Eating Disorder Treatment

Each person's situation is unique. A treatment plan will be customized for you. Eating disorder treatment typically includes the following: 

• Assessment and diagnosis - this includes medical, psychological, and nutritional factors. 
• Working with a treatment team including mental health counseling, nutritional counseling, medication to reduce the intensity of symptoms, and physical monitoring. Group therapy may also be helpful. For children and teens, family therapy will be a part of the process. 
• Restoring physical health: restoring healthy body weight, managing eating disorder behaviors (food restriction, compulsive exercise, binge eating, purging, etc) and establishing normalized eating and nutrition. 
• Addressing eating disorder thoughts and the eating disorder mind. 
• Reconnecting with your body, learning attuned eating and discerning the physical signals provided by your body.
• Learning problem solving and coping skills, building and strengthening internal resources, improving mood and relationships. 
• Fostering self-acceptance, self-compassion, emotional regulation and expression, and interpersonal skills.
• Moving out of patterns of shame and judgment, shifting out of black and white thinking, identifying triggers and needs/voids food is attempting to fill, and finding alternative ways to soothe.
• Clarifying values and goals and taking steps to build a meaningful life free from the eating disorder. 

Eating disorder recovery means discovering a meaningful life and factors that contribute to ongoing life satisfaction without an eating disorder: values, connection, self-worth, etc. 

Recovered means eating and moving in response to body needs most of the time. Your body’s needs will vary day to day.

There are several factors that contribute to how long it may take to heal your relationship with food and body such as the time spent engaged in the restrict, diet/binge cycle, history of trauma, and your current resources. 

Lasting recovery from an eating disorder is ongoing - there are setbacks, relapses, triggers and slips along the way.  

Eating disorder recovery is a marathon not a sprint. 

Read more: “Activities that Have Been Helpful in Recovery from Eating Disorders”

Eddins Counseling Group provides outpatient eating disorder treatment. This is the "lowest" level of care for mental health treatment and is typically an individual therapy session 1-3 times per week.

Our therapists can assess clients at all levels of severity, help determine the level of care needed and make referrals to appropriate eating disorder treatment centers and treatment teams if needed. This is particularly important in order to avoid medical complications as eating disorders can be serious.

Treatment options at other levels of care include intensive outpatient which may typically be 9-12 hours per week, partial hospitalization which is 4-6 hours per day, residential which means residing at the treatment facility or hospitalization, which typically occurs for medical stabilization prior to starting therapy. 

We are mental health counselors so our role is to treat the psychological aspect of an eating disorder on an outpatient basis. As part of treatment, we work in collaboration with eating disorder dietitians, physicians and psychiatrists to ensure all aspects health and recovery are addressed. 

Ongoing treatment with ECG may include both individual therapy and group therapy. 

Support from loved ones can greatly improve someone's recovery from an eating disorder, but it can be hard to know what to do. Here are some ways you can help someone with an eating disorder: 

• Encourage them to seek help. 
• Recognize that change is scary, there can be shame in "having an eating disorder", and there may be a part of them that doesn't want to change or even believe there is a problem. Avoid arguing, rescuing, or even taking it personal. 
• Use "I" statements and focus on your feelings so you don't trigger defensiveness. "I'm concerned", "I'm worried about..", "I've noticed you don't join us for dinner anymore." 
• Hold hope - believe they can recover from the eating disorder.
• Learn about eating disorders so you can speak in a compassionate, understanding way with your loved one. 
• Check in on their emotional well-being vs focusing on food. Listen without judgment. 
• Offer to help with daily life activities. 
• Set a positive example. Avoid negative body talk towards self or others.
• Avoid dieting talk or praising people based on weight. 
• If you're a parent, provide nutritious meal options, sit down together as a family at mealtimes. You can discuss with a therapist or dietitian how to handle meals at home. 

Eating disorders are complex and can develop in children, teens and adults for a variety of reasons. Eating disorders can also co-occur with other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Eating disorders impact people of all body shapes and sizes, ages, and both male and female. Some 10 million males will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their life.

Risk factors for developing an eating disorder include: 

• Family member with an eating disorder 
• Perfectionism or rigid thinking style
• History of dieting 
• Psychological conditions or mental illness such as: anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, addiction (in self or family member) 
• Medical conditions that impact picky eating such as sensory processing disorder, food allergies, celiac disease, supertasters, autism, acid reflux, Chron's disease, ulcerative colitis, or gastrointestinal issues 
• Type 1 Diabetes
• Body focused activities such as sports
• Weight teasing or body shaming (especially at a young age) 
• Difficulty with interoception (awareness of body's internal cues) 
• Difficulty with emotion regulation 

What are common signs and symptoms of an eating disorder? 

There are a variety of signs and symptoms, but the bottom line is feeling overall out of control in your relationship to food. A person may try to change his/her eating behavior, but will ultimately return to old patterns. Some people may have periods of discreet bingeing (i.e. consuming large quantities of food in a short time), they may overeat at mealtimes, restrict food, or they may “graze,” never really finishing a meal.

Common signs and symptoms include: 

• Constantly checking appearance
• Compulsively exercising
• Making excuses not to eat 
• Eating large quantities of food in one sitting
• Stomach pain
• Frequent bowel movements or time in the bathroom 
• Frequent dieting 
• Use of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills, vomiting to manage weight gain and food intake
• Fear of weight gain

A professional such as an eating disorder therapist can tell you if you have an eating disorder. Eating disorders are serious and painful struggles.

Take our eating disorder screening test to learn more.