Do you struggle to love your body shape or weight?
Is your body shape something you wish you could change, and feel shame about?
Counting calories and restricting certain foods?
Do you criticize yourself about how much you eat?
Are you limiting certain food groups or saying, “No” to yourself?
Do you exercise too much, but feel you can’t stop this habit?
Feeling anxiety, guilt, depression, embarrassment and shame after eating?
Do you feel like you have to be perfect all the time, but are still never good enough?
Eating Disorders Impact All Ages
Katie Ziskind, marriage and family therapist in Florida, specializes with teens and adults who have eating disorders. Eating disorder therapy helps you build self-acceptance and self-love. Many times, people with eating disorder have a hyper focus on food and bodyweight. When you have this hyper focus, it causes extreme disordered eating behaviors. In this article, we will talk about the three most common eating disorders. With that said, there are many over laps, and a variety of eating disorders. Eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida teaches lifelong,, positive coping tools for self-care and self-love.
What causes binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia?
Some say that cultural shame, advertisements, diet products, and more influence youth negatively. Other research shows that eating disorders begin in adolescent and teen years out of family stress. When a teenager gets help, they can learn to let go of disordered eating behaviors. However, when no professional help is provided, the eating disorder behavior gets brought into adulthood.
Many times, binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia develop during the teenage years.
Eating disorders may be a negative way to cope with lack of control. For a youth, there may not feel like much in their control in their world. Maybe, there is a family move, parents divorce, surviving sexual abuse, major trauma, alongside diet culture. Diet culture is a major factor in eating disorder development and therapy. Part of therapy for eating disorders means understanding the impacts of diet culture.
Do eating disorders like binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia impact women only?
Nope. It is a common myth that eating disorders only impact teenage girls. Katie Ziskind has worked with males, females, non-binary people, adolescents, and adults, who all struggle. Teenage boys are susceptible to eating disorders, but often go overlooked by medical professionals. That is why is is so important to have an eating disorder specialist on your teenager’s treatment team. Katie Ziskind specializes in eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
As well, having an eating disorder can be very emotional, cause mood swings, irritability, and even have roots in shame.
Sometimes, a person with an eating disorder will have troubles concentrating at school, work, and at home. Adults with eating disorders may also be overlooked by medical professions. Eating disorders do not only impact teens, but often start in the middle school and high school years. Overall, if your adolescent or if you are suffering from an eating disorder, therapy can help improve your mental wellbeing. Someone with an eating disorder may not feel confident going out to a restaurant with friends. They get hyper fixated on food choices. Often, an active eating disorder has negative social effects, like low self-esteem and social isolation.
When eating disorders go untreated, they can cause serious health problems that are life-threatening like death.
Binge eating disorder and how eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida can help.
What is binge eating disorder?
Commonly, if you have binge eating disorder, you will eat large amounts of food in one sitting. You may also find yourself bingeing and eating when you are not hungry. Furthermore, if you are a binge eater, your eating binges occur at least once a week. People who have binge eating disorder may feel out of control when bingeing.
What is a large amount of food?
Well, on an eating binge, you may find yourself consuming about 2-3 meals worth of food in one sitting. Alongside your large amount is large amounts of food is lack of control. Feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment go alone with the binge eating cycle. Therefore, if you live with others, you may hide food wrappers in the garbage. Or, you may go to a great effort to conceal your binge eating disorder out of shame and embarrassment. Sometimes, people binge eat in their car as they feel this is more private than binge eating at home.
Also, if you or your loved one has binge eating disorder, getting help sooner than later is very beneficial.
After a binge, you may try to promise yourself you will never do it again out of shame and guilt. However, if feels outside your control, even when you try to control or stop yourself. There is an urge to keep eating large amounts of food with binge eating disorder. Unfortunately, not all, but many people with binge eating disorder may have a larger body, become overweight or obese. Wisdom Within Counseling offers holistic, creative eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
What are symptoms of binge eating disorder?
Symptoms of binge eating disorder may include sneaking food, hiding food, and eating alone. As well, a person with binge eating disorder may eat when they aren’t hungry. The amount of food is very large. Each person may have a different binge eating time of the day. You or your teenager may even eat beyond the point of feeling full, where you are uncomfortable. Additionally, after a binge eating experience, you will be consumed with disgust, depression, shame, and even guilt for binging. It is a very emotionally draining cycle to have with food. Therapy can help you build a love, nurturing relationship with food.
Anorexia treatment in eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida
What is Anorexia?
To start, adolescents and adults who suffer from anorexia have a strong desire to be skinnier. Being thinner is obsessive. Unfortunately, anorexia can be life threatening due to the obsession to be thin. Males, females, transgender, and non-binary people may all have anorexia. Anorexia can impact any age as well. Many times, though it begins in adolescent and teen years.
When your teenager has anorexia, they will not want to eat because you are afraid to gain weight.
Often, teens and adults with anorexia have trouble seeing their body for what it is. They often think they are obese when they are very underweight. Furthermore, if you have anorexia, you will constantly be afraid of gaining weight. A teen or adult with anorexia will constantly worry and think about the number of calories they are eating. If calories are listed on a menu, this may cause them to be unable to order food.
Commonly, people with anorexia skip meals or have very, very small amounts of food.
