Please Stop Saying “Just Eat” to Someone in Eating Disorder Recovery

Despite the increased awareness, ignorance about the cause and treatment of eating disorders still runs rampant. Recovery, while very possible for many people with eating disorders, is still difficult and prolonged. The age old mantra of “just eat” is still surprisingly prevalent.

For people without eating disorders, eating is an automatic part of life. If you’re hungry, eat a meal. If it’s lunch time, eat lunch. Being hungry, eating and then becoming full is part of any normal day, several times per day. Even for people with disordered eating or overly concerned with weight, for the most part they still eat regularly enough throughout the day.

Eating disorders create an entirely new set of rules about eating. The rules involve not eating, delaying food as long as possible or eating strictly small amounts, to name a few. The rules are not logical or reasonable but are fixed in stone. If the rules are broken, there is punishment: binging, purging, over-exercise or starving, to name a few.

Just as importantly, the rules are so fixed because the foundation of the eating disorder is most often psychological. Following the rules can create order and structure when life feels unmanageable like for people with post traumatic stress disorder. The rules might be due to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder so they are almost the law. Or the rules are the only way a person knows how to manage living like for people who first developed their eating disorder at a young age.

For people trying to support someone in recovery, saying “just eat” feels upsetting for a number of reasons. First, they feel misunderstood, not heard and alone. They hope the people who care about them understand that they need reassurance, comfort and support, not an ignorant statement that just makes them feel worse.

Second, supporting someone in recovery means understanding that the psychological and emotional trials of recovery are the hardest part. Eating may be hard, but support that reflects understanding and knowledge always feels more comforting.

Third, saying “just eat” feels as demeaning and punishing as the eating disorder itself, which is often very harsh. People need calm and caring support that counters the eating disorder, not another critical voice to manage.

Education about eating disorders is so important to support people in recovery. People who are trying to support someone with an eating disorder need enough knowledge to be supportive in the most effective way possible. “Just eat” will never be helpful. Instead, “I am here for you” or “How can I help” will always work. Kind and caring words will always make a difference.

The Treatment and Outcomes of Chronic Anorexia

The last few posts summarized new directions for diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders, primarily around concomitant psychiatric and medical illnesses. Treating these issues can enhance and improve overall outcome.

However, I don’t want to be misleading. The treatment of anorexia remains prolonged and difficult for many people. Recognizing new ideas for treatment is promising, but research into chronic anorexia in particular has not led to any options that vastly improve outcome.

Of all the eating disorders, anorexia is the hardest to treat with the lowest success rate. Research into these diagnoses tends to focus on anorexia just for this reason.

The improvement in treating anorexia is likely to uncover a variety of causes of the illness from trauma to autoimmune disorders to hormonal dysregulation and more. No one diagnosis or treatment is likely. Anorexia will much more likely be an umbrella for various illnesses and causes.

A significant percentage of people with anorexia seek treatment early and find that the persistent thoughts to restrict food dissipate quickly enough to lead to significant recovery. The increased access to diagnosis and care has helped these patients enormously.

However, there is also a significant percentage of patients who don’t respond to initial stages of care. Often residential treatment only hardens the resolve of the thoughts to restrict and the anorexia becomes chronic.

These patients need an outpatient team which typically involves a doctor, therapist and dietitian and often other group treatment or outpatient programs to maintain stability and build towards a slower recovery.

Fundamentally, recovery for this group involves setting a meal plan and following it. The eating disorder thoughts for some people only get louder and stronger when following a meal plan so often much more individualized care is necessary.

For these patients, recovery inevitably means pushing through a prolonged period of internal struggle between the desire to be well and have a larger life and the extreme internal pressure of the eating disorder to follow the rules of restriction.

This battle between these two sides often feels like an internal war that can be excruciating.

This treatment plan can and often does work over a period of years. The question is not whether this plan is successful but whether each person can tolerate the distressing process. Support from a dedicated and caring team makes all the difference, but the process remains difficult and lonely.

