(Newswire.net — December 29, 2018) — When people enter a binge eating disorder recovery program, they not only learn the “hows” and “whys” of their eating disorder, but they also gain deep insight into improving their interactions with the real world. Binge eating disorder therapy helps people identify and challenge perceptions they have towards past, present and present events affecting their lives with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) techniques and mindful meditation. People are then fully capable of replacing anxiety, depression, and obsessions with more adaptable, positive emotions that make it easier to successfully address their eating disorder.
Lesson One: CBT Practices Applicable to the Real World
To address binge eating disorder symptoms, therapists employ cognitive restructuring techniques based on the concept that it is not the event itself that produces anxiety or depression but the way we interpret the event. Binge eating disorder therapy teaches people how to view negative beliefs in a different way by teaching them to stop and assess the pros and cons of maintaining such perceptions. In addition, therapists also emphasize the unproductive outcomes of holding irrational perceptions of everyday events.
The overall goal of CBT is to help people create a “life worth living.” Specifically, CBT is designed to help people move from feeling like they have no control over their behavior to actually being in control of their thoughts, obsessions, and compulsions. CBT also helps a person move from being emotionally shut down to experiencing emotions fully, from being unable to reach long-held goals to being able to solve ordinary life problems.
CBT is evidence-based psychotherapy proven highly successful in treating people and adults with binge eating disorder symptoms as well as other signs of eating disorders. In fact, CBT is used to treat people with serious mental disorders, substance addictions, depression, anxiety, and phobias.
Lesson Two: DBT Practices for Dealing with Real World Stress and Unpredictability
Dialectical behavior therapy is an offshoot of CBT created specifically to address emotional regulation. Skills taught using principles of DBT include:
- Identifying and labeling both positive and negative emotions
- Identifying obstacles and triggers that prevent stopping and changing negative thought patterns and emotions
- Increasing mindful awareness of transactional emotions
- Learning to recognize and understand one’s own body language, sensations, and perceptions of events and actions taken
- Applying distress tolerance techniques when necessary
Distress tolerance techniques are highly useful for coping with difficult situations without worsening the situation. People learning how to use DBT and distress tolerance skills experience dramatic reductions in their binge eating disorder symptoms since engaging in eating disorder behaviors are a direct result of not dealing well with emotional conflict. People in binge eating disorder recovery programs learn to eliminate previously unproductive ways of coping with crises by using DBT so that stressful events can be objectively and rationally evaluated before they decide how to approach such situations.
Lesson Three: Dietary and Meal Planning
Binge eating disorder causes involve a complex array of factors linked to genetics, family dynamics, personality traits, and mental health issues. In addition, many people with eating disorders are not well-informed about how important nutrition is to their overall well-being. A successful binge eating disorder recovery also includes therapists providing information about meal planning. Everyone can benefit from understanding how vital nutritious meal planning is to their long-term health. Not only can it be expensive to be overweight (diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol) but it can shorten your life by five, 10 even 15 years. Planning low-fat, vitamin-rich meals also supports immune system functioning, delays the physical and cognitive effects of aging and keeps your metabolism operating at the highest rate possible.
People in binge eating disorder therapy are often surprised at the damage they are causing to their bodies by starving themselves, forcing themselves to throw up or eating too much at one time. In fact, the importance of vitamins and minerals to general health cannot be overemphasized. Vitamins perform a variety of biochemical reactions facilitating organ and blood activities. People working to overcome binge eating disorder symptoms also learn about how vitamins are necessary for making hormones, supporting cell growth and maintaining optimal levels of brain functions. Protein-rich diet plans are often recommended to people by eating disorder therapists to decrease the risk of heart problems, improve blood vessel health and extend the feeling of fullness after eating a meal.
In many ways, eating disorder treatment for people is more than just a therapeutic intervention. It is a combination of advice, guidance, and support provided by compassionate therapists who understand what people are feeling, thinking and experiencing when dealing with an eating disorder.