A complex condition such as binge eating disorder manifests with cognitive and behavioral changes from the norm. Current eating disorder treatment experts in Westport consider the merits of a multidisciplinary approach to cause changes in a person’s mental state to hasten improvements in physical health.
When dieting backfires
When a person goes on a diet, he or she may end up overeating. That’s fine, for as long as the person catches himself and gets back on track without risking their health and well-being. A person with a binge-eating disorder would likely respond differently. After hours of fasting, the body of a person with the binge-eating disorder will gorge itself and then go on a fast again. It’s a vicious pattern without hope for recovery.
The feeling of deprivation caused by restrictions in caloric intake and for specific food groups could backfire in someone with binge-eating issues — a skipped meal results in hunger. When a person who cannot control his urge to binge becomes hungry, he or she would likely eat and binge. The short-term pleasure of binging is a primary motivator— a feel-good potion that’s hard to resist. Updated approaches in treating this disorder and similar mental health conditions do not encourage dieting. If dieting is not a solution for binge-eating, what interventions can you avail?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at a glance
Behavioral and psychodynamic therapies are the primary tools of cognitive-behavioral therapists. An integrated approach directed to specific distorted patterns of thinking and irrational beliefs offers an evidence-based approach to binge-eating treatment. According to CBT proponents, there is a dynamic interplay between thoughts, emotions and behavior. The method teaches persons with eating disorders to better manage and control how they interpret with circumstances and events around them.
At this time, the literature supports the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy in the treatment of binge-eating and bulimia nervosa. The main types of CBT are cognitive, rational-emotive, behavior, and multimodal therapy.
Success with CBT
One of the components of cognitive behavioural therapy is the development of a meal plan— always in consideration of the problematic thought processes and behaviours that make it difficult for people to sustain the achievement of small targets. The mental and physical attributes of binge-eating are seen as interconnected and addressed in a continuum. These attributes are not considered to be physical versus mental.
Aside from binge-eating disorder and bulimia nervosa, CBT is a promising tool for recovery from pain and fatigue, mood and anxiety disorders, depression, personality disorders, and addiction. The destructive consequence of anger may be alleviated with this approach as well. Self-help application of CBT shows promise, but it is also a practical psychotherapy approach for group management.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is current and relevant. One of its basic tenets is the restructuring of thoughts and feelings, as well as how they are intertwined can induce productive actions. CBT principles of treatment can modify destructive behaviours about food and twisted perceptions about the body.
Are you ready to welcome a new treatment approach with the potential to reshape the mind and its attitude toward food?
