As many of you know who follow this blog I have been working with eating disorder clients for over 31 years. I didn't begin my second career as a social worker with a passion to work with individual's suffering from disordered eating patterns. In fact my only passion was that I wanted to work with people suffering from psychiatric disabilities in general. (But that is a story unto itself perhaps for a different time). Anyway I was hired and placed on an eating disorder unit as my first job within the psychiatric world - and I never left that specialty!
I fell in love with this particular population so to speak. In one respect the eating disorder treatment world is one that appears complex, complicated and misunderstood but in actuality from my perspective it is quite simple. If I had to reduce it to one or two sentences I would describe it thusly: An ED individual is 'generally' a quite intelligent, sensitive, creative, passionate, caring and gifted individual who ultimately through intent or not was 'starved' or deprived of a sense of being loved or valued as a uniquely special human being with a valued role or place within their 'world'. Now that is a mouthful. But frankly after 31 years there it is - boiled down to 1 probably poorly written run-on sentence!
Don't misunderstand me while it is simply stated it is not so simply fixed! You would have to imagine that if one was either unloved or felt unloved throughout a majority of their lives correcting that is quite a difficult road to pursue. Bear in mind if one even 'feels' unloved the mind searches for and successfully creates 'stories' that validates that feeling. It is within those stories where the problems lie. Those stories become truths to the individual - whether they are true or not is irrevalant! From that individual's perspective their 'story' or better stated 'beliefs' are indeed their reality.
From my oppinion no one eating disorder is worse than another. I personally feel that one is more desparate than the others. That would be anorexia - I only say that because the symptoms of that ED are so in your face so to speak! Bulimia and Overeating are such secretive disorders in nature but anorexia screams out to those around them. It is my oppinion that Bulimia is the most dangerous of the disorders - but again that is yet another article. There are many commonalities within the EDs like they are 'all about food' in one form or another. Food is the coping tool for all ed's.
Con't in Part 2
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