Recovery From Disordered Eating: Juggling Several Balls
November 17th, 2009 |
By Deborah Klinger, MA, Eating & Food Issues Topic Expert Contributor
Click here to contact Deborah and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile
Two primary components of a disordered relationship with food that drive disordered eating are food deprivation: restriction of and compensation for food intake, and emotional and psychological issues: painful feelings with which one lacks adequate means of coping, and wounds experienced in the past that propel one to deal with emotional pain via abusing food. The latter speaks to a disordered relationship with one’s self. Although eating problems affect males as well as females, for simplicity’s sake, I will be using “her” and “she” throughout this article.
An eating disordered individual equates fat with worthlessness and “unloveability.” Someone who suffers from anorexia nervosa typically restricts her food intake because she has developed an intense fear of becoming fat, and by extension, a fear of eating an adequate amount of food. A bulimic individual is caught in a cycle of deprivation/restriction and bingeing/purging, which fuel one another and are driven also by a fear of weight gain and belief that “getting rid” of food taken in during a binge is necessary to ensure that she does not become obese. This is true also of individuals who do not binge, but induce vomiting after eating nonetheless. Binge eaters and compulsive eaters who overeat in ways other than bingeing share the same aversion to fat. They usually struggle constantly with dieting or restricting food intake, thus perpetuating the cycle of under-eating and overeating. Overweight binge eaters, and overweight eaters of other disordered stripes, assign the same negative significance to fat that those with anorexia and bulimia do, believing themselves gluttonous and of little worth. Most all disordered eaters value the restricting/depriving aspects of their relationship with food, seeing this as positive, while cravings for foods and desires to eat are viewed negatively. Ceasing to engage in the restrictive aspects of disordered eating does not automatically solve overeating, but it is a necessary step towards that end. Read the rest of this entry








