Eating Disorder Treatment Works, Not Diets
By the time clients enter eating disorder treatment, they are out of control with food. They can write books about nutrition, diets, how they should eat and how they should not. They know the calories and carbohydrates in almost every food. The problem is they just cannot put that knowledge into practice. They are locked into an uncontrollable cycle with food where obsessive thoughts about weight, body image, diets, and food consume their lives.
A reputable eating disorder treatment program connects people back to an internal form of control, making it possible to eat when hungry, make healthy food choices, and stop eating when full. People learn to identify the thoughts, feelings, and situations that trigger using food or thinking excessively about food. At some point in the eating disorder program patients learn to substitute healthy methods of caring for themselves.
An eating disorder treatment program should be a structured program based on cognitive-behavioral theory solution-focused theory educational awareness It is complemented with experiential and guided imagery, hypnotherapy, affirmations, and meditation techniques. Why a Diet Doesn’t Work Like an Eating Disorder Treatment Program
We may not know why we overeat. We may be eating when we are lonely, angry, sad, anxious or bored. We may be using food to cope with stress. But in time, food stops working and our unhealthy eating patterns or extra pounds don’t offer comfort.
We are not using food for physical hunger. We may not even know if we are hungry or not. As soon as the thought of food comes to our minds, we are hard-wired to reach for it. It becomes automatic. In essence, eating becomes a habitual coping mechanism. Repeating this behavior over and over forms a predictable habit pattern. We gain weight, go on another diet, rebel and start the cycle over again.
All diets work. However, when we diet, we set ourselves up to overeat because we subconsciously rebel over restricting our food. Some proceed to develop eating disorders. Binge eating often starts as a direct result of dieting. So how do we get out of this cycle?
How an Eating Disorder Treatment Program Works
We know all behaviors start with a thought, whether we are aware of the thought or not. We act on these thoughts throughout our day. Have you ever wondered, “Why am I eating this?” Many of us have totally disconnected from our internal appetite. We may habitually reach for food when we are not hungry. We learn that awareness is the first key for opening the door to change. We cannot change something we are not aware of, but with awareness change is possible.
Through the use of a structured eating disorder program, awareness leads to new thinking patterns that produce new eating behaviors. You learn alternatives that can work uniquely for you. Your behavior changes easily and naturally when your internal habitual thoughts change. This personal internal form of control is empowering and dramatically increases self-esteem.
We have learned from years of experience that external controls work only temporally. An eating disorder program addresses the core issues of out-of-control eating and shows how to reconnect to a healthy way of relating to food, your appetite, and body. Each session or group is outlined with specific objectives, goals, homework assignments and corresponding guided imagery. The sessions assist you in identifying unhealthy patterns, triggers, underlying thoughts and belief systems that keep you locked in the disordered eating.
