A Message of Hope for Eating Disorder Recovery

Many of the posts in this blog reflect my concerns about current treatment practices for people with eating disorders. Perhaps, progress in the field is less conspicuous in these reflections.

A wider lens makes clear how far the treatment of eating disorders has come.

Access to care is the most widespread and significant change. The number of treatment centers—and thus the number of providers familiar with eating disorders—has increased dramatically in recent years. In person and virtual care allow anyone in the country to find trained providers. The clinical options used to be a handful of programs run by a few dedicated clinicians and now are too numerous to count.

Similarly, information available about eating disorders comprises of a few books and only a few perspectives. Now the range of sources to learn about eating disorders is vast. It’s almost impossible for someone to feel completely alone with their eating disorder anymore once they started looking for others like them.

With more people vocal about eating disorders, the broadening of social acceptance of all body types has grown as well. The body positivity movement ranges further into our culture than ever in recent years. Even if the pendulum is swinging back at times—now due to the use of GLP-1 medications—progress is still evident.

More treatment also opens the door to new ideas about therapy and recovery. Different ways to approach therapy and recovery give patients many ways to find the right path for them. Treatment is no longer one size fits all.

The burgeoning medical interest in eating disorders, spurred in large part by patients on social media, promises a future with concomitant treatments in addition to therapy. Various medical illnesses connected with eating disorders, elucidated in detail in recent posts over the last few months, are going to provide avenues for recovery for many people in the future.

I wanted to end the year with a message of hope. There are many ways to seek help and recover from an eating disorder, more than ever before. It’s ok to be picky and find the treatment that fits. Once that happens, hard work and commitment will help many people find peace and well-being in the recovery from their eating disorder.