Taking a Step Back: the Reality of Eating Disorder Recovery

Reviewing this blog from the past year, I wrote a lot about new avenues in the treatment of eating disorders. The new medications that affect our gastrointestinal system and the confluence of medical syndromes in eating disorder patients that doctors know little about dominated my thoughts.

The purpose of these alternate ideas is to improve treatment success for people with eating disorders. Even with adequate care, too many people still don’t get better. Many do, but the goal is recovery for all.

In that vein, I have started to look elsewhere, not for a new magical cure but for adjunctive treatment options that might increase the success and well being for people seeking help.

However, I do believe I left out the crux of treatment, or at least implied that the hard work is avoidable, if these other therapies are appropriate. The hard work actually remains the centerpiece of any true recovery.

The process of finding a committed, knowledgeable and well-suited treatment team is still paramount.

The struggle to eat one’s meal plan day in day out still is crucial for anyone to get better.

The daily obsessive thinking about body image will still be a very challenging and necessary part of the process of getting well.

And the healing of one’s body as it becomes accustomed to regular nutrition and improved health needs to be a top priority.

No new medication, no alternate diagnosis, no change in metabolism is a magical fix for eating disorder treatment. No matter the initial cause of the eating disorder—be it a general inflammatory syndrome, dysfunction in the gastrointestinal hormonal system, longstanding trauma or any of the myriad causes—recovery takes the same course. A thorough diagnosis and treatment plan may take these other issues into account, but recovery is still a challenging process. There are no shortcuts.

As I enter the new year working to expand treatment options for people with eating disorders, it must be clear that recovery is still a hard, long road. I just want the end of that road to be as successful as possible for everyone.