TREATMENT

Eating disorders are serious conditions that cause both physical and emotional damage. While people with eating disorders usually try to hide the problem, there are warning signs you can watch for. Early treatment makes recovery easier, so talk to your friend or family member if you’re worried. You can’t force a person with an eating disorder to change their behaviors or beliefs, but you can make a difference by showing that you care, offering your support, and encouraging the person to seek professional help.

Eating disorders involve extreme disturbances in eating behaviors—following rigid diets, gorging on food in secret, throwing up after meals, obsessively counting calories. But eating disorders are more complicated than just unhealthy dietary habits. At their core, eating disorders involve distorted, self-critical attitudes about weight, food, and body image. It’s these negative thoughts and feelings that fuel the damaging behaviors.

People with eating disorders use food to deal with uncomfortable or painful emotions. Restricting food is used to feel in control. Overeating temporarily soothes sadness, anger, or loneliness. Purging is used to combat feelings of helplessness and self-loathing. Over time, people with eating disorders lose the ability to see themselves objectively and obsessions over food and weight come to dominate everything else in life.

Common eating disorder warning signs are:
Preoccupation with body or weight	Obsession with calories, food, or nutrition
Constant dieting, even when thin	Rapid, unexplained weight loss or weight gain
Taking laxatives or diet pills	Compulsive exercising
Making excuses to get out of eating	Avoiding social situations that involve food
Going to the bathroom right after meals	Eating alone, at night, or in secret
Hoarding high-calorie food

There are many treatment options for eating disorders. The right approach for each individual depends on his or her specific symptoms, issues, and strengths, as well as the severity of the disorder. To be most effective, treatment for an eating disorder must address both the physical and psychological aspects of the problem. The goal is to treat any medical or nutritional needs, promote a healthy relationship with food, and teach constructive ways to cope with life and its challenges.

Often, a combination of therapy, nutritional counseling, and group support works best.  At La Ventana we offer Day Treatment, Intensive Outpatient, and Transitional living treatments for our clients. We approach eating disorders with:

Psychotherapy – Individual and group therapy to help your loved one explore the issues underlying the eating disorder, improve self-esteem, and learn healthy ways of responding to stress and emotional pain. Family therapy is applied and is  effective for dealing with the impact the eating disorder has on the entire family unit.

Nutritional counseling – Dieticians or nutritionists are used in the treatment of eating disorders. They can help your loved one design meal plans, set dietary goals, and achieve a healthy weight. Nutritional counseling  also involves education about basic nutrition and the health consequences of eating disorders.

Support groups – Our support groups can help your loved one feel less alone and ashamed. Run by peers rather than professionals, support groups provide a safe environment to share experiences, advice, encouragement, and coping strategies.

Transitional living  treatment –- Transitional living  care helps one move back into society with the support of other peers in the home to help cope with making healthy choices as our clients emerge from treatment into living a disorder free life.     

Hospitalization for an eating disorder may be necessary if your loved one is:

Dangerously malnourished | Severely depressed or suicidal | Suffering from medical complications
Getting worse despite treatment

  La Ventana can refer services if hospitalization is required.