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Eating Disorders |
Substance Abuse |
PTSD |
Sex Addiction |
Gambling |
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Self-Harm |
Eating Disorders
Many forms of eating disorders are described as severe disturbances in compensatory
eating behaviors. For many individuals, the eating disorder is a means of survival
creating a system of nurturance & self-care. The eating disorder feels like your
nature. Individuals with eating disorders can use food to control unwanted or painful
feelings, memories, or traumas and purging or restricting foods or groups of food types
to deal with their unwanted problems. You recognize the eating disorder comes from a
controlling voice which most people call "the eating disorder voice".
REQUEST A CONFIDENTIAL ASSESSMENT Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is mainly characterized by the restriction of food and the refusal to
maintain a minimal normal body weight. Anorexics are characterized by behaviors that
represent unhealthy and inappropriate ways to prevent and compensate for perceived or
imagined weight gain. The anorexic is characterized by a refusal to maintain at least
a minimum of 85% of ideal body weight based on age-appropriate height and weight. Individuals
with anorexia dramatically reduce their food intake to below the number of calories required
to maintain their ideal body weight. Anorexia literally means “a loss of appetite” and can be
characterized by self-induced starvation, a relentless drive for thinness, and a morbid fear
of becoming fat.
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa sufferers, sometimes called “Bulimics,” are often caught in a destructive
binge-purge cycle. The bulimic individual feels out of control and experiences panic and
mental angst related to the severe desire for thinness and a fear of fatness. As a result,
compensatory purging behaviors occur. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by engagement in
binge-purge cycles that include eating large amounts of food (i.e., binging). The binging
is followed by an attempt to force vomiting or by abusing laxatives (i.e., purging);
diabetics not taking insulin; use of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills; ipecac; chew-spitting;
or exercise to compensate for the real or imagined weight gain caused by the calorie-laden
binged food. For individuals with bulimia nervosa, the purging behavior can reduce stress.
Bulimia nervosa is a failed attempt at anorexia, although individuals with bulimia share
the goal of achieving thinness. Individuals with bulimia nervosa may experience many failed
attempts at mini-starvation behaviors and evoke feelings of severe hunger that cause binging
on calorie-laden food only to face severe conflict and anxiety.
Compulsive Overeating
Compulsive overeaters are often locked into a fearful cycle of binging and depressive symptoms with food such that control over their feelings, bodies, and families are an essential part of the cycle of binge eating and depression. Compulsive eaters or “binge eaters” often use food as a self-regulating coping mechanism to deal with unwanted feelings. Eating temporarily distracts them from these feelings, but it is often shadowed by feelings of guilt, horrid shame, disgust, and sadness. Binge eating occurs in secret and often at night.
Causes of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders, Alcohol use and Substance are complex diseases and not just a condition
that can be treated with willpower. They meet the definition of a disease because like other
diseases they have a particular destructive process for an individual, with a specific cause
(that cause can be either known or unknown), and display characteristic symptoms. All eating
disorders, Alcohol, and substance use disorders are primary diseases and not the secondary
result of some other disorder. They are chronic conditions with an identifiable progression
and predictable symptoms. Eating disorders, Alcohol Use, substance use disorders arise out of
the combination of genetic, sociological, and psychological factors.
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