Find Your Option to Treat Eating Disorders Recovery
Eating disorders are complex medical and mental health diagnoses. Unfortunately, there isn’t a specific treatment protocol or medication that can “cure” eating disorders. However, full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. Eating disorder recovery requires several professionals as members of the treatment team.
Members of your treatment team may include:
1.Registered eating disorder dietitian nutritionist. When working with an eating disorder dietitian, you will discuss your relationship with food, assure you are eating enough and also work to challenge your eating disorder thoughts. It is highly important that the dietitian is a Health At Every Size © or HAES nutritionist.
2. Psychological therapy. A therapist and/or a psychiatrist is also an important member of the team. In therapy, you’ll work to discuss root causes of the ED. Many individuals in eating disorder recovery also struggle with other mental health illnesses, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, self-harm trauma or addiction. So, you will also discuss those topics in therapy as well.
3. A primary care physician. In most cases, there are physical and medical consequences to an eating disorder. It’s important to work with a physician so they can help to diagnose any medical complications as well as help treat them.
4. Your partner, parents, or other family members. Lastly, your loved ones can be an incredible support in your recovery. Whether they eat with you or drive you to appointments or help you find eating disorder treatment options, reach out to your loved ones for help as needed and as you feel comfortable.
Determine what your needs are and come up with goals and guidelines
When meeting with your eating disorder treatment team for the first time, you may want to highlight what your goals are for recovery. For example:. Do you want to go out to eat with friends and family without feeling anxious? Do you want to feel comfortable in your body? What about being less rigid with food? Are there certain behaviors that you’re hoping to stop? An eating disorder nutritionist, in particular, can support you with goal setting around food behaviors. A dietitian will work alongside you each step of the way to achieve these goals.
Remember. Recovery is not linear. While you may make bits of progress day to day, there might also be periods of time where the eating disorder voice is really loud. Know that it is normal for recovery ups and downs to happen. Just as your treatment team can support you in setting goals, they can also support you throughout each stage in recovery, including the high points and low points.
Treat physical complications
Eating disorders are not just a mental health diagnosis, but they are also a medical diagnosis. Physical consequences of eating disorders include, hypotension (low blood pressure), bradycardia (low heart rate), fatigue, feeling cold, irritability, low bone density, and GI issues (like constipation or acid reflux). Thankfully, all these physical consequences (except low bone density) can improve with adequate nutrition. This makes the role of the eating disorder dietitian incredibly important. Additionally, working with a physician can be helpful as they can prescribe medications needed to ease symptoms.
Establish regular eating patterns — generally, three meals a day with regular snacks to avoid bingeing
Regular eating is the foundation of having a positive relationship with food. Why is eating regularly important? Without food, our bodies can’t do their jobs! So, eating regular meals makes it a bit easier for your body to get consistent fuel. Additionally, eating regular meals, enjoying food, and honoring cravings reduces the risk of bingeing. Binge eating oftentimes occurs in the presence of restriction. This is because your body is kicking into survival mode and is essentially trying to save you from starvation. You may want to consider working with a dietitian to discuss strategies for support with restricting and bingeing behaviors.
Work toward a healthy body image
Not only can you improve your relationship with food in recovery, but you also can heal your relationship with your body. Many people believe that having a positive body image means “liking how you look.” While “liking how you look” can be part of having a positive body image, it absolutely goes deeper than that. A positive body image means liking, trusting and appreciating your body regardless of how it looks. It means that you know your body is worthy despite any perceived “flaws.” Healing body image takes time and patience and is often more challenging than changing food behaviors. An eating disorder nutritionist can also support you in working toward a healthy, positive body image.
Identify resources
Finding eating disorder recovery resources in your area can be difficult. Many practices these days offer both in person and virtual sessions. Virtual nutrition and therapy appointments have increased access to resources for many people. I’d recommend finding a local eating disorder dietitian as well as therapist to begin your recovery work. If you meet with a dietitian first, the eating disorder nutritionist can refer you to therapists they trust. And vice versa. You can also check the NEDA Treatment Finder, the HAES Community Website or the ANAD treatment finder to try local options.
Courage to Nourish provides eating disorder nutrition therapy for clients in VA, DC, MD and PA. We have two physical offices in College Park and Columbia, MD. We can also work with clients in a few other states like Colorado and California, so please reach out if you’re looking for an eating disorder RD. We’d be happy to answer your questions, schedule an appointment, or direct you to local resources.
Work to identify best treatment options
Once you have found a few options, you may want to consider scheduling a “discovery call” with the provider you will likely work with. A discovery call is typically a 15–20 minute call to determine whether or not you think you and the provider would be a good fit. It can be intimidating meeting with someone for the first time, so a discovery call can help to ease some of that anxiety.
Nutritionist specializing in eating disorders
As I said earlier, when looking for eating disorder recovery treatment, you want to make sure your nutritionist specializes in eating disorders. Here are some questions you can ask:
What is your approach when working with eating disorders?
Other than eating disorders, do you work with any other clients?
What can I expect from the first session and from follow up sessions?
These questions should give you an idea of whether or not this dietitian is a good fit for you.
If you have any questions about working with a dietitian, feel free to reach out ot Courage to Nourish at hello@couragetonourish.com
