Eating Disorder Treatment Options for the Adolescent Impacted by Trauma

As a parent, you have likely planned and envisioned only the best for your child, including desires for their future, saving for college, and more. One thing that you may never anticipate is that your little girl will develop an eating disorder, which can dampen the hopes, dreams, and aspirations that you wish for your child.

Eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, are often connected with negative stigmas and stereotypes, which can leave you feeling more confused about what your child is confronting. It is important to know that there are resources and support to help you and your child through this journey and that you do not have to navigate this alone.

The Connection between Trauma and Eating Disorders

Research has uncovered multiple factors that may influence the development of eating disorders in adolescents, including both biological, psychological, and environmental components. The combination of these influencing factors can increase a child’s susceptibility to developing an eating disorder. While it is not necessarily possible to determine a child’s risk factor, there are warning signs that may indicate the susceptibility of forming an eating disorder.

For example, the experience of trauma or traumatic events, including physical, emotional, psychological, and/or sexual, can increase an adolescent’s risk of developing an eating disorder. The high levels of stress and anxiety that trauma often produces can lead to destructive methods of coping, including maladaptive eating behaviors associated with eating disorders.

Studies have found that emotional abuse, physical neglect, and sexual abuse were found to be significant predictors of eating psychopathology [1]. Research has also found that women who reported both childhood physical and sexual abuse were three times as likely to develop eating disorder symptoms as those who reported no abuse [2]. With the experience of childhood trauma associated with a range of serious long-term psychiatric complications, including eating disorders, it is important to recognize the necessity to address these concerns effectively.

Effective Treatment Options

Adolescents with eating disorders who have been impacted by trauma will require specialized and comprehensive care to find healing and recovery. Given the nature of eating disorders and the influence of unresolved trauma, it is necessary to find treatment options that can help address both simultaneously. In healing from trauma, many adolescents find that they are also able to recover from their eating disorder, as destructive eating behaviors are no longer necessary to cope with trauma stressors.

Thankfully, there are many treatment options available to help your adolescent facilitate healing from the inside out and address any unresolved trauma in a therapeutic and healing manner. The level of care for treatment that may be best for your child will depend on a number of factors. Having a complete assessment done by an eating disorder professional can help determine what level of care is best suited for meeting your loved one’s individual needs, including medical, nutritional, and psychological concerns. This may include critical care/inpatient, residential treatment, and transitional care for eating disorders impacted by unresolved trauma.

Establishing medical stability is a priority of eating disorder treatment, including nutritional rehabilitation and psychiatric safety. Once this has occurred, the process of uncovering complex psychological factors contributing to an unhealthy relationship with food can begin. Various forms of therapy can be helpful for trauma resolution, rebuilding self-esteem, and gaining confidence over the eating disorder.

Choosing the Right Treatment Center

At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, we understand the unique challenges that young girls aged 8-17 face when impacted by eating disorders and trauma. Our treatment program is specifically equipped to effectively address the complex issues stemming from these conditions and empower recovery through our innovative treatment approaches.

Through the devastation and confusion that you and your loved one have experienced, we want you to know that you are not alone. We will work with your adolescent in a nurturing and safe environment to help them regain their health, find healing from trauma, and eliminate eating disorder behaviors. Connecting with the specialized care at Remuda Ranch at The Meadows can make all the difference in recovery from eating disorders impacted by trauma. Connect with us today and learn more about how we can help you and your family find whole-person healing and restoration. Give us a call at 866-239-7381.

References:

[1]: Seongsook Kong, et al. (2009) Childhood trauma as a predictor of eating psychopathology and its mediating variables in patients with eating disorders. Journal of Clinical Nursing 18, 1897-1907

[2]: Rayworth, BB, et al. (2004) Childhood abuse and risk of eating disorders in women. Epidemiology 15, 271-278.

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Eating Disorder Healing Through Equine Therapy

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Kristen Zollars, Program Director of Equine Services for Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, recently wrote about Eating Disorder Healing Through Equine Therapy. In this article she addresses how interacting with horses can help one deal with their own emotions and bring about acceptance.



To read this article in its entirety, please go click here.

