Sometimes, we’re faced with overwhelming amounts of stress. Your boss might be working you too hard. You might have done something to upset your parents and are currently in a shaky relationship with them. Or you might have had a falling-out with one of your closest friends.
How To Help Anorexics Eat
Here’s the thing — you cannot force anorexics to eat. We are not misleading you here. The more you impose eating, their anxiety levels increase due to the idea that eating can add more weight problems. Thus, the action of not eating is repeated to achieve the goal of an “acceptable body weight.” So why bother with this title? It caught your attention, that’s for one. Nonetheless, the main point of this article is to bring awareness that eating disorders can be treated, and with the right attitude, we can help these patients in their recovery process.
Rather than focusing on the surface behaviors, there was a shift onto the underlying mechanisms of the disorder—shame, difficult regulating emotion, feelings of worthlessness, guilt etc. — Susan Albers Psy.D.
Understanding Eating Disorders
There are generally three types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorders. Each has a unique characteristic in the presentation of symptoms and treatment procedures. But they all have one common ground of ideation, that is, control of weight to achieve the ideal body image. This obsession leads them to do all eccentric possible ways not to gain weight and lose the excess and presumed weight gained. Among anorexics, they abhor the sight of food. Basically, they don’t eat at all just to ensure that they are within the constructs of their ideal weight. A kilogram or pound gain can result in serious consequences just to lose this weight like engaging in strenuous exercise and prolonged starvation. This is basically their source of anxiety.
How Can You Help
Helping the person overcome eating disorders takes time. It will definitely test the patience and understanding of the family members and other individuals involved with the person. Here are some strategies to help someone with eating disorders.
For parents, make sure that you get to be together during meal times. Breakfast and dinner are the only mealtimes in a work and school week that you can be with your children, so make an extra effort to sit and talk with them. Make use of this opportunity to speak about what’s going on with themselves, as much as possible, avoiding topics that can cause stress and anxiety. On weekends, plan for a family dinner with well-prepared meals. Have them join you in preparing the meal to inculcate the value of what a healthy and nutritional meal is all about without the burden of imposing to eat.
It’s time to cleanse your social media feeds of any and all diet-culture messages. — Alexis Conason Psy.D.
Start with yourself. Sometimes, adolescents get the idea of improper dieting because they see these in their own parents. Try to set an example that you are into healthy weight loss and observe the correct diet plan without compromising your health. Emphasize that dieting and exercise have their health benefits without the guilt and body shaming involved.
Introduce and inculcate positive values. Young adolescents are quick to accept and conform to their outer appearance. They are still fickle-minded when it comes to what’s more important and highly acceptable. We can’t blame them because social media and commercialism have been very active in promoting sexiness and lean body figures as the norm. Instead of encouraging this culture, teach them that a person’s internal qualities, such as positive values, are more important than the outer self.
Don’t be a food police. This is the last thing that you should do. Imposing strict rules, constant reminders to eat their food, and checking their food intake will only aggravate the current problem. Remember that anxiety can trigger bouts of eating problems. A much more positive approach is to offer some privileges to a child that will require him to eat instead. For example, she can take the car, but she has to eat because it will be dangerous to drive around on an empty stomach. If you can offer privileges, you can also remove them if their behaviors toward eating properly won’t change.
Medical Management
For those who are already experiencing complicated manifestations, the initial intervention is to manage and treat the physical complications until stable. After that, psychological support and therapy are started. If you are having a hard time in dealing with your children, it is best to consult a therapist for professional mental help.
While often people struggling with eating disorders are unable to see how “ill” they actually are, it’s also important to note that even if you struggle with disordered eating (rather than an eating disorder)-you still deserve to seek help and support. — Jennifer Rollin MSW, LCSW-C
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: An Effective Treatment For Eating Disorders
In psychiatric-mental health, eating disorders are characterized by abnormal eating patterns that cause physiological changes and psychological distress. Women are the most commonly affected due to the pressures of attaining the “ideal body weight and appearance”; however, there are also incidences of men who were found to have eating disorders. It is not only through commercialism and social media that individuals are influenced to work hard to attain that most desired physical appearance.
No one would choose to have an eating disorder. You wouldn’t make the choice to lose all of your friends because you can’t eat at restaurants, to exercise obsessively despite pain and injuries, or to binge eat until you feel like your stomach is going to burst. — Jennifer Rollin MSW, LCSW-C
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Almost 70% Of Those With Eating Disorders Also Have Anxiety Disorders
Bulimia, Binge-Eating Or Anorexia Plus Other Mental Health Issues
Researchers found that there is a tendency for eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia to happen alongside other mental health problems. One of these mental health problems is anxiety disorders, and there are about a staggering two-thirds of people who suffer from both mental illnesses at the same time.
With the increasing prevalence of eating disorders across all age groups, there is a good chance that at least one teen in the group will have a friend with either anorexia or bulimia. — Lauren Grunebaum L.C.S.W.
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The Anorexics And Their Stories
This goes out to the person who is secretly struggling. The one who on the outside appears to have everything together, yet underneath it all, feels completely trapped. — Jennifer Rollin MSW, LCSW-C
People often think of anorexia as something related to weight loss. I wish the end result of the disease was that simple, but although this eating disorder is psychological in nature, it manifests as a physical disorder.
It can start off as a fad diet that everyone’s doing, and then the anorexic gets hooked to it and digs deeper until her mind tells the body to hate food. The anorexic not only shows the disease physically with those bulging eyes, stretched neck, and protruding bones, but her spirit is broken, her self-esteem drops to the ground, and her life is wasted.
