How People With Eating Disorders Are Helped In Psychology
Eating disorders are among the most dangerous psychopathologies, and that is why at the first sign that its symptoms are present in a person, it is urgent to go to therapy.
However… What is psychotherapy applied to cases of eating disorders? In this article you will find a summary of that.
As their name suggests, eating disorders are pathologies linked to a dysfunctional behavior pattern regarding the way of eating. They can be reflected in either an overeating or a lack of food, or even in the tendency to eat what one should not eat.
Thus, eating disorders are very serious psychological alterations that must be intervened as soon as possible in therapy, since they can lead to death in the medium and long term. These are not purely physical diseases related to nutrition (that is, the way in which the body extracts nutrients from what is ingested, but rather they are based on psychological processes prior to digestion, which cause the person to develop a problematic relationship. with the food.
All eating disorders have in common that those who develop them They internalize dysfunctional behavior patterns that undermine their health and quality of life. and over which they feel they have no control.
In fact, it is common for people who present these psychopathologies not even to recognize that they have a problem, ensuring that everything they do is perfectly deliberate and obeys their most honest aspirations.
There are even extreme cases in which people They identify these disorders as part of their identity and way of being , so they believe that putting a stop to it would mean “betraying” themselves. Therefore, a phenomenon similar to anosognosia appears, the fact that many people with neurological disorders, due to the fact that they have developed them, are not able to realize them and are not aware that these symptoms are affecting and harming them. However, unlike what happens in these cases, eating disorders are not triggered by a neurological alteration but by a set of psychological variables, which distort the person’s self-concept and their way of evaluating what is best for them and what is wrong. no.
Main types of eating disorders
Diagnostic manuals are not limited to talking about eating disorders in general terms, but also describe different variants of these psychopathologies. Each of them has its own associated symptoms. although in all of them an alteration of mental health arises that in turn generates physical health problems that can become very severe.
The main eating disorders are the following.
1. Anorexia
Anorexia is characterized by constant avoidance of food intake. limiting it to a minimum to a point where death from malnutrition can occur.
It is very common for people with anorexia to perceive themselves as being overweight, despite being very thin. This is a psychological disorder with a very high mortality rate, so it must be treated urgently.
2. Binge eating disorder
In binge eating disorder, the person feels the uncontrollable urge to binge eat even without being hungry. This can lead to overweight or malnutrition, since foods rich in carbohydrates and/or fats are favored.
Bulimia is a pathology similar to binge eating disorder. However, in this case the symptoms include a strong feeling of guilt after binge eating, and regret for having eaten too much without needing it which results in purging behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, to try to “compensate.”
How are patients with eating disorders helped in therapy?
There is no single way to offer treatment to all people with an eating disorder, since each of these disorders has its particularities and typical symptoms. Furthermore, even among patients with a single type of disorder, there are many individual differences that are based on the person’s personality, age, life context, etc. Therefore, psychological intervention is always based on the principle of examining case by case and offering personalized solutions.
However, beyond this, there are some strategies and techniques that are frequently used in psychotherapy when addressing eating disorders. These are the most important ones.
1. Incorporation of specific dietary guidelines into your daily life
In psychotherapy, people with eating disorders are helped to internalize a series of very specific eating routines that leave little room for ambiguity , making them approach their avalanche from discipline but without falling into a pathological obsession with the way they eat. To do this, it is common to use action triggers, which help to structure meal times without requiring much effort to go from desires to practice.
2. Training in emotion detection
In the case of the psychological treatment of eating disorders, training in emotion detection has to do above all with enhancing the ability to recognize emotional hunger, that is, the desire to eat without being really hungry, only to escape or ” cover up” a form of discomfort that normally has to do with anguish or stress.
In the case of anorexia, it also works to help recognize the moments when self-sabotaging thoughts emerge in the patient’s consciousness so that they can be seen from a critical perspective that limits their power.
Related article: “How to make an emotions diary, step by step and with examples”
3. Cognitive restructuring
This front of psychotherapy consists of helping the person detect those aspects of their identity that make them feel very vulnerable and that they try to control at least in part through food, to resolve them in a functional way, demonstrating that they can overcome their fears. Helps you strengthen your self-esteem preventing them from easily falling into pessimism when evaluating their appearance and behavior (and even their ability to overcome the disorder).
You may be interested: “Cognitive restructuring: what is this therapeutic strategy like?”
4. Management of family conflicts
As eating disorders especially affect young people and even adolescents, it is common for problems to arise in the way they relate to their families. Therefore, in therapy we work on conflict management skills.
Do you need to go to psychotherapy?
If you are looking for psychological therapy services, I invite you to contact me.
I am a General Health Psychologist with extensive experience in caring for adult and adolescent patients, and I offer online sessions by video call or in person at my office located in Almería.
