As a counselor who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, I found this article a little disheartening. When I read the initial sentence, it took everything inside me not to yell at my computer screen “yes you can!” This article mentions the struggle of an emergency room physician’s eating disorder and the thought of the inability to fully recover. She identifies her life as being “functional” within her eating disorder, stating that the eating disorder may never go away. Like many of us, we want a concrete, yes-or-no, black or white answer to this question: can someone fully recover from an eating disorder? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t that easy. There is a HUGE caveat: what does RECOVERY mean?

Recovery can be defined in many ways, with many caveats. The clinical diagnoses may recognize recovery as 85-95% of one’s idea body weight as well as the occurrence of regular menstruation.

I feel the most important aspect of recovery is to be emotionally (cognitively) recovered. To me, this means:

–       Body acceptance at any size!

–       Surrender to ideal body weight

–       Behavior modification from maladaptive actions

–       Development of healthy coping skills

–       Steady and constant support network

Final takeaway: If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please contact a counselor and begin treatment. Each person’s treatment and response is different, mainly because each person’s brain works differently!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/health/26anorexia.html?_r=1&src=tptw

Cara Engle, LAPC
cengle@growcounseling.com