Horses are an integral part of our leading-edge treatment. At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, our patients learn how to be predictable, trustworthy and communicative from the bonds they establish during our Equine Therapy program. For additional information about the treatment of eating disorders, please call to speak to a Counselor at 866-842-1253 and we will contact you with the information you need.

Eating Disorders and the Family: Turmoil and Solutions

By Gejia Capasso, Family Therapist for Remuda Ranch at The Meadows



Historically, families have shouldered the blame for a loved one suffering from an eating disorder. This has been met with controversy from both families and treatment teams. We know that eating disorders are complex and that families do everything in their power to fight the eating disorder. Watching someone you love suffer from an eating disorder is painful, scary, and can create anger and confusion. The stress and division within the family can seem overwhelming as each person involved is impacted in different ways. Loss of trust in family relationships, not knowing what to say or how to say it, and not knowing how to support the person who is quite possibly questioning if they even want to get better are all common experiences. Families describe, “Walking on eggshells,” thinking “Everything I say and do seem to make things worse,” and equally “Everything I don’t say and don’t do seem to make things worse.” Here come the shame and blame that families find themselves walking through as they try to understand a disorder that thrives on secrecy, dishonesty, and isolation.

As the family week therapist at Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, I believe, and have witnessed, families benefiting from education around both the mental and physical effects of eating disorders. In addition, it is important to learn about the complexity of its origins, the role other co-occurring mental health diagnoses play in eating disorders, and the “addictive” process within the experience of the eating disorder.

Though everyone has her own journey into and through recovery, know that recovery is possible.




First, I recommend finding professionals who can guide and support you and your family through this journey. Plug into a team of professionals that will be straightforward and honest in providing education, make clear recommendations, and offer an understanding of everyone’s difficult circumstances while being professionally firm in holding people accountable for the safety of the patient within this process.
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Second, realize and remind yourself often that recovery takes time. This is not going to be a short-term process and it will present with many ups and downs along the path to recovery. Remain calm even in difficult discussions and bring in compassion and empathy. It will be important to listen to learn, not listen to agree with, and not listen to speak. Ask yourself “What can I learn about your experience?” Avoid rationalizing, defer to the professionals for treatment and recovery decisions and acknowledge that this is difficult and affects everyone.

Finally, if treatment is what is necessary to help reverse malnutrition and contain the behaviors surrounding the eating disorder, acknowledge this reality and move in that direction. Treatment is a special gift to all affected by this disorder and a wise investment in recovery.

To learn how Remuda Ranch at The Meadows can help, please call 866-332-5209 today.

Content Source : Recovery is Possible.

Emotional Trauma and Eating Disorder Treatment

One question often asked is, “Why do people develop eating disorders?” The answer is complex and varied but often an eating disorder develops initially as a solution to another problem.

Often times a person will experience trauma, which can be trauma with a capital “T”, like physical abuse, a natural disaster, or a sexual assault, or it can be trauma with a small “t” which could be an emotional or relational trauma. In addition to experiencing a trauma, the person often does not have the skills or personal resources to cope with the trauma. This may lead to feeling emotionally or mentally out of control and lead the individual to use food restriction, bingeing, or bingeing/purging to gain a sense of control and avoid the discomforting results of the trauma. As the disturbed patterns related to food increase, an eating disorder may develop, which becomes their primary method of distracting themselves and regulating their emotions.




As most people are aware of what constitutes a capital “T” trauma, we will spend some time discerning small “t” emotional traumas. In order to develop into a capable adult, we require certain things from our primary caregiver, such as trust, feeling understood, responding to our needs, and teaching us how to regulate our emotions through both modeling and teaching us skills. If these criteria are not met, an emotional trauma can develop. Additionally, by nature, some people have a more sensitive temperament such that they are more attuned with their environment. These individuals need “super caregivers” who are very responsive to slight changes in their demeanor and highly responsive to their needs. These “super caregivers” also need to regulate their own emotions well when interacting with the sensitive person. At times, an emotional trauma can occur when a primary caregiver is overwhelmed with either their own needs or a family or work situation may pull them in multiple directions so that the young person does not feel heard or understood. Later in life, emotional trauma can occur from significant others, peers, and other important people in someone’s life.


