Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Eating Disorders
Connecting feelings, thoughts and deeds:
Research has shown that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most effective ways to treat eating disorders, and is a critical element at all levels of care. It’s based on the theory that emotions, behaviors and thoughts are all connected.
People with eating disorders, for example, tend to hold a negatively distorted view of themselves, and often convey thoughts that are highly critical about their body and overall appearance. This results in feelings of anxiety, disgust and shame, which may lead the individual to control their weight even further.
The more the patient can challenge and eventually change their obsessively self-critical thoughts, the less shame and anxiety they’ll experience. During Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, patients learn to tolerate negative emotion, solve problems, manage stress and become more aware of themselves.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
This type of therapy teaches you how to regulate your emotions and how to self-soothe.
Psychodynamic Therapy
This type of therapy helps you to look back into your past and gain insight about how your eating order developed. It gives you the awareness to choose to live “mindfully” and to undue old unhealthy patterns.
Existential Therapy
This type of therapy helps you find meaning and purpose in life which leads to happiness and fulfillment as well as improved self-esteem.
*Family Therapy
The best way to help a person with an eating disorder is to treat it within the context of their family. You can’t send a healthy person back to a toxic environment.