful thoughts we can change our thinking
and feel better. References: David Burns - Feeling Good

Anorexia Nervosa

Loss of approximately 30% or more of body weight leading to emaciation.

Irregular or complete loss of menstrual period.

Dry skin.

Hair loss.

Growth of fine body hair.

Withdrawal and isolation.

Death.

Bulimia

Abdominal pain due to overeating.

Heart and kidney problems.

Excessive constipation.

Digestive problems.

Swollen salivary glands.

A tear in the esophagus.

Diarrhea.

Feelings of depression, guilt, self-disgust and loss of control.

Loneliness and isolation.

Frequent weight fluctuation.

Ways to Help

Talk openly and freely and ask direct questions about the person's eating patterns.
Listen to what is said and treat it seriously. Do not add to the person's guilt by nagging about eating/not eating or gossiping about the person among your friends.
Encourage the person to seek professional help.

Treatment Strategies

Eating disorders can be treated and a healthy weight restored. The sooner these disorders are diagnosed and treated, the better the outcomes are likely to be. Because of their complexity, eating disorders require a comprehensive treatment plan involving medical care and monitoring, psychosocial interventions, nutritional counseling and, when appropriate, medication management. At the time of diagnosis, the clinician must determine whether the person is in immediate danger and requires hospitalization.

Treatment of anorexia calls for a specific program that involves three main phases: (1) restoring weight lost to severe dieting and purging; (2) treating psychological disturbances such as distortion of body image, low self-esteem, and interpersonal conflicts; and (3) achieving long-term remission and rehabilitation, or full recovery. Early diagnosis and treatment increases the treatment success rate. Use of psychotropic medication in people with anorexia should be considered only after weight gain has been established. Certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to be helpful for weight maintenance and for resolving mood and anxiety symptoms associated with anorexia.

The acute management of severe weight loss is usually provided in an inpatient hospital setting, where feeding plans address the person's medical and nutritional needs. In some cases, intravenous feeding is recommended. Once malnutrition has been corrected and weight gain has begun, psychotherapy (often cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal psychotherapy) can help people with anorexia overcome low self-esteem and address distorted thought and behavior patterns. Families are sometimes included in the therapeutic process.

The primary goal of treatment for bulimia is to reduce or eliminate binge eating and purging behavior. To this end, nutritional rehabilitation, psychosocial intervention, and medication management strategies are often employed. Establishment of a pattern of regular, non-binge meals, improvement of attitudes related to the eating disorder, encouragement of healthy but not excessive exercise, and resolution of co-occurring conditions such as mood or anxiety disorders are among the specific aims of these strategies. Individual psychotherapy (especially cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal psychotherapy), group psychotherapy that uses a cognitive-behavioral approach, and family or marital therapy have been reported to be effective. Psychotropic medications, primarily antidepressants such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been found helpful for people with bulimia, particularly those with significant symptoms of depression or anxiety, or those who have not responded adequately to psychosocial treatment alone. These medications also may help prevent relapse. The treatment goals and strategies for binge-eating disorder are similar to those for bulimia, and studies are currently evaluating the effectiveness of various interventions.

People with eating disorders often do not recognize or admit that they are ill. As a result, they may strongly resist getting and staying in treatment. Family members or other trusted individuals can be helpful in ensuring that the person with an eating disorder receives needed care and rehabilitation. For some people, treatment may be long term.

The following modalities are available at each of our offices:

Individual Counseling for Eating Disorders

Individual therapy is designed to provide analysis, direction, and support in a therapeutic relationship whose hallmark feature will be mutual respect and responsibility. We believe that a therapy session should be guided by the needs of the client and treatment plans are designed around the needs the client presents. The frequency of sessions and the duration of the therapy relationship are determined by the client. Our staff has an experiential orientation which ensures that sessions will focus on real life problems and solutions with numerous opportunities for clients to practice change outside of the therapy session.

Family Counseling for Eating Disorders

Effective family therapy must begin with the bonding of values between therapist and family members. Therapy should never dictate the values to which the family members must subscribe. When the values between therapist and family are incompatible, therapy can not be successful.

Diagnostic Assessment in Counseling Eating Disorders

An assessment to determine if an individual is suffering with a eating disorder should involve a comprehensive investigation into the individual's developmental relationship with their problematic relationship with food. When providing designing services for Counseling Eating Disorders, a comprehensive diagnostic assessment should include the following components:

Review of past/present medical history
Review of all previous records related to eating disorder treatment
Review of all records related to psychiatric or other mental health treatment
Review of the individual's historical and present use of alcohol and all other mood-altering substances.
Review of individual's historical efforts to gain control over eating, body image, or life style.
Interviews with the significant others in the sufferer's life
Review of potential symptoms related to the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV TR)

Parent/Child Therapy

These services focus therapeutic support on the following issues:

Eating Disorder Education for School Age Children
Developing Insight Into the Ways In Which the Children Have Been Impacted By The Disorder
Methods for Explaining Parental Involvement In A 12 Step Program
Methods for Rebuilding Trust
Parenting Through the 12 Steps

We encourage you to set an appointment today to begin your journey of healing from eating disorders. To make an appointment with us, click here.

For Additional Information

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
Public Inquiries: (301) 443-4513
Media Inquiries: (301) 443-4536

American Anorexia Bulimia Association
Phone: (212) 575-6200

Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention
Phone: 1 (800) 931-2237

Harvard Eating Disorders Center
Phone: 1 (888) 236-1188 ext. 100

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa
and Associated Disorders
Phone: (847) 831-3438