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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Recovery is Possible – Eating Disorder Treatment Center

It is possible to recover from an eating disorder and lead a normal, healthy life. Charlotte Sandy, a Remuda Ranch alumni, was recently married. She wanted us to share her story with you. Charlotte writes: “At age 13, I developed anorexia and struggled with it for 10 years. After one failed treatment attempt and multiple relapses, I entered residential treatment for the last time in November 2009.

That journey included tears, support from my team, and support from new friends as well. I met my best friend, Janine, in treatment. Although she is Canadian and lives 2000 miles away, we have stayed close and have gone through significant milestones together.

I got married on September 1st to someone whose love I never would have accepted in my eating disorder. Janine was my maid of honor, so in this wedding picture, we took pictures of where everything started for us—with Ensure!
We have made it so far in recovery, and I want to share this picture around to show others that recovery is possible! Nothing is perfect of course, but my life is so different than it was in the darkness of my eating disorder.”

We wish Charlotte the best in her marriage, and we love that her life includes Janine, her recovery friend.
As seen on NEDA.

Drunkorexia: When Eating Disorders and Alcohol Abuse Collide

College is an exciting time for many young adults. It’s often their first chance to establish an identity entirely separate from their parents or caregivers. But, with that freedom comes a lot of social pressures. Legends of crazy parties, wild binge drinking, casual sex gets passed down from generation to generation. The idea that irresponsible drinking and sex are rights of passage for college students is also a staple of American popular culture as evidenced through popular movies like “Animal House,” “Old School,” and “Neighbors.” Many students feel pressure to both participate in party culture and to maintain a certain level of “sex appeal” in order to be socially accepted. 

 

These pressures are leading many students to make dangerous trade-offs when it comes to alcohol and food. In a recent study, more than 80 percent of college students reported that they skipped meals, binged on food and purged, or used a laxative, so that they could “save calories” and binge drink without gaining weight and/or increase the effects of alcohol. These behaviors are associated with a trend called “drunkorexia.” Drunkorexia is not a medical diagnosis, but it describes the growing trend of college students sacrificing nutrition for alcohol.

The Surprising Relationship Between Eating Disorders and Alcohol Abuse

Though not everyone who engages in food restricting and binge drinking will go on to develop an eating disorder or an alcohol addiction, they may be at higher risk. Research has shown that 50 percent of women who reported eating disorder behaviors also struggled with drug and substance use disorders. That is a rate of risk five times higher than that those without eating disorders.

Alcohol use disorders tend to be particularly common among people with eating disorders, because of the way they interact with one another. Alcohol can be used to help induce vomiting—especially when consumed in excess on an empty stomach—and to facilitate dehydration. Alcohol can also be used to help numb the feelings of fear and anxiety that women with eating disorders carry with them. They tend to fear both weight gain, and someone finding out about their unhealthy behaviors.

Even if the person exhibiting signs of drunkorexia doesn’t end up with long-term, co-occuring disorders, the behaviors in and of themselves can be dangerous. Drinking on an empty stomach allows alcohol to be absorbed into the blood stream more quickly, which increases the likelihood of alcohol poisoning, blackouts, memory loss, and alcohol-related violence. Severe cases can even lead to permanent brain damage.

Overcoming Drunkorexia Requires Dual Diagnosis Treatment

Treating someone who struggles with both an eating disorder and an addiction can be complex. Often patients end up in a treatment center that specializes in either the eating disorder, or the substance abuse, but not both. Since the two disorders do interact and, in some ways, depend upon one another, it’s important to find a program that can treat both disorders at the same time. If a person enters into recovery from their eating disorder but not from their alcoholism, they are much more likely to relapse. The use of the alcohol will likely trigger the impulse to purge or restrict again and interfere with their judgment when it comes to making healthy choices about food.

If you or a loved one needs help for both an eating disorder and substance use disorder, you’ll want a treatment center like Remuda Ranch at The Meadows that offers an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to treatment. Remuda Ranch offers medical supervision 24 hours a day, seven days a week, along with talk therapies, experiential therapies (like equine therapy and challenge courses), family programming, nutritional and culinary training, and the latest neurobehavioral techniques for treating emotional trauma.

For more information about Remuda Ranch at The Meadows’ inpatient, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment for women and adolescent girls, please call 866-390-6100. Our Intake Specialists are happy to answer any questions you may have and help you decide if Remuda Ranch at The Meadows is right for you.

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There often comes a point in a woman’s journey through eating disorder recovery, when she begins to see her body in a different light. Instead of hating it for its “flaws” and trying to punish it into perfection, she begins to appreciate it for all of the things it can do and all of the places it carries her.

This kind of radical self-acceptance can be hard to come by. The media and the culture surrounding us are continually blasting us with images of which types of bodies are acceptable and valued and which are not. Being able to set all of that aside and love what you see in the mirror every day requires courage, self-determination, and sense of one’s higher purpose in life.

That’s what makes stories of people reaching these revelations so inspiring. We want to give you a chance to share your story of learning to celebrate the beauty of your own unique body and soul.

Was there a major turning point in your eating disorder recovery where you finally accepted and appreciated your body? At what point did it happen, and what led you there? In what ways did it change your life?

Send a 500- 1000 word essay to asauceda@themeadows.org. The first ten essays to be chosen for The Remuda Ranch at The Meadows blog will receive a free Remuda Ranch blanket as a special gift!

Submit your essay by Jan. 15, 2017. We look forward to reading your incredible stories!
 

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