How people with eating disorders are helped in psychology

This is how psychotherapy works to help people with eating disorders.

Eating disorders are among the most dangerous psychopathologies, and that is why at the first sign that their 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 about it.

What are eating disorders?

As their name indicates, the eating disorders are pathologies linked to a dysfunctional pattern of behavior in relation to the way of feeding.. They can take the form of both overeating and under-eating, or even the tendency to eat what should not be eaten.

Eating disorders are therefore very serious psychological very serious psychological disorders that must be treated as soon as possible in therapy, as they can lead to death in the medium and long term.. They are not purely physical diseases related to nutrition (i.e. the way in which the body extracts nutrients from what is ingested, but are based on psychological processes prior to digestion, which cause the person to develop a problematic relationship with food.

All eating disorders have in common that those who develop them internalize dysfunctional behavioral patterns. internalize dysfunctional patterns of behavior that wear down their health and quality of life, and over which they feel they have no control.and over which they feel they have no control.

In fact, it is common that people with these psychopathologies do not even recognize that they have a problem, assuring that everything they do is perfectly deliberate and obeys their most honest aspirations.

There are even extreme cases where people identify these disorders as part of their identify these disorders as part of their identity and way of being, so that they believe that putting it in the right place is the best way to achieve their goals.They believe that putting a stop to it would imply "betraying" themselves. Therefore, a phenomenon similar to anosognosia appears, the fact that many people with neurological disorders, because 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 his or her way of assessing what suits him or her and what does not.

Main types of eating disorders

Diagnostic manuals do not limit themselves to talking about eating disorders in general terms, but also describe different variants of these psychopathologies. Each of them has its own associated symptomatology.However, in all of them there is an alteration of mental health that in turn generates physical health problems that can become very severe.

The main eating disorders are the following.

1. Anorexia

The anorexia is characterized by the constant avoidance of food intake.The anorexia can lead to a very low level of weight loss, limiting it to the minimum to a point where it can lead to death by malnutrition.

It is very common for people with anorexia to perceive themselves as overweight, despite being very thin. This is a psychological disorder with a very high mortality rate, so it should be treated urgently.

2. Binge eating disorder

In the disorder by binge eating, the person feels the uncontrollable urge to binge eat even when he/she is not hungry.. This can lead to overweight or malnutrition, since foods rich in carbohydrates and/or fats are favored.

3. Bulimia

Bulimia is a pathology similar to binge eating disorder. However, in this case the symptomatology includes a strong feeling of guilt after binge eating, and regret for having eaten too much without needing itThis leads to purging behaviors such as self-induced vomiting in an attempt to "compensate".

How do you help patients with eating disorders 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 its typical symptomatology. Moreover, even among patients with a single type of disorder, there are many individual differences based on personality, age, the person's life context, etc. For this reason, psychological intervention is always based on the principle of examining each case on a case-by-case basis and offering personalized solutions.

However, beyond this, there are some strategies and techniques that are frequently used in psychotherapy to address eating disorders. These are the most important ones.

1. Incorporating specific eating patterns into daily life

In psychotherapy, people with eating disorders are helped to internalize a series of very concrete eating routines that leave little room for ambiguity, making it possible for them to deal with their allusion to food.This helps them to approach their eating disorder from a disciplined point of view but without falling into a pathological obsession with the way they eat. To this end, it is common to use action triggers, which help to structure meal times without much effort to move from desires to practice.

2. Emotion detection training

In the case of the psychological treatment of eating disorders, training in emotional detection has to do above all with enhancing the ability to recognize emotional hunger, that is, the desire to eat without really being hungry, only to avoid or "cover up" a form of discomfort that usually has to do with anguish or stress.

In the case of anorexia, it also serves to help recognize the moments when self-sabotaging thoughts emerge in the patient's consciousness, so that they can be seen and acknowledged.so that they can be seen from a critical perspective that limits their power.

3. Cognitive restructuring

This front of psychotherapy consists of helping the person to detect those aspects of his identity that make him feel very vulnerable and that he tries to control at least in part through food, in order to resolve them in a functional way, demonstrating that he can overcome his fears. It helps him to reinforce his self-esteemIt helps him not to fall easily into pessimism when it comes to assessing his appearance and behavior (and even his ability to overcome the disorder).

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 family. Therefore, in therapy we work on conflict management skills.

Do you need 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 the care of adult and adolescent patients, and I offer online sessions by video call or in person at my office located in Almeria.