HOME | ANOREXIA | BULIMIA | BINGE EATING | BODY-IMAGE ISSUES | PREVENTION | ARTICLES | ABOUT ME | CONTACT

 

What Is Anorexia Nervosa? Have you or your teen started a diet to lose a few pounds, only to find it necessary to keep losing more and more weight?   Do your friends and loved ones keep telling you you're underweight or too thin?   Does your child feel like all their friends have perfect bodies and they need to have one too? If so, you or she may be struggling with the symptoms of anorexia. Being thin seems to be the cultural expectation in Western societies. Media imagery is filled with thin, youthful looking women, and people often connect a lean body with people who feel good about themselves.

Form Object

Sometimes friends or romantic partners create pressure that encourages such beliefs. Often spouses and family members criticize their loved one for not "taking better care of their bodies." The entertainment industry, as well as youth culture, stresses the idea that a thin person is somehow more valuable than a more rounded one. All these circumstances help contribute to anorexia.

Unfortunately, eating disorders like anorexia can be difficult to recognize for what they are. And, all too often, people don't seek professional help until the behaviors are beyond control.

This is especially true for teens, who want to be free from "controlling" adults.

We've all heard our teens tell us they want to be "their own person." Their main concerns are control and developing their own identities.

While adolescents and teens want to have as much control over their life as possible, they unconsciously need to feel they have your support and guidance.

They do want help. But they're often confused as to what help they want. And, as soon as you offer help, they're likely to push it away.

Anorexia: Signs and Symptoms

Succinctly put, anorexia is withholding food and/or eating an extremely low-calorie diet.

This disorder provides a sense of control. Anorexia shows the world, "I can do something you can't and I feel good about myself because of it!"

If you find you or your daughter:

• Unable to maintain a minimally normal weight;
   
• Intensely afraid of gaining weight or becoming fat;
   
• Negatively comparing your self-image to others;
   
• Focusing on this negative body image;
   
• Involved in unsettling and/or ritualistic eating behaviors; or
   
• Experiencing a disturbance or absence of your menstrual cycle;

You or she may be suffering symptoms of anorexia nervosa.

People with this disorder see themselves as overweight even though they are dangerously thin.

The process of eating, or not eating, becomes an obsession. Unusual eating habits — such as avoiding meals, picking out a few foods and eating in small quantities, or carefully portioning food — become habitual and ritualistic.

People suffering from anorexia also repeatedly weigh themselves, and many engage in other techniques to control their weight, such as intense and compulsive exercise, or purging by vomiting and the abuse of laxative, enemas, and diuretics. Girls with anorexia often experience a delayed onset of their first menstrual period and women may experience a disturbance of their normal menstrual cycle.

Anorexics tend to starve themselves as a way of feeling in control. Psychologically speaking, you or your child may feel powerless over your life. Restricting food may be the only sense of control you have. Even two-year-olds quickly learn that one of the best ways to control their parents is to refuse to eat.

Once you begin to starve yourself, you may feel a lessening of anxiety or depression as the lack of food affects your brain chemistry.

Not only is limiting food a way to cope with painful feelings like anger, shame, and self-loathing, anorexics also feel a sense of pride that they can accomplish something that is difficult for others: Most people are not able to restrict food or get down to a very low weight.

If you think you or your child may be struggling with anorexia, it's likely you or she has perfectionist tendencies and unreasonably high expectations for people.

If you look into your family history, you may find others who also suffered from anorexia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

But, just because anorexic tendencies are commonly passed from one generation to the next, it doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to prevent it!

Research has shown time and again that the sooner people who are concerned about their body image receive treatment the faster the healing process and the better the outcome.

Successfully Treating Anorexia

The course and outcome of anorexia nervosa varies from one individual to another. Some people fully recover after a single episode; others experience a fluctuating pattern of weight gain and relapse; and some experience a chronically worsening illness over many years.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the most effective eating disorder treatments involve some form of psychotherapy. Therapy can help you uncover and address the underlying issues that trigger negative self-image and anorexic behaviors.

However, therapy must go hand-in-hand with careful attention to your specific medical and nutritional needs. For this reason, I work with a team of professionals that can help you determine a healthy weight, monitor your health, and help you learn about your body, your nutrition options, and discover what physical activities you enjoy.

Every treatment plan I create is individually tailored to each client and your treatment will depend on the severity of the problem you're facing and your individual strengths and needs.

That having been said, some common goals of the work I do with clients suffering from anorexia and its symptoms include:

• Medical management to restore and maintain a healthy weight;
   
• Identifying the underlying issues that trigger anorexic behaviors;
   
• Increasing your self-esteem and your ability to solve problems in a healthy manner;
   
• Developing a positive, healthy body image;
   
• Finding healthy ways to cope with anxiety, stress, and depression;
   
• Gaining awareness of the societal triggers for obsessing about one's weight;
   
• Educating family members about anorexia and developing a support system to help speed your recovery; and
   
• Reconnecting you with the things in life that bring you joy so you can reclaim your life and replace your food and weight obsessions with meaningful and rewarding activities.

In a supportive, compassionate, and confidential setting we can work together to determine if you need help, uncover and resolve the issues that keep you focusing on your body image and eating issues, and create a treatment plan that makes the most sense for you.

I consider it vitally important that mothers and daughters in our society learn to accept their bodies, understand their weight and eating issues, and create healthy lifestyles that meet their personal needs.

Your body is not an "enemy" that needs to be controlled. You can develop a positive self-image and learn to eat anything you want… just not everything you want.

And, by larning to spend less time obsessing about food and weight, you'll find more energy to focus on all the aspects of life there are to enjoy and truly be thankful for!

Life can replace the obsession! As one of my recent clients commented, "I got my life back! Now that I'm not constantly thinking about food, I remember how creative I am and how much fun life can be!"

For more information about anorexia and the prevention and treatment services I offer, I encourage you to call me at 650-854-4631 with any questions you have or to schedule a free, initial phone consultation.

 

HOME | ANOREXIA | BULIMIA | BINGE EATING | BODY-IMAGE ISSUES | PREVENTION | ARTICLES | ABOUT ME | CONTACT

 

Copyright 2010 - , Barbara Tener, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved.

Website designed by Kethyr Solutions