As this becomes more normal to them, it becomes dangerous. Restricting calories, knowing the grams, and how much fat is in their food is common in anorexia. As well, if you have anorexia you may be taking laxatives, diet pills, or water pills to lose weight. These can really create damage internally. On that note, to lose weight, if you have anorexia, you may have compulsive exercising habits. You may exercise too much, run miles even when a doctor restricts exercise, or push your body too far. Overall, when you are actually very thin, you may perceive yourself as very overweight. Other family members may see a person with anorexia as sickly and a walking skeleton. Reach out today for eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
Eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida can help your loved one with anorexia build a healthy body image and positive relationship with food.
What are signs and symptoms of anorexia?
Many times, your adolescent with anorexia will look very thin to others. However, your teenager will not be able to accept that they are underweight. Adults with anorexia may not have as many teachers or family members caring about them. Therefore, an adult with anorexia may have an easier time concealing their disordered eating behaviors. As well, an adolescent with anorexia will have food obsessions, count calories, and restrict food groups. If you have anorexia, you may may also combine strange foods to avoid gaining weight.
What is a food ritual when it comes anorexia treatment in eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida?
Furthermore, you will notice food rituals. A food ritual is something that a person with an eating disorder does before they eat. For instance, this may include not having any foods touch on their plate. If a food touches, then they will not allow themselves to eat. In addition, a food ritual can be chewing a certain number of times before swallowing to slow down eating. Food rituals may annoy family members, so family therapy can be very beneficial. If you have anorexia, you may also have irregular periods, feel cold all the time, or wear baggy clothes to hide your weight loss. There is professional help available to help you love yourself and change disordered eating habits. Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
There are major and significant health risks of anorexia.
For one, if your adolescent or you, yourself, suffer from anorexia, you are at risk for serious health problems. Anorexia is a life-threatening disorder and will not go away on its own. If you have anorexia, you will feel weak physically as your muscles don’t have enough fuel. And, you may not be able to think straight, stay focused, or learn at school or at work. You will feel your hair and skin get dryer and less shiny.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
What are other health problems of anorexia when it comes to eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida?
Also, you may have stomach pain and problems, which is from ignoring hunger signals. As well, you may have kidney problems. Osteoporosis is common in people with anorexia because they don’t receive enough nutrients from food restrictive behaviors. A person with anorexia may be more tearful, emotional, angry, cranky, sleepy, or irritable due to ignoring hunger signals. As well, people with anorexia may suffer from heart problems. Anorexia untreated can lead to death.
How does having an eating disorder impact social connections?
If you or your teenager is struggling with an eating disorder in Florida, you may have social challenges. People with eating disorders may withdrawal socially out of tiredness, shame, and fears of eating around others. For instance, let’s say you are a college student and your friends want to get lunch in the cafeteria. You may decline the social invitation because you are afraid they would find out your have an eating disorder, or your rituals may weird them out.
Why do people with eating disorder have a difficult time making friends?
You may also decline because you want to skip lunch all together. Let’s take another example. Say you are an adult and your friend invited you over to their house for dinner. Your eating disorder may be giving you grief, shame, and guilt, that you can’t physically bring yourself to go out. You may feel ashamed of your body size and shape. As well, you might even blow off social plans. You might want to bring your own food to eat, but not feel confident enough to ask your friend. As well, you may feel embarrassed about bringing your own food. You may be afraid your friend will make fun of you for bringing your own foods.
At times, do you find that disordered eating habits that hold you back from socializing?
Eating disorders can cause you to feel timid, which negatively impacts possibilities of positive social connections. Wether you are shy, or you feel like isolating, you can learn from therapy how to build social confidence. Lack of socializing with friends and family has negative impacts on development. It can also lead to more depressive feelings, shame, and guilt.
People with eating disorders are more likely to also suffer from social anxiety.
When you are suffering from an eating disorder, you may have an excessive fear of being embarrassed or humiliated by your own actions. As well, fear and avoidance of social situations may hold you back from making positive friends. Irritability, moodiness, or anger before a social event may prevent you from attending. Poor school performance can cause college students to fail and return home. With an eating disorder and social anxiety, you may dread of social events days or weeks in advance. You fear being judged by others, so you stay home, where you feel comfortable. Lastly, you may have intense, overwhelming anxiety when around unfamiliar people.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult for eating disorder therapy for teens and adults in Florida.
How do eating disorder impact a young adult’s transition to college?
Well, a lot of emerging young adults move from high school to college life and struggle with eating disorders. To note, an eating disorder will not simply go away once your young adult is living on their college campus. Instead, your young adult will be more able to conceal their negative relationship with food.
Without having family eyes or a treatment team to check on them, your young adult may end up in a very negative place.
Having your young adult attend eating disorder therapy in Florida while in college can provide them with support around their relationship to food. If your teenager has anorexia, they may restrict off to avoid gaining the, “freshmen fifteen.” Some freshmen gain fifteen pounds their first semester in college because they are under so much stress. Moving, making new friends, getting good grades, and living away from support play a huge role in eating disorders.
As well, some young adults with eating disorders are unable to complete their freshmen year of college away from home.
At times, when your college student returns home, you may see this as a failure. As a parent, you may feel like you didn’t set them up for success. As well, your young adult may see themselves as a failure too. Overall, eating disorder therapy in Florida can help you and your young adult feel confident about returning home.
Having Katie Ziskind, on your team, a therapist who specializes with eating disorders can help create a support system for your young adult.
When your young adult returns home, a therapist like Katie Ziskind, can help them see it as a growth moment. It can be an opportunity to enroll in a more local college or even take a semester off. Eating disorders can create developmental delays. As well, therapy can help your young adult overcome challenging situations and emotions and practice self-love skills.
Katie Ziskind, at Wisdom Within Counseling, can help you gain a healthy body image and self-love tools through counseling for your eating disorder.
