Treatment of Eating Disorders for Everyone

Eating disorder treatment originated with adolescent girls in the 1970’s who had been influenced by the societal pressure for thinness. The advent of mass media drove the diet industry to spread widely and precipitated the overall acceptance of food restriction—the number one risk factor for eating disorders.

This population of girls and young women has been the primary target for eating disorder clinicians. Virtually all treatment philosophies are geared to the pressures on girls and young women and espouse feminism and empowering women’s voices as central to recovery.

Granted, this approach to treating eating disorders still has its place but can no longer be the sole clinical vantage point.

As financial companies now dominate the eating disorder residential treatment model, financial gain is a driving force in the field. The result is a corporate approach to treatment. More experienced clinicians take management roles while newly minted practitioners get extended training on the front line of eating disorder work.

Incorporated into the capitalist structure, eating disorder treatment is now mainstream. These disorders are a part of what the newest generation has grown up experiencing. The monetization of body image, food consumption and wellness inundates the youth with the building blocks of developing and understanding eating disorders. Accordingly eating disorders don’t know gender anymore.

Ten year old boys, sixteen year old girls, twenty three year old men,

thirty year old women and thirty five year old non-binary people seek help these days. The lack of resources for people who don’t fit the old model of teenage girls reveals the outdated nature of treatment and recovery.

Treatment can’t focus on the pressures on young women anymore. Instead, eating disorders need to be seen as pervasive psychiatric illnesses with significant medical co-morbidities.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective option for all eating disorders and is gender-free. This approach has been used for binging disorder for many years, and treatment programs are using this method more often for all eating disorders since it does not espouse any bias towards a specific population and can be applied by younger, less experienced clinicians.

In addition to this treatment approach, there is and will always be a strong emotional component to eating disorder work. Eating disorders serve powerful emotional purposes for people, and letting that go is necessary to get well. It feels like facing the world alone. Any successful treatment must address the emotional fallout as well.

However, all forms of treatment also need to follow the cultural norms and adapt to our current population. So the emotions are not just those of young women but all people.

The clinical field is just starting to consider all those who need eating disorder treatment. These patients need our creativity, thoughtfulness and the broadest approach to recovery.