At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, the treatment team recognizes that eating disorder treatment has to take into account the origin of the eating disorder and if emotional trauma played a part in its development. Knowing this, the clinical team recognizes that all features of trauma must be treated along with the eating disorder. If not, the related consequences of maladaptive behavior will pop back up through the person’s life and lead to a relapse of their eating disorder behaviors or to another maladaptive coping strategy such as using substances or self-harm.

The first step in effective eating disorder treatment includes nutritional rehabilitation. The Registered Dietitians at Remuda Ranch guide this process specific to the needs of the individual patient. The clinical teams know that if the brain is not well nourished then accomplishing the necessary therapeutic work is not possible because the patients’ thinking is not clear. Additionally, most patients are unable to develop insightful connections between their maladaptive behaviors and past events on their own.

At Remuda Ranch we work to meet the needs of the individual patient. There are several program feature which may be used such as EMDR, Acupuncture, equine therapy, cognitive restructuring, family work, psychodrama, and use of the on-site Brain Center. Our goal is for patients to process the traumas and recognize the impact on their lives, which may manifest in any number of ways including, but not limited to, eating disorder behaviors. The final component of treatment is to help patients gain further connections in their lives for the reason that people tend to heal through relationships and by learning how to establish healthy boundaries.

At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, we see patients as complex individuals with common needs of nurturance and respect. Our staff strives to support each patient in learning to live in peace with others, with food, and with themselves. We find that a solid foundation in recovery is possible using the multitude of resources made available to those who seek treatment at Remuda Ranch.
Content Source : Eating Disorder Treatment

Every single day, she battles her disease -- there is no respite.  

Because she is severely malnourished, she does not think clearly, her thoughts are disordered and her perceptions are skewed. Positive self -esteem is non-existent.
 

Every day, she feels bombarded by images of skinny females everywhere: smiling from magazine covers, mocking her from television ads. They are perfect; she is not.  

She is profoundly depressed and just plain exhausted.  

No matter how hard she tries, she will never be “good enough.”

Deciding that life is simply not worth living is not that much of a stretch.

This is what life feels like to many women who struggle with eating disorders.

Eating disorders are physically devastating diseases. The medical consequences of anorexia and bulimia include everything from anemia and bone loss to intestinal issues and infertility.

The good news is that if caught early and treated, most of these medical problems can be reversed and health restored to the individual. However, what can not be reversed is mortality—a full 10 percent of those struggling with an eating disorder will die from it.

These deaths often occur as a result of cardiac damage or other extreme medical complications, but a lesser known cause of death is suicide. The risk of suicide is multiplied many times over for those who suffer from co-occurring eating disorders and depression.

Eating Disorders and Depression

Some studies indicate that as many as 90 percent of women with an eating disorder are also clinically depressed. For some, depression leads to an eating disorder. For others, the eating disorder results in depression. No matter which comes first, together, they are a deadly combination. The rate of suicide among those struggling with both depression and an eating disorder is markedly higher than in those who struggle exclusively with depression.

Being very underweight and malnourished can cause real, physical changes to the brain and body that are known to lead to the negative moods that are often associated with depression. These mood states can intensify feelings of not being good enough, that are so common among people with eating disorders. The focus on perfectionism that is often associated with eating disorders, can also contribute to depression as it sets one up for failure by setting completely unrealistic expectations. The symptoms of depression and the symptoms of the eating disorder are often so deeply intertwined that it can be difficult for a treatment professional to find ways to help their clients who struggle with both to untangle and free themselves from them. And, since the eating disorder behaviors are often used as ways to cope with extreme feelings of shame, self-hatred, and hopelessness, once people who do manage to let go of their eating disorder behaviors may find themselves facing an overwhelming and painful depression. As complicated as the combination of these two disorders can be, there is hope. Treatment programs that provide a combination of different approaches—physical, psychological, and spiritual—tend to have the best chance of helping a person with a dual diagnosis of depression and an eating disorder get into recovery.

Treatment for Eating Disorders and Depression

Recovery from any behavioral health disorder is a process. It takes time and commitment on the part of the patient and her loved ones and compassion and expertise from doctors and health professionals. One key to effective treatment is helping people change the way they think both about themselves and their relationship with food by treating the depression and the eating disorder at the same time. Tailoring treatment to the individual is also essential. Some need more of an emphasis on emotional and trauma work. Some need more of an emphasis on the way they think about food and their body image.

