What are the Treatment Options?
Living with an eating disorder comes with many challenges. The good news is that there are plenty of treatment options available.
Living with an eating disorder comes with many challenges. The good news is that there are plenty of treatment options available.
With eating disorders, it can become hard to separate healthy behaviors from those that are causing you psychological or physical harm. A therapist can help you separate healthy from harmful behaviors.
Here, you’ll talk with a mental health professional about your experiences. They can help you determine factors that are causing distress, then help you take steps toward solving them.
There are no specific medications to treat eating disorders. However, some medications can help treat co-occurring conditions. In doing so, they may address the psychological and biological factors that contribute to disordered eating patterns.
Medications can help you to manage anxiety, depression, substance use, and other mental health conditions that might occur alongside an eating disorder.
For many people, these conditions are closely linked with disordered eating. The most effective treatment plans will address all relevant conditions.
As eating disorders can also have medical consequences, it can be wise to have your treatment provider address the other health complications that are a result of your eating disorder.
Dietitians can provide useful information about proper nutrition and also monitor your body to make sure that you’re healthy enough to remain at your current level of treatment.
Outpatient Programs
Partial Hospitalization
Inpatient Care
Anorexia is an eating disorder that’s often characterized by significant weight loss, or body weight below the minimum standard for age, sex, and physical health. It also involves an intense fear of weight gain and a dysmorphic or distorted perception of body image.
In some cases, anorexia can have a range of physical consequences, such as:
Treatments for anorexia may involve treating or preventing medical complications.
Like anorexia, bulimia often involves low self-esteem or a hyper-focus on body image. Purging is more specific to bulimia and has its own physical effects.
Over time, health implications specific to bulimia can include tooth decay, inflamed glands near the esophagus, and ulcers. So, treatment for bulimia has to account for the physical and psychological differences of this eating disorder from its variants.
Binge eating disorder is another common eating disorder. It’s associated with a loss of control when eating and repetitive episodes of overeating that are followed by feelings of shame.
The health implications of this condition vary. They can include:
Your doctor should take these factors into account during treatment.