A New Generation in Eating Disorder Treatment

From a psychological perspective, an eating disorder often meets emotional needs not being met in other, healthier ways. Rarely is an eating disorder truly simply an issue of someone believing they are “too fat” and going too far in the process. More commonly, an eating disorder is a way for a person to have control over something, anything in their life—vitally important in a life that they view as largely out-of-control and unmanageable. An eating disorder can be a very effective, if dangerous, way to deal with anxiety, depression, and other issues that are far more prevalent in our society that they should be. It is literally true that, as destructive as they can be to the body, an eating disorder is a coping mechanism that really works for many people.

Understanding this simple truth goes a long way towards understanding why so many eating disorder treatment centers have struggled over the years with poor results. Nationally, a very high percentage of those coming out of treatment revert back to the eating disorder or migrate to another behavior that meets the same core need, such as cutting. With its focus on helping the person understand the physical impact of withholding, binging and purging, or however that person uses food and eating, the educational and dietary piece can be important. But unless eating disorder treatment focuses on the underlying causes of anxiety and depression, it cannot hope to have effective outcomes.

The good news? It is that a new generation of eating disorder savvy residential treatment centers now exist that combine the education and dietary help of traditional eating disorder treatment centers with lots of therapeutic help for the non-eating related deeper issues that often drive eating disorder people to do what they do. Studies today now show that this approach to eating disorder treatment is very effective and has excellent, lasting positive outcomes. Intensive therapy designed to treat the depression, anxiety, past history of abuse, etc. combines with the proper education and nutrition to resolve the core issue. This exciting new generation of treatment has the potential to save many lives!