Living With Food: The Science Supporting Eating Disorder Treatment

By, Dr. Mark Warren

At some point, almost everyone who has an eating disorder believes that they caused the disorder, or are to blame for developing the disorder. There may be a belief that there is a voluntary decision to stop eating and to have behaviors, which may then be easily reversed. Often when an eating disorder is present there is a constant negative refrain inside your head saying that you’ve done things wrong and this is something you made happen. This negative refrain implies that you are the cause of your own disorder. In fact, no one chooses to have an eating disorder and no one is able to cause their own eating disorder. It makes no more sense to think you can cause or choose an eating disorder than it would be to cause Bipolar Disorder or choose to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

When we say that eating disorders are biological we mean this in a literal sense. All psychological illnesses involve some sort of biological dysfunction in the brain and the central nervous system. There are billions of neurons in your head and not all of them work perfectly in anyone. Therefore, the organization of your mental processes will never be perfect. We are all engaged in an effort to make ourselves feel as good as we can, have as much success as we can, and lead the best life we can. If our biology is vulnerable, an eating disorder can get woven into these other goals. Sometimes people feel that they cause the eating disorder to obtain these goals, but this is not true. What is true is that the eating disorder itself is creating negative thoughts, blaming thoughts, and unhappy thoughts, which makes it harder to obtain the goals we want in our life. The good news is that even if we do not cause eating disorders, we have the power to be part of the cure of the disorder. With good treatment, supportive community, patience, and time we may find ourselves able to choose to move past the eating disorder to the life we want to have.

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Contributions by Sarah Emerman