Do you have an eating disorder?

Eating disorders take on many forms: compulsive overeating, binging, bulimia (overusing laxatives or purging food), anorexia (self-starvation), or alternating between binging and starving. This behavior may be chronic or may happen in times of stress. The level of severity may vary as well. An eating disorder causes you to focus on food and your body in a negative, unhealthy way. You may feel out of control, or totally in control, but destructive to your body and yourself.

Having an eating disorder is painful. Some common thoughts/behaviors are:

• Hopelessness, despair and shame about my behavior.
• Tendency to isolate even though I feel lonely.
• Obsess about my physical appearance and hate my body.
• Go back and forth between dieting and then gaining weight back.
• Trouble expressing my anger, fear or neediness.
• Difficulty finding positive ways to reward myself except with food.
• Extremely harsh and self-critical.
• Focus on taking care of others more than myself.

How can therapy help?

Many people with eating disorders have unsuccessfully tried to manage alone for many years and feel very discouraged. Coming to therapy, admitting you need help, and facing the pain of the behavior that is out of control is a tremendous first step. In the therapy process, we work towards understanding the emotional components of your eating as well as developing healthier coping skills, behavior, and eating habits.

The ultimate goal of your therapy should be to recover! Along the way you will learn to be more confident in yourself, to make your voice heard through communication, to validate your own emotions, to learn to love yourself, and to learn better ways of coping with anger, sadness and stress (and not rely on your Eating Disorder). You will spend many hours talking to Stacie about your childhood, your experiences, and your day-to-day life, and all of this is important to your recovery.

Which eating disorders services do I need?

This depends on many factors such as the severity of your eating disorder, whether you are also depressed or anxious, how the eating disorder is affecting your relationships, and how much support you have from friends and family. When you meet with Stacie for your initial appointment, you will discuss how frequently you will come to individual therapy and whether you will benefit from nutrition therapy, groups, and family/couples therapy.

Individual eating disorder therapy

Stacie takes an integrative approach to eating disorder therapy. Typically, treatment begins by focusing on symptom reduction using cognitive/behavioral strategies and on substituting healthy coping skills. As eating habits become more balanced, therapy shifts to a focus on gaining insight into the meaning of the eating disorder and on addressing feelings of guilt, shame, and low self-esteem.

Family eating disorder therapy

For adolescents and young adults, family therapy is an essential component of recovery. An adolescent's steps toward recovery are aided by a family that understands the recovery process and who make their own efforts to change in order to solidify the changes in the child and the family system. An adult with an eating disorder can also benefit from the support and feedback of his or her adult children and/or spouse.

Couples eating disorder therapy

Couples eating disorder therapy address both the impact of the couple on the eating disorder and the impact of the eating disorder on the couple. The attitudes of the spouse around food, weight and appearance may inadvertently reinforce eating-disordered thinking, and stress in the relationship may lead the partner with the eating disorder to fall back on his/her symptoms as a means of coping. In turn, the eating disorder may have a significant harmful impact on the couple's physical and emotional relationship.

The Treatment Process

Stacie believes a team approach using medical, nutritional, and psychological professionals to provide complete care is the most effective course of treatment. Treating an eating disorder is very individualized. No two people are the same and the amount of time spent in treatment will depend on the significance and severity of the problem. When an individual starts the process, he or she may deal with feelings they have never experienced. When these feelings intensify (depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc.), the behavior part of the disorder (purging, restricting, taking laxatives, etc.), may increase. This is temporary and will subside.

In working with adolescents, Stacie often utilizes The Maudsley Approach. This method builds on evidence that family therapy approaches are superior to individual therapy approaches particularly with younger patients (Russell et al, 1987; Eisler et al, 1997). The Maudsley Approach involves the family from the outset of treatment and relies heavily on parental involvement in the re-feeding of the child with an eating disorder.

Stacie has been helping individuals overcome eating disorders for over 16 years. She is ready to assist you or your loved one in his or her road to recovery.

The Maudsley Method:
Family-Based Treatment for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

Description of the Maudsley Method
Family-Based Treatment of Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: The Maudsley Approach By Daniel Le Grange, Ph.D. & James Lock, M.D., Ph.D.

Internet resources for parents of eating-disordered children:
Maudsley Parents: A website for parents of eating disordered children

Website of Laura Collins, a writer whose daughter recovered from Anorexia Nervosa
www.eatingwithyouranorexic.com

Feast: Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders
www.feast-ed.org

Online forum for parents of eating disordered children
www.aroundthedinnertable.org

National Eating Disorders Association
www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

Books I recommend for parents:
Help Your Teenager Beat An Eating Disorder
by James Lock, MD, PhD & Daniel Le Grange, PhD
The Guilford Press, 2005.

Eating With Your Anorexic: How My Child Recovered Through Family-Based Treatment and Yours Can Too
By Laura Collins
McGraw-Hill, 2004

Skills-Based Learning for Caring for a Loved One with an Eating Disorder: The New Maudsley Method
By Janet Treasure, Ph.D., Grainne Smith, and Anna Crane
Routledge, 2007