What are the Driving Forces in Eating Disorder Treatment

The discrepancy in the interest and knowledge about eating disorders between the medical field and laypeople is vast. Social media, memoirs and non-profit organizations meant to help people with eating disorders only continue to expand, in some ways even leading trends in research and treatment. Yet medicine remains quite ignorant and aloof with respect to the continuing epidemic in our society.

It’s clear why people want better treatment to be available. Anyone who has suffered with an eating disorder or seen a friend or family member with an eating disorder knows how destructive these illnesses can be. The ease with which one can communicate with new people and disseminate information through social media means that communities build and grow in all sorts of ways. These communities push for growth and access to treatment.

Medicine remains relatively uninvolved in the progress of eating disorder treatment. Medical students and residents still have limited exposure to eating disorders. Training in hospital settings or clinics rarely have experts on eating disorders available, so learning occurs in sporadic and disorganized ways. Doctors rarely finish training with a sense of how eating disorder care is different, both medically and psychologically.

The result is that people with eating disorders continue to have difficulty finding doctors able to understand how their bodies respond differently to being malnourished. The medical care is limited at best and often harmful.

People with eating disorders need to be careful about the doctors they see. Sometimes it’s better to see a doctor who is less knowledgeable but who at least won’t cause harm than to find a doctor who is aggressive but ignorant about eating disorders.

The line between adequate versus harmful care is tricky. Of course, eating disorders also cause medical issues which need to be addressed. I would never advocate for ignoring medical concerns. Instead, anybody with an eating disorder needs to do their best to discern how much a clinician knows about eating disorders before committing to medical care with that provider.

The needs of the eating disorder community have led to growth of treatment outside medical care. Virtual support programs run by clinicians and often people with more limited training is increasingly common. TikTok and YouTube influencers have become a means to consider different ways to understand eating disorders and limitations in available treatment. Reddit is now as much a clinical resource as any treatment provider.

The bigger question is what will come from such disparate and sometimes conflicting ways to find care for an eating disorder. The next post will address these discrepancies and some ideas of what’s to come.