Treatment for anorexia and other eating disordersWhat does treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders actually mean? For me, as a recoverer, it means learning to put your real self before the false self that is created for others. It means recognizing that the body is an instrument of the soul, and that to live without knowing and feeling that is nothing less than a sacrifice of the self. But what about food? Eating disorders are not about food. They are about escaping from frightening feelings. Treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders is about helping sufferers to deal with their fears - to recognize their roots, and to learn better coping strategies. Once this has started to happen, the food issues begin to be resolved. With the recognition that control over one's life can be gained with consistent, logical steps forward, the need for control over food and/or weight begins to lose it's potency. How does this shift come about? I go on about cognitive behavior therapy quite a bit. That's because it worked for me, and I have absolute faith in it. Cognitive therapy gives the sufferer complete control over restructuring her mind - that's literally what it means - a complete rewiring of the brain. Is it hard? It's a lot easier than having an eating disorder! From the first day that I started having cognitive behavior therapy, I began to see changes in myself that had little or nothing to do with food, and a lot more to do with my own expectations of my life, and what I felt I deserved to gain from it. In short, I began a process of living - really living as someone who felt they had a right to co-exist alongside everyone else.I began to see my 'progress' as a being fast tracked to a realization of who I was - underneath this eating disorder. So rather than treatment for anorexia and eating disorders, I prefer to see the process as one of escaping from a trap and finding the path to oneself. When viewed in this light, the need to 'recover' can apply to most of us. How many people can really say they are as happy as they know they could be? How many more live their lives day in day out, in a state of discontent, doing a job they don't enjoy, not having enough time to spend with their loved ones, pursue their hobbies or, dare I say...their dreams? Don't we all need to recover something of ourselves sometime, somewhere? To whatever extent someone is unhappy, if they choose to remain in that state, is that not a 'disorder?' There are no blacks and whites. Everything is on a continuum. Learning about me - the real me - through cognitive therapy, was the best thing I ever did. Click here to learn more about how cognitive therapy is an effective treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders
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Any effective treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders will help the sufferer to make the shift from living for others, and the fear, guilt and anger associated with that, to living for herself, valuing herself, and to experience the joy and freedom of that.
