You may be wondering, “Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut?” In this article, we explain types of eating disorders and our specialized approach to treatment.
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is one eating disorder where people often lose large amounts of weight. With anorexia nervosa, it is very important to reach out for counseling sooner than later. In cases where treatment is not provided, sometimes hospitalization must occur for the safety of the person. Restricting food at home and at restaurants is common. Eating low calorie food like lettuce is common too. With anorexia, Tamar features include over exercising and compulsive exercising. People with anorexia often feel like they need to exercise for every bite of food that they consume. As well, people with anorexia off and hold them selves to very high standards and feel like they have to be perfect all the time. Therefore, people with anorexia benefit from a holistic counseling approach that incorporates mind, body, and spirit techniques for self-love.
Working with a Registered Dietitian is often part of therapy. In treatment for anorexia, counselors teach adolescents and adults alike how to love and accept themselves. In addition, anorexia nervosa is a disorder that can regress around stress. If you find that you are going through a stressful time like a divorce, you may notice your anorexia nervosa symptoms increase. If you find that you’ve been in recovery for quite some time, but now have new symptoms, we can also help you reconnect with a healthy relationship with food.
Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut? In therapy, we teach about intuitive eating and health at every size. Our holistic therapy offers lifelong coping tools and strategies for letting go of fear and shame. We teach that no food is good or bad, to break diet culture stigma.
Bulimia nervosa
Now, bulimia is a different type of eating disorder. With bulimia, there’s often a cycle of binging and purging. For instance, someone might eat the quantity of three meals in one hour. From there, they are consumed with feelings of shame and guilt, and therefore throw up. The cycle continues and consume times lead to malnourishment. People with binge eating and purging challenges may need hospitalization in severe cases. Stuck in the binge and purge eating disorder cycle, people feel alone and sad.
At times, people with bulimia might hide food wrappers in the bottom of the garbage so that no one else he was living with them see you, out of feeling ashamed. In counseling, we help people with bulimia, binge eating, and purging symptoms start to love and except themselves. No matter how much you weigh, we focus on teaching you how to have a loving, nurturing relationship with food. Breaking the binge and purge eating disorder cycle takes the help of someone professional. We specialize with eating disorders and helping clients bring a sense of gentleness and compassion to food.
For some, bulimia, binging, and purging goes on for many years unnoticed. This is because often times people in larger bodies are not considered candidates are having eating disorders. Essentially, this does a disservice to the client. People in larger bodies often struggle with bulimia, binge eating disorder, and purging cycles. However, they often go unnoticed and marginalized by the medical community. Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut?Here, at Wisdom Within Counseling accept and welcome you no matter your size or your eating disorder struggle.
What causes eating disorders?
Parents and caregivers wonder what causes an eating disorder to develop. Frequently, it is perplexing and confusing as to why a young adult might not be able to feed themselves. But, eating disorders come in all different shapes and sizes. Usually, and eating disorder develops in late childhood or early adolescent years. And, it might be concealable for another 10 years until it becomes much worse or severe.
Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut? A person with an eating disorder needs help expressing big emotions in positive ways. Often times, an eating disorder is a way to control food when there is so much else chaotic and outside of the persons control in their life. Therefore, in counseling, we teach people with eating disorders that they have control of many aspects of their lives and help them feel empowerment.
Childhood Trauma and Eating Disorders
Traumatic childhood experiences can lead to eating disorders and food challenges. So, if you have a history of physical, Sexual, or emotional abuse in your past, you may be more prone to an eating disorder. As well, eating disorders developed because of lack of education. In school, we learn about math and science, but we do not learn about how to love ourselves through good nutrition or food. Therefore, a lot of our culture focuses on being skinnier, being more muscular, and creates a warped body image. Frequently, children who receive these messages, and up with disordered eating behaviors. Even body shaming overheard from parents who call them selves overweight or fat can impact a teenager with an eating disorder negatively.
In more rare cases, eating disorders developed as a result of food sensitivities. Sometimes, children and adults have very sensitive digestive systems. Therefore, they’re allergic to a lot of different foods which limits their dietary intake. From this limited array of food choices, eating disorders develop. Children and adults may be reluctant to try foods due to different textures. And, children and adults alike get stuck in the foods that are their favorites and miss out on important key nutrients. If you have a child that doesn’t like eating strawberries because they have seeds on the outside for instance, working with a therapist can help them build confidence around eating new foods.
In addition, children with autism and special needs often have challenges around food and texture sensitivities. Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut? Working with an eating disorder specialist can help you expand the foods that you already enjoy and find familiarity with new foods. Right now, these foods might be scary or gross to even think about trying. So, talking about trying new foods with a therapist can help to build better self-esteem as well.
