There are a wide variety of treatment options available for people suffering from eating disorders.

The Mayo Clinic website advises those who are seeking treatment to take the time to learn about their disorder and find the eating disorder treatment program that is best for them:

Getting the right eating disorder treatment for a condition such as anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating disorder is essential to prevent it from worsening or causing serious health problems. Eating disorder treatment generally involves a team of health professionals and includes psychotherapy, nutrition education, and sometimes medication.

Overcoming an eating disorder is challenging. But choosing the right treatment and the right team can help you manage symptoms, maintain a healthy weight, and maintain both your physical and mental health. ...

You are the most important member of your treatment team. In order for your treatment to be a success, you need to be actively involved with your treatment and informed about your eating disorder, and so do your family members.

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According to an Aug. 16 article in the British newspaper The Guardian, a little-known eating disorder called orthorexia seems to be on the rise.

First given its name in 1997 by Dr. Steven Bratman, orthorexia has been described as a "fixation on righteous eating." Guardian writer Amelia Hill provided the following details:

Until a few years ago, there were so few sufferers that doctors usually included them under the catch-all label of "EDNOS"  eating disorders not otherwise recognised. Now, experts say, orthorexics take up such a significant proportion of the EDNOS group that they should be treated separately. ...

Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out. ...

If you or someone you love is showing symptoms of orthorexia, know that professional help is both available and essential.

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In what may be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, the Pittsburgh Public School district is being sued by a mother who claims her daughter developed anorexia as the result of bullying that went unchecked by school administrators.

The Associated Press reported the following details:

The girl was in a program for gifted students, made straights A's and was active in community and volunteer programs, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit contends a guidance counselor did nothing to stop the bullying. The next year, in seventh grade, two other boys joined in the daily harassment.

Lynn Grefe, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association, argues that people who struggle with eating disorder often have issues with anxiety and perfectionism or are obsessive-compulsive. While bullying may be a trigger for these people, she told the AP, it is not likely to be the primary cause.

Labels: causes of eating disorders, bullying, lawsuit

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Wales Assembly Member Bethan Jenkins thinks teaching kids about body image and self-esteem in school could help prevent eating disorders. With this in mind, she's asked the Education Minister for a national curriculum.

Wales Online reported the following about Jenkins' efforts:

Her campaign comes amid concerns that 11 and 12-year-olds  especially girls  are already comparing themselves to pictures of emaciated models widely used by the media. Ms. Jenkins, who chairs the National Assemblys cross-party group on eating disorders, said: "I believe that it is important that young people learn about their bodies from an early age"

UK studies have found that six out of ten teenage girls suffer from poor self-esteem, and think they'd be happier if they were thinner. Ms. Jenkins is asking for body image and self-esteem sessions to be added to the personal and social education (PSE) curriculum.

Labels: body image, education

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A recent study that was conducted through Heidelberg University Hospital, found that people with anorexia generally have troubled changing their behavior. This inability to alter behaviors is not only true of eating habits, but of almost all other actions, the researchers found.

A Heidelberg University release provided the following details:

• The Heidelberg researchers examined a total of 30 young women with and without anorexia by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• The participants underwent a test that measured their capacity for flexible behavior modification of recently learned behavior.
• In this test, the subjects were shown a rapid sequence of various geometric shapes and asked to match them.
• After one test run, the matching principle was changed.
• The anorexic patients had a harder time adjusting to the new expectations, and more often clung to the familiar behavioral responses.

The researchers reported that they hope their findings will lead to the development of new treatment programs that target the flexible modification of behavioral responses.

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The term "disordered eating" refers to unusual and unhealthy eating habits that are driven by fear, stress, and even perfectionism. And as an Aug. 14 PsychCentral article by Rick Nauert, PhD, indicates, emotional eating falls into this category:

The connection between stress and eating likely has roots in brain chemistry. Faced with a real threat, the fight-or-flight reaction kicks in and suppresses appetite temporarily.

But when faced with persistent stress -- health problems, difficult relationships or too much work -- many people turn to high-fat, high-calorie foods for comfort. Using food as a coping strategy doesnt alleviate stress and will likely cause weight gain.

The tendency towards emotional eating can be overcome by learning to recognize the difference between true hunger and "hunger" thats triggered by stress. Getting unhealthy foods out of the house can help as well -- but if the problem persists, professional eating disorder help may be the best option.

Labels: emotional eating

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Sheila Himmel is an award-winning food writer whose daughter, Lisa, fought a life-threatening battle with anorexia. The irony is not lost on either of them, and is a running theme in their new book, Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia.

An Aug. 10 San Francisco Chronicle article by Katherine Seligman provided the following details about the Himmels' struggle, and their decision to write about their experiences with an eating disorder:

Lisa describes starving herself, her 5 foot 3 inch body so thin her hip bones hurt at night, and throwing up as many as 10 times a day.

