Eating Disorder Therapy Must Start with the Food

There are so many different directions to take when seeking treatment for an eating disorder. Even ten years ago, the options were so much more limited. Now there are many clinicians (even if it’s not always easy to find someone taking new cases), treatment programs and a variety of support networks online.

When making the decision about the first step, one element of the treatment is necessary: talking in depth and specifically about the food. Many patients I have seen worked in therapy for years making significant progress their lives. Unless the therapy focuses on part on the food, eating disorder symptoms just don’t change.

Of course, addressing the food is one of the hardest steps in recovery. To a person, people with eating disorders feel that discussing their food is the most exposing, most vulnerable thing they can do. So the clinician needs to gently urge people to understand why it is so important and also so hard to talk about the food.

If the food remains a secret, the thoughts and behaviors also remain hidden and outside the purview and potential benefit of therapy. Exposing the eating disorder thoughts and behaviors reveals the feelings covered up by the eating disorder and gives the therapy a chance to help find new ways to manage these emotions.

The willingness to discuss food is the most courageous step someone with an eating disorder can take in therapy. Freedom from these illnesses demands exposure of the symptoms and a desire, no matter how difficult, to let go of the needed comfort and safety.

Any successful therapy must address the food and will subsequently open up the possibility to learn new ways to live and thrive without the eating disorder.