Restrictive food behaviors
Restrictive food behaviors often occur in early adolescence or teenagers. Frequently, restrictive food behaviors challenge family meal times. It’s normal for parents to become concerned when they see their teenager restricting food or not wanting to eat a full meal. Open times on with these behaviors have a gradually. A teenager will start by taking less and less at meal times. As well, teenagers may avoid coming to town to a family dinner and may choose not to order something at a restaurant. If the entire family goes out for ice cream, the child with an eating disorder may not order any at all. Behaviors related to food challenges start to become more noticeable overtime.
Diet culture
Unfortunately, diet culture creates sabotaging loads of ourselves and young years. Overtime, receiving body shaming messages from diet culture, eating disorders can develop. Part of therapy for eating disorders is reversing the shame and the guilt perpetuated by diet culture. In many cases, overweight or obese people get advice to lose weight. However, so much shame and guilt evolve from that appointment and people even develop a fear of going to the doctor really at a body shaming. As well, doctors are not trying to refer to a therapist when someone comes in needing to lose weight.
Self-Love
Self-love is something that no one can buy for you. In counseling, we help people who have body shame and eating disorders develop self-love skills for lifelong wellness. Frequently, when we are in relationships with negative people or have been bullied in the past, we forget how to love and except ourselves. Often times, we feel insecure or doubt that we are worthy of love and acceptance from being bullied. In addition, having experienced physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in your past can lead to low self-worth. Why work with an eating disorder specialist and therapist in Essex, Connecticut? In counseling, we start from a place of self-love and offer positive self talk techniques.
Body Image
What is body image? Body image is the way in which you see yourself and hold yourself in the world. For many, body image issues repaired. Sometimes going to be with body image issues will wear clothing that’s too large or too small for their body. Other times, people with body image issues will feel so ashamed, they won’t participate in group activities that require them to use their body. Body image issues develop from someone telling us that we look fat in an outfit, when all we want is to be attractive.
Advertisements with models that have eating disorders make eating disorders worse. As well, body image issues can develop because they’re not as many plus size models in the industry to normalize the larger body. If you or your teenager struggles with body image issues, we can help them develop self-esteem and confidence in their body. Having body confidence can make you feel really good about yourself. In counseling, our therapists specialize with eating disorders and help you learn to love the skin that you are in.
Gender Roles and Eating Disorder Therapy
When it comes to gender, gender roles and gender stereotypes play a large role in the development of eating disorders and eating disorder recovery. For men, they hear from Society that they are weak if they are not muscular. For many men, a very fit body is just not a reality. And, it’s almost impossible to maintain a highly muscular figure while also maintaining a healthy relationship with food.
Frequently, men who have very muscular body is also very little body fat and has anorexia. Even though someone might look like they are physically fit or healthy from the outside, they may have a lot of inner conflict and struggle with eating certain foods. And, it’s almost impossible to maintain a highly muscular figure while also maintaining a healthy relationship with food. Frequently, men who have very muscular body is also a very little body fat and has anorexia. Therefore, if someone looks healthy from the outside, they may not be healthy on the inside.
For women, often times body image and eating disorders stem from having to hold it all together. Therefore, if someone looks healthy from the outside, they may not be healthy on the inside. For women, often times body image and eating disorders stem from having to hold it all together. Women, and society, are told they have to always be the caregivers and give selflessly. When they have a voice, they are seen as too much to the world. Women are told that they shouldn’t have a position of power, and should always do everything to make their spouse happy. These gender roles and stereotypes do a disservice to women.
Frequently, women believing these messages end up in abusive relationships with narcissists. Therefore, part of eating disorder recovery is education on gender roles and gender stereotypes that influence who we are as people. In counseling, we teach women and men that it is acceptable and a beautiful thing to speak up about their feelings and express them in healthy ways. We also work with families to help him learn more about eating disorder recovery.
Culture Plays A Role In Eating Disorder Treatment
The Americanized culture does not educated enough about how to create a healthy relationship with food from a young age. But, from a young age, we are given messages about which foods we should eat and which foods we shouldn’t. Sometimes, carbs or fats are seen as bad. Other times, people see protein or oils in isolation as bad or good. Therefore, growing up, we have a lot of imposed cultural judgment and cultural shame.
This also occurs around alcohol. For example, so you go out to eat and all of your friends order an alcoholic beverage, you feel a sense of pressure to drink as well. Let’s say an entire family goes out to eat dinner, someone with an eating disorder will feel the sense of internalize pressure to look good. So, the person with an eating disorder may not eat any thing at the restaurant when their loved ones are all eating food.
There is a sense of internalize pressure with eating disorders to “looking good.” As well, if a teenager has a friend that begins to go on a diet to lose weight, it is very common for their entire friend group to follow suit. If it sounds like a cool thing to go on a diet, a teenager will often want to be cool and try that. But, with a teenager doesn’t realize yet because they don’t have the education, is that food is a lifelong loving relationship. In counseling, we specialize with eating disorders and eating disorder recovery. We teach adolescents, teenagers, and adults with eating disorders and body image issues how to love and except themselves.