Sheila writes about the depths of her fear, her family's history of depression, a relative's struggle with weight, the out-of-whack way Americans eat and her own relationship to food  she celebrates it, but admits she was flattered when people met her an invariably commented, "but youre so skinny!" ...

"The book isn't about blaming," says Sheila, sitting next to her daughter. "It's more about, 'This is what happened to our family. It can happen to anybody.'"

The summer after high school, Lisa had gotten help and seemed to be doing better. But college found her spiraling back into bulimia and she was eventually hospitalized. She has since made tremendous progress, attributing her recovery to an excellent psychoanalyst, a concerned high school teacher and a well-educated nutritionist.

Labels: anorexia, daughters, mothers

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Sue Gaskell didn't struggle with an eating disorder until she was an adult -- but it took her 15 years to overcome the builima that she developed after she began leading a weight loss group. Gaskell, who recounts her experiences in a book titled "Eating Your Words," hopes her story will encourage others of all ages to get the help they need.

According to an Aug. 12 article in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty Times, Gaskell's troubles began when she found that the weight loss group that she became involved with began pushing her toward unhealthy nutrition practices.

"Going into an industry where you're being constantly weighed, [weight] becomes an occupation," Gaskell said in the article. "I had hundreds of people coming to see me every week but nobody knew that deep down, this awful thing was happening to me."

Now recovered from her disorder, Gaskell told Times writer Nicola Murphy that she feel compelled to help others avoid the experience that she endured. "Eating Your Words" is slated to be published by The National Library.

Labels: bulimia

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Kelsie Gleason was only 11 when she started restricting her diet. At 15, she started telling her friends that she was feeling dizzy and would sometimes pass out.

By the time she was a sophomore in high school, Kelsi was being fed through a tube and was confined to a wheelchair.

But according to an Aug. 5 article in the Naperville Sun, Kelsie's story may be headed for a happy ending -- a result that she hopes will help motivate other disordered eaters to get the help they need:

With the help of several hospitalizations and outpatient treatment, Kelsie, at 17, finally admitted she had a problem. Instead of going for treatment to please her parents, she now wanted it for herself. She was ready to fully commit to getting better and entered a residential treatment program in her junior year.

Now 19, Kelsie is off medications, living on campus at Illinois Wesleyan and checks in with her therapist only a couple of times a year.

"The earlier you start, the better your chances of success," Kelsie told the Sun. "It's hard work and sometimes it feels like it's never going to get better. But if you stick with it, there's an entire world out there once you get through this."

If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, today could be the day that life begins to get better. Effective eating disorder treatment may be as close as a mouse-click away.

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The long-term care that's often required for people recovering from an eating disorder is not readily available in some parts of Canada, according to psychiatrist Elizabeth Tosney.

"Philosophically, what were trying to do is right," Tosney said in an Aug. 1 article by Star Phoenix Ashleigh Mattern. "We have a balance between some medical models and some alternative programming. And we do have individual counselors who are willing to work and are well-trained and familiar with eating disorders. What we lack is more of it."

Right now, the waiting list for eating disorder treatment in Saskatoon is long, forcing sufferers to wait several weeks before theyre admitted to a program. However, medical personnel are working to ensure that the most acute cases receive treatment as soon as possible.

"If they aren't classified as emergency cases, then the wait could be a few weeks," Linda Walker, corporate and public affairs adviser for the Saskatoon Health Region, told the Star Phoenix "The more serious a case, the faster we try to get them in to one of our programs."

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Self-expression through dance and movement, or through painting or drawing, can help struggling teenagers in their recovery from a variety of issues, including eating disorders.

According to Kimberly Dennis, M.D., the medical director of Timberline Knolls, the use of experiential therapy, when combined with a clinical treatment program, can often make it possible for individuals to experience and express feelings that need to be dealt with in order to achieve recovery. (Source: PRWeb)

Dance or Movement Therapy can help eating disorder sufferers learn to enjoy their bodies by becoming more aware of the feelings that arise from sensations created through physical self-expression. This new awareness can help a patient begin remaking her self-image, and improving her self-esteem.

Labels: treatment, eating disorders, art, dance

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A study conducted through the University of Minnesota has identified several factors that increase the risk of eating disorders among overweight teenagers.

University of Minnesota researchers discovered overweight youth with certain socio-environmental, psychological, and behavioral tendencies, such as reading magazine articles about dieting, reporting a lack of family connectedness, placing a high importance on weight, and reporting having participated in unhealthy weight control behaviors, are more likely to suffer from eating disorders. (Source: PsychCentral)

Researchers also discovered that risk factors differed between boys and girls.

• Young girls whose physical activity was at moderate to extreme levels, and who also had lower self-esteem, were a greater risk.
• For young men, risk factors included depressive symptoms and poor eating patterns.
• One common risk factor in both male and female subjects was a lack of family connectedness, leading researchers to encourage parents toward having the whole family spend time together  sharing a meal, a movie or even just a walk outside.

Labels: causes of eating disorders, risks, youth, overweight

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