Anorexia, Treatment - Family Therapy

This is because the sufferer of any eating disorder transfers her needs from people to food.

That is to say that she finds it so difficult to relate to other people, especially on an emotional level which requires a deep level of trust, and has come to believe that the solace which she should be able to find from her relationships can better be found from food, or her denial of it.

She develops a love-hate relationship with food in an attempt to deal with her loneliness and fear.

New family therapy, in contrast to more the more traditional type, is designed, not with blaming the family in mind, but rather, to enable the family to work together to help the anorexic to get better.

By addressing problems within the family, the psychiatrist hopes to be able to change the patient's behavior.

As with any treatment plan, family therapy aims to cure the individual before any long term physical damage takes place.

James Lock, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has written a reference book which is designed to inform other psychotherapists about the new family therapy technique.

The book: Treatment manual for anorexia nervosa - a family based approach, is available at Amazon.