When You Suspect Bulimia
Bulimia Nervosa is a serious mental condition. Those suffering from the disorder have an obsessive fear of gaining weight, becoming completely preoccupied with weight and appearance. Unlike anorexics, many of the sufferers of Bulimia are not obviously underweight. They may even be slightly overweight or obese. Bulimics frequently eat inordinately large amounts of food, scoffing up to ten times the daily recommended calorie intake in a single sitting, and then, overcome by shame and guilt, and to avoid weight gain, they will purge themselves by self-induced vomiting, the use of strong laxative or diuretics, excessive exercise, the use of enemas or fasting.
Millions of Americans suffer from an eating disorder and devastatingly enough, many go untreated. — Greta Gleissner LCSW
Athletes And Eating Disorders
It was in the news just recently. Ben King, an American professional cyclist, revealed his experience and survival from bulimia. Nobody knew that Ben, a rider for Dimension Data, had suffered from an eating disorder when he was younger. There were no traces in him that would make you think that he had a mental health issue. But he has endured it, and lucky for him, he is living proof that any type of eating disorder, however difficult it is to overcome, can be battled with and won.
Inhabiting a fat body is seen as a moral failing, evidence of being a sub-par human being. — Alexis Conason Psy.D.
Diabulimia: A Deadly Eating Disorder
There are lots of eating disorders that have sprung forward due to the change in the social spectrum of today’s society, including people’s perspectives and the culture of acceptance.
Statistics of Eating Disorders in Today’s Society
In the UK, there are over 725,000 people who are suffering from an eating disorder at one point in their lives. Approximately 350,000 of these people are known to suffer from Type 1 Diabetes. The disorder where a person suffers from both Type 1 Diabetes and an eating disorder is called Diabulimia or Diabetic+Bulimia.
Fat people face the scorn of society and are open targets for discrimination and bigotry. It’s no wonder that so many will try anything possible to lose weight, even if that means engaging in eating disorder behaviors that compromise their health. — Alexis Conason Psy.D.
According to a study, around 40% of young women between 15 to 30 years old are suffering from Type 1 Diabetes – it is a disorder that people have limited knowledge about. In addition to this, approximately 60% of these women suffering from Type 1 Diabetes will also undergo an eating disorder by the time they reach the age of 25. And the sad part about all this is that it can actually be a dangerous condition.
Basic Details on Diabulimia
Diabulimia is a condition wherein diabetes and bulimia are inflicted on a person. It involves intentionally having to limit the insulin injection to the body, which could lead to weight loss.
Type 1 diabetes, unlike the type 2 condition, is not linked to lifestyle and diet. It is considered to be an autoimmune disease. Since people with diabetes have bodies that are unable to naturally produce glucose or break down sugar for energy, they must pump and inject themselves with insulin in order to have enough within the body.
With a lack of insulin, the existing fats, muscles, and organs will be forcibly used by the body for energy consumption. You should be wary in using insulin, though, since its improper usage can cause the following:
- Eye Damage
- Fertility Problems
- Heart Failure
- Kidney Damage
- Loss of Limbs
- Death
There are very few known facts and details about diabulimia in the medical society at the present time. But there are noted cases of the said disorder and it’s not looking good at all.
With constant social, peer, and societal pressures, eating disorders are often caused by a negative body-image and feelings of shame about weight. — Greta Gleissner LCSW
Documented Cases of Diabulimia and Their Differences
According to King’s Health Partners’ lead psychiatrist for Diabetes, Professor Khalida Ismail, Diabulimia patients are unnecessarily dying because of the lack of knowledge about the disease in the first place and the absence of clinics to cater to them. Experts tend to either focus on the diabetes problem or concentrate on the eating disorder, but they fail to address both conditions together.
A charity group called Diabetes with Eating Disorders is campaigning that Diabulimia, a disorder wherein an omission of insulin is intentionally done in order to lose weight, must be considered an official mental illness. It is important to research more about the condition and learn how to properly deal with the double disorder.
Some of the documented cases so far include a 22-year-old young mother named Gemma, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 12. She claims that by not injecting insulin, she is losing so much weight – and being “thin” can be very “addicting.”
There was also a 21-year-old woman diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 16 and a 29-year-old woman who was diagnosed with diabetes at 19. Their eating problems started way before their diabetic condition – they were bulimic at 8 years of age. The 29-year-old woman was saved from the brink of death and is currently recovering today.
So many people don’t understand the issue with bulimia, and it is problematic when an autoimmune disease like diabetes comes into the mix. The recipe for this is disaster, or worse, it can lead to death.
It’s chaotic and impossible to follow what they all say because often one diet contradicts the other. — Danielle Swimm LCPC
If you are one of those who have diabetes or bulimia, or God forbid, Diabulimia – seek help right away. The common question is – how much does therapy cost? If possible, don’t think about that for now. Log in to https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/therapy/can-i-afford-to-see-a-counselor-how-much-does-therapy-cost/ for more details on the cost of speaking with a therapist. This will put your mind at ease with your physical and mental conditions.
Why Eat When You’re Angry?
Just this morning, I was very, very angry with my daughter. She was going through my stuff again, and I saw a deep hole in my MAC foundation powder. That was expensive! And she did it last week with my makeup and I told her not to do it again. I just looked at her with my fiery eyes and stormed out of the room so I couldn’t spank her. I sat at the dining table, but not before I grabbed some bread and mayo. And then I ate my anger away.
Mother Knows Best – How I Discovered That My Daughter Was Bulimic
Eating disorders do not discriminate based upon gender, age, social status, body size, race, or ethnicity. — Jennifer Rollin MSW, LCSW-C
I noticed something off with my teenage daughter when she was 15. She seemed to get thinner each month, and yet when we eat out at buffets, she consumes 3 to 4 plates of food. At home, she also has an appetite. In my mind, if she eats a lot, why is she losing so much weight?
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