Treating an eating disorder isn’t something you should try to do yourself at home. Are you or someone you care about suffering from an eating disorder? If so, professional help is necessary to bring about true healing. It might seem like you should be able to “talk sense” into your loved one. Or, even force the issue, attempting to address the problem yourself could cause even more damage.
Recovering from an eating disorder is about more than changing eating habits. Disordered eating has its roots in what are often lifelong attitudes about food and eating. Deep-seated self-esteem or interpersonal issues can also come into play. Often, a person who has an eating disorder is using food to establish some feeling of control over difficult circumstances. Or, to cope with difficult emotions. This is true whether the person is eating very little or eating far too much.
Healthy eating habits can’t be truly established until the eating disorder sufferer can resolve the psychological and emotional issues behind disordered eating. Treatment requires intensive work with a trained therapist.
Eating disorders are the most deadly mental illnesses because of the devastating medical consequences of eating too little or too much. If someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder, there’s a pretty good chance that he or she is experiencing life-threatening medical complications, regardless of whether or not he or she looks healthy.
Treating an eating disorder typically requires evaluation by a physician and medical intervention – even hospitalization – to ensure that the person does not succumb to medical complications before psychiatric treatment can begin to take effect. In the most severe cases, treating an eating disorder can even require the sufferer to receive nourishment intravenously or via a feeding tube.
If you need professional assistance in treating an eating disorder, The Delray Center for Healing can help. Call us today at 1-888-699-5679.
Dr. Rodriguez founded the Delray Center in 2003 and built it on a foundation of core clinical, professional, and ethical principles that are adhered to still to this day. Dr. Rodriguez founded the Delray Center in 2003 and built it on a foundation of core clinical, professional, and ethical principles that are adhered to still to this day.