Netflix’s To the Bone portrays the highs and lows of Ellen—a young woman who should be in school, building her future and living her life. Instead, she has moved home to find treatment for anorexia—an eating disorder that is stealing her best years and even threatens her life. Ellen’s story may be fiction, but the struggle she displays on the screen is very real. Even the actress who plays Ellen, Lily Collins, has opened up about her own battle against an eating disorder. And Lily is not the only one fighting. Thirty million people in the U.S. are in their own battle against anorexia, bulimia, or another form of eating disorder.
“I breathe in slowly. Food is life. I exhale, take another breath. Food is life.
And that’s the problem. When you’re alive, people can hurt you.
It’s easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion.
It’s easier to lock everybody out. But it’s a lie.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls
Just as illnesses like cancer or diabetes take their toll on people’s minds as well as their bodies, mental illnesses can pose a threat to people’s physical bodies. Eating disorders are a good example of how people are whole-beings. Our minds, bodies, and souls are interconnected, and when an eating disorder develops, it often has both physical and emotional causes. That means, treatment must involve physical as well as emotional interventions.
And effective interventions are available—interventions that address people’s minds and bodies. Physicians and counselors and nutritionists can work together to provide holistic care. Seeing the problem and asking for help may just be the first steps in the healing journey. If you are feeling the strain of an eating disorder, the eating disorder counselors and therapists at Thriveworks Newark are ready to help. We give holistic and individualized care and have helped many clients find the right treatment for their eating disorder.
Recognizing Bulimia and Anorexia
There are many different forms that eating disorders can take. The two that may get the most attention are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) gives a detailed description of each.
The DSM-5 describes anorexia nervosa as follows:
- Perceiving one’s own body as much heavier and larger than the reality—a false self-perception.
- Experiencing repulsion at one’s body—disgust and even hatred for its size, shape, and weight.
- An ungrounded fear of being fat or putting on weight that leads to undermining the maintenance of a healthy weight.
- Constricting how much food one will eat so that an unhealthy, low body weight is achieved as compared to healthy standards for one’s age, physical health, sex, and development.
The DSM-5 describes bulimia nervosa as follows:
- Repeated incidents of binge eating that involves…
- The inability to control how much food one consumes during a particular period of time.
- Eating more food than other people could or would during that same time period.
- Attempting to make up for the binge through dangerous means such as misusing medications like laxative and diuretics, fasting too long and too frequently, inducing vomit, and/or exercising excessively.
- Experiencing a self-perception that is dominated by one’s body image and size so that one’s intellect, personality, and skills are downplayed and/or ignored completely.
Interventions for an Eating Disorder
The severity and symptoms that each person experiences will differ, and so will their therapy. Working with a mental health professional to find the right treatment plan for you is often paramount for the healing process. A few of the options for treatment may include:
- Outpatient Eating Disorders Treatment allows people to continue with their normal lives—work, school, et cetera while they take time a few times per week to meet with a therapist, nutritionist, and/or physician. This option also may allow patients to live in their own home during treatment.
- Residential Eating Disorders Treatment means clients live in a treatment facility that is specially designed to support those battling an eating disorder. They are given medical supervision and the opportunity to focus exclusively on healing—both psychologically and physically.
- Continuing Care is for those who have completed an outpatient or residential treatment. Their eating disorder is in remission, and they want to continue healing. Often, this involves continued therapy sessions as well as on-going nutritional support.
Scheduling an Appointment for Eating Disorders at Thriveworks Newark, NJ
As you read through the signs and symptoms of bulimia and anorexia, did you recognize any? If you are struggling to feel comfortable in your own body, you are not alone. If you are having difficulty with food—how much, when, and why you eat, you are not alone. Many others are struggling, and many others are finding that help is available. Thriveworks Newark is ready to support you on your journey of healing. We have helped many people find the holistic care they need to fight their eating disorder.
We know that fighting an eating disorder takes enough of your energy and that calling to schedule therapy can feel overwhelming. That is why we have done what we can to make the process as easy as possible. When you call Thriveworks Newark, this is what you can expect:
- A person will answer your call and help schedule your appointment.
- You may have your first session within 24 hours.
- Evening and weekend appointments are offered.
- Most insurance plans are accepted.
Call Thriveworks Newark today.
Anger, Stress, Addiction, Bipolar Disorder, OCD / Obsessive-Compulsive, +6 more 