Hope and care are the foundation of success in recovery from chronic anorexia. People absolutely do get well. Continued understanding of the underlying causes will, hopefully sooner than later, offer other options for treatment.

Increased Awareness of Eating Disorders has Changed the Process of an Initial Assessment

The last post reviewed elements of a thorough assessment for someone with an eating disorder. There are key pieces to this initial consultation that are necessary to create an appropriate treatment plan.

The first issue is that eating disorders are not a homogeneous set of illnesses. Underlying connected, and sometimes causal, conditions need attention as well. The increased awareness of eating disorders means many people are diagnosed without giving attention to other concerns. It’s easy to just decide the primary issue is an eating disorder without considering many more possibilities as well.

As a result, these days I am more likely to see someone diagnosed with an eating disorder whose main diagnosis is depression. In the past the opposite was much more likely to be true. The takeaway message is that diagnosing someone with an eating disorder without considering all other psychiatric issues is inadvisable and often counterproductive.

The second issue is that potential causes for eating disorder symptoms are not just psychiatric. Many medical conditions mimic eating disorders. Simply making the diagnosis and starting treatment often means people are getting help for a completely inappropriate condition. Many gastrointestinal diseases, ARFID and metabolic dysfunction are some of the most common alternate causes for eating disorder symptoms. However, there are many other options which need to be considered depending on a person’s specific symptoms and experience.

Trauma belongs in its own category of eating disorders. For most of these patients, the eating disorder symptoms are a means to cope with the symptoms of PTSD. The food behaviors can be calming, create order out of chaos and structure daily life. The only way to make change is to address the PTSD symptoms first to enable the person to begin to let go of the eating behaviors slowly and carefully. Traditional eating disorder treatment will be much too dysregulating. Severe PTSD appears to be more akin to a neurological disorder than psychiatric and needs very individualized care.

All of this information shows that people with eating disorder symptoms need a thorough initial assessment. The clinician needs to be able to sort through possible causes of the eating disorder, refer to other specialists if necessary and ensure the path of care is appropriate.

The increasing breadth of knowledge about eating disorders continues to expand treatment guidelines and opportunities while changing the guidelines for an assessment. These changes also demand a comprehensive first appointment before starting treatment.

The Needed Components of a Thorough Assessment of Eating Disorders and Implications for Treatment

The tendency to consider eating disorders as a homogeneous set of illnesses is misleading and frankly incorrect. They comprise a broad set of symptoms that are all include a focus on food, hunger and weight but typically manifest in very different ways.

Broad knowledge of how hunger, fullness, metabolism and weight are maintained by the body and mind is necessary to grapple with the healing process from an eating disorder. However, the treatment recommendations can vary greatly.

In this post I will explain some of the more general ways to differentiate eating disorders and elaborate more in upcoming posts.

Some eating disorder treatment is different based on the concomitant psychiatric diagnoses that need treatment with the eating disorder. The most common ones are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder.

The first key step is to differentiate whether the eating disorder or other disorders are primary and then to prioritize treatment for the eating disorder or other illness treatment accordingly. Sometimes treating the other disorder actually treats the eating disorder as well.

The second necessary step is to consider medical illnesses that might be a part of the eating disorder. These can include general inflammatory disorders, autoimmune disorders and metabolic disorders. Not enough is known about the connection between eating disorders and medical illnesses yet to lead to a clear path to recovery, but these new concepts for treatment are promising. Often searching for more general treatment for these symptoms, even with a clear diagnosis, can be very helpful in treating the eating disorder

Third, it’s important to consider the overall nature of the eating disorder symptoms in planning an approach for recovery. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is extremely helpful for many eating disorders especially when binging is a primary symptom. Focusing on exploring and identifying emotions is often critical for people with more limited understanding of their emotions. For some, slow and steady work on changing eating patterns remains central to treatment for a longer period. The nature of types of therapy needs to match each patient’s needs.

A better understanding of eating disorders changes the formulation and course of treatment for people with eating disorders. Thoughtful consideration of all factors is necessary for any treatment to be effective. A thorough assessment and consultation will increase the chance of long-term benefit of any treatment.