THOUGH EATING DISORDERS ARE VERY SOMATIC CONDITIONS, they are classified as mental illnesses because of the complex distortions and rigid belief system a person with an eating disorder holds while living in the disorder. Eating disorders almost always present with a diagnosable co-morbid illness such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Addressing the eating disorder involves building a foundation for sound mental health, often with the guidance of a professional psychologist, therapist, social worker or mental health counselor. This section contains content from clinical experts in the eating disorder treatment field that cover a range of psychological topics as they pertain to eating disorder recovery.
- What Parents and Families Need to Know Doug Bunnell, PhD, CEDS When looking for an eating disorder program that specializes in treating adolescents, you will want to consider asking these questions of a residential provider.
- Anosognosia and Anorexia Lauren Muhlheim, PsyD, CEDS “Anosognosia can be confusing for family members. If you are a loved one of someone with an eating disorder who appears to disbelieve they are ill or seems disinterested in recovery, please recognize that they are not being defiant or resistant. It is more likely that they are incapable of insight. Fortunately, motivation is not required for recovery if your loved one is a minor or is a young adult who is financially dependent. You can be firm and insist on treatment for them.”
- “I’m Not Going!”: How to Talk with Your Child About Hospitalization for an Eating Disorder Kelsey M. Latimer, PhD, Sonia Schwalen, PhD. “How we approach challenging conversations is very impactful for a child, as researchers state that it can have influences on future relationships with clinicians, satisfaction of treatment, mothers’ perceptions of the illness, etc.” (Aein & Delaram, 2014).
- To Tell or Not to Tell: Therapists with a Personal History of an Eating Disorder: Carolyn Costin MA, LMFT, CEDS. Costin herself overcame anorexia and has since gone on to found Monte Nido and Affiliates as well as become a licensed therapist. The first part of the article delves into value that clinicians with a history of eating disorders hold and what it truly means to recover. The second part of this article looks into this topic deeper through discussion of self-disclosure.
- The Need for Complex Ideas in Anorexia Nervosa: Why Biology, Environment, and Psyche All matter, Why Therapists Make Mistakes, and Why Clinical Benchmarks Are Needed for Managing Weight Correction Michael Strober, PhD, ABPP and Craig Johnson, PhD “Who doesn’t wish for a treatment that can alleviate suffering quickly? But to think there is a decisive way of accomplishing it is risky and naive. Teaching parents skills to assist with weight gain is a good thing; we should do it. What is not a good thing is failing to recognize it must coincide with a seasoned ability to infer when the conditions for its success may not be present and how other interventions can assist.”
- Eating Disorders by the Inside Out In this Ted Talk Dr. Laura Hill outlines the neurological and functional experience from the perspective of a person with an eating disorder
- Why I Care About BOTH Genes and Environment in Eating Disorders: The Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI) and AN25K– Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED. “Adding even greater complexity, it is not just these two independent forces that influence eating disorders risk, but myriad ways in which genes and environment can act and co-act to both increase risk and to buffer someone from developing an eating disorder.”
- Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels This article written by Walter H Kaye, MD, Christina E Wierenga, PhD, Ursula F Bailer, MD, Alan N Simmons, PhD, and Amanda Bischoff-Grethe, PhD gives an overview of the Neurobiology of Anorexia Nervosa.
- The Perfect Storm – A Bio-Psycho-Social Risk Model for Developing and Maintaining Eating Disorders- Guido K. W. Frank. Effects of puberty, environmental factors and brain structure on dopamine reward system and the way that plays out in AN, BN, BED (obesity in this case) “In this article I propose that extremes of eating in human EDs alter brain function, in particular dopamine related pathways, and create a biological vicious cycle that interferes with recovery.”
- 9 Eating disorder myths Cynthia Bulik, PhD