The experts at Remuda Ranch at The Meadows take a careful assessment of each client at the beginning of their treatment process to recommend the best course of action based their personal history and diagnoses. We help clients work through the issues that are contributing to their disorders in all aspects of their lives: self-perception, relationships with friends and family, relationships with food and nutrition, and spirituality. We offer everything thing from individual counseling to equine therapy in our efforts to help our clients find hope again and build happier healthier lives.

If you have any questions about eating disorders and depression or our programs, please call 866-332-1140, or send us an email.

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When Food Speaks

By Jessica Setnick, MS, RD, CEDRD, Remuda Ranch at The Meadows Senior Fellow
Even before he or she could speak, your child was able to communicate with you through eating behavior. This can continue into childhood and adolescence when someone has difficulty expressing him or herself through words.

Undereating, overeating, or limiting variety of foods are sometimes clues kids and teens are struggling with particularly negative or stressful feelings. Particularly significant are changes to established eating behaviors, such as eliminating snacks or certain food groups that the child previously enjoyed; secretive eating, sneaking or hiding foods, or lying about eating by a child who is typically open and honest; or avoiding family meals or social events by a teen who was formerly extroverted and friendly.

What Your Child’s Eating Behaviors Can Tell You

Some possible messages that might be conveyed through changes in eating behaviors are:

• I’m sad about something or someone I’ve lost.
• I’m depressed.
• I feel so alone.
• I’m angry.
• I don’t fit in.
• Stop telling me what to do!
• I’m having trouble concentrating.
• I’m struggling to adjust to changes in my life.
• I’m never good enough.
• No one likes me.
• I’m having trouble making decisions.
• I’m scared to make a mistake.
• I don’t feel well.
• I’m exhausted.

In the face of feelings that they don’t know how to manage, children and teens may turn toward or away from food for a sense of comfort or control. Yet they may not realize that their eating changes are connected to their innermost thoughts and feelings. It is the role of caregivers and other trusted adults help with recognizing the connections. It is a mistake to only address the eating behaviors without investigating the emotions and thoughts that are behind the scenes.
If you suspect that a child or teen in your life has changed her eating due to emotional distress, Remuda Ranch intake counselors are available 24 hours a day at 866-390-5100. Or, you can fill out the contact form at our website, www.RemudaRanch.com.

When Food Speaks - Remuda Ranch

By Jessica Setnick, MS, RD, CEDRD, Remuda Ranch at The Meadows Senior Fellow

Even before he or she could speak, your child was able to communicate with you through eating behavior. This can continue into childhood and adolescence when someone has difficulty expressing him or herself through words.

Undereating, overeating, or limiting variety of foods are sometimes clues kids and teens are struggling with particularly negative or stressful feelings. Particularly significant are changes to established eating behaviors, such as eliminating snacks or certain food groups that the child previously enjoyed; secretive eating, sneaking or hiding foods, or lying about eating by a child who is typically open and honest; or avoiding family meals or social events by a teen who was formerly extroverted and friendly.

What Your Child’s Eating Behaviors Can Tell You

Some possible messages that might be conveyed through changes in eating behaviors are:

• I’m sad about something or someone I’ve lost.
• I’m depressed.
• I feel so alone.
• I’m angry.
• I don’t fit in.
• Stop telling me what to do!
• I’m having trouble concentrating.
• I’m struggling to adjust to changes in my life.
• I’m never good enough.
• No one likes me.
• I’m having trouble making decisions.
• I’m scared to make a mistake.
• I don’t feel well.
• I’m exhausted.

In the face of feelings that they don’t know how to manage, children and teens may turn toward or away from food for a sense of comfort or control. Yet they may not realize that their eating changes are connected to their innermost thoughts and feelings. It is the role of caregivers and other trusted adults help with recognizing the connections. It is a mistake to only address the eating behaviors without investigating the emotions and thoughts that are behind the scenes.

If you suspect that a child or teen in your life has changed her eating due to emotional distress, Remuda Ranch intake counselors are available 24 hours a day at 866-390-5100. Or, you can fill out the contact form at our website,http://www.remudaranch.com

Source Link:- http://www.remudaranch.com/blog/item/99-when-food-speaks