One of the most challenging things in my work with patients with BED is disavowing them of the diet and weight mentality. Most patients come in with a significant diet history and, despite many failed diet attempts, are intent on losing weight in treatment via the latest diet trends.
I’ve found through the years that with some patients, getting them to commit to working on their binges, rather than focusing on weight, is a relatively easy switch, while others remain firmly entrenched in a weight-centric mentality. With these patients, I see little-to-no progress. They’re they ones that drop out of treatment prematurely when I tell them that their most recent return to Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig is contraindicated with our work. It’s a major paradigm shift that’s required, and my experience is that patients who are able to think outside the box have an easier time catching on.
2) Provide information on the relationship between food restriction and binge eating (e.g., the diet/binge cycle, the Minnesota Starvation Experiment). Create a timeline of the patient’s diet/weight history, noting weight losses followed by inevitable gains.
4) Operate from an intuitive eating perspective and encourage the patient to legalize off-limits foods in a mindful way.
5) Explore the emotional function of binge eating, as well as how an attachment to the diet mentality may trigger binge emotions.
10) Recognize that healing from an eating disorder might be a bumpy road but that, with persistence and attention to the above factors, recovery is entirely possible.
SOURCE: Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? – Read entire story here.
