Living With Food: The Science Supporting Eating Disorder Treatment

By Julie Norman, Registered Dietitian and Registered Yoga Instructor and Sarah Emerman

  

Yoga yoga yoga, everywhere we turn people are talking about and doing yoga. Recently, yoga has gained popularity for being beneficial to overall physical and mental health. Along with that, we’re also seeing it as another means to control or change ones body. On the market a person can find yoga to improve abs, weight loss, yoga booty ballet, and various other “practices” to alter ones physical appearance. A Google search of yoga images yields results of lean, fit, males and females with limited variability in size and shape. For many people, including those struggling with eating disorders, this sends a mixed message about the purpose and true essence of yoga.

 

Yoga is about connecting to your highest self, you as peaceful and content, as well as healthy. Through breath work, physical postures, and meditation, yoga is a comprehensive tool for wellness. When we only use part of yoga, for instance, just asana practices (the physical postures), the system wont work. This is where it may get confusing for someone with or without an eating disorder. Because we live in a body focused culture, where the message is “change your body, change your life”, yoga has unfortunately mutated into another form of compulsive exercise for many people.

 

Lets be clear:

The sole purpose of yoga is not for exercise. It’s intent is for acceptance of the person as a whole, not to lose weight, tone thighs, or flatten abs. Yoga is for everybody and everyone can benefit from even the most basic elements of yoga practice. The key is to find a place to practice that focuses on the tradition, not the trend. Be cautious of centers advertising body-sculpting benefits, and seek out practices that emphasize mindful breathing, movement, and cater to beginners. Remember that the spirit of yoga is not in competition, but integration of the physical and spiritual self.

 

Should you have any questions or comments regarding this post please contact blog@eatingdisorderscleveland.org. 

Choosing an eating disorder provider is difficult in the best of times and can feel completely overwhelming in the midst of a crisis. This reality, which we have addressed in other ways in the past, came into sharp focus this past week when three separate fathers came to visit us in person to gather information for their ill child. Each was trying to figure out what their next move should be in obtaining care for their loved one who was not in a position to make that decision from themselves. As we spoke to each father and tried to put ourselves in their place, here were some of the questions that we thought we should be answered.

 

As a patient, it is hard in an hour and a half assessment to know the answers to all these questions. It is particularly hard to make a decision when different providers tell you different things.  When you see a provider before you leave ask them: “What if you’re wrong? What if what you’re telling me turns out not to be true? What will we do then?”

 

Contributions by Sarah Emerman 

As more information appears in the media on eating disorders and how to get help, an increasing number of individuals, often women over age 30, have begun to present for eating disorder treatment. It is believed that there are a significant number of people over age 30 who still suffer from these disorders, and the typical stereotype of eating disorders as an illness of teenagers or young adults is not an accurate representation. There are two likely causes of this shift. One is that people are developing eating disorders later in life. While possible, the more likely reason for the presentation of eating disorders in those over 30 is that they have been ill for a significant amount of time, were unable to access effective treatment when younger, and are now presenting for care with hope that more effective treatment is now available.

 

While we do know that eating disorders can potentially present at any age, most people who have eating disorders, or who are recovered from an eating disorder, tend to date the beginning of the disorder to their teens. For most women over 30 who are presenting for treatment there is a description of an illness that has existed for years, and effective treatment for eating disorders has been available for a relatively short amount of time. If you have had treatment in the past and have not been helped that does not mean there is no help for you now. Over the last ten years, not only have new treatments been developed, but there has been a growing acceptance that evidence based care is the preferable method of treatment, just as it is with medical illness.

 

Many of the patients that we see who are over 30 have had some treatment in the past. While this treatment may have been satisfying in some ways, it may not have been successful in treating the eating disorder in a way that leads to and keeps a person in recovery. For this group of patients, as well as for those who have never had care, there is tremendous opportunity to get over these serious and life-threatening disorders. Since we know that in general the longer you have been sick the harder it is to get better, we are aware for those who are older that treatment may be harder. When you factor in relationships, work, children, and other responsibilities that come with maturity, it can also make treatment more complex. But waiting does not help. And given the way that an eating disorder can destroy your body and your happiness, please get help for your disorder.

 

Contributions by Sarah Emerman