An Eating Disorder Survivor Shares What She's Learned

Nicole Cowper, who began struggling with anorexia at a young age, has written an insightful and moving article about her treatment, her setbacks, and the lessons she’s learned from battling her eating disorder.

In her pre-teen years, her anorexia was so severe she had to be hospitalized. While she was in the hospital, she had a heart attack brought on by months of starvation. Even though the event was frightening and potentially fatal, it did not mark the end of her eating disorder.
She writes,
“I would like to say that this was the reality check I needed. It took a lot of work and involved me having to be admitted to an eating disorder recovery facility for nine months. My days revolved around every type of therapy under the sun: horse therapy, art therapy, music, meditation, group, family, and one-on-one. I knew so much about therapy that I was basically the Freud of 13-year-olds I’m now 21 and happy at what I’ve accomplished and who I’ve become.”
She goes on the share five lessons she learned that helped to guide her through the beginning stages of recovery and that continue to guide her today. Her hope is that if you are currently struggling, or know someone who is, her advice might help along the way.
Read more of Nicole’s story at TheMighty.com.

How Parents Can Help Prevent Eating Disorders

Eating disorders—from anorexia, bulimia, and orthorexia to binge eating disorder — are extremely complex conditions that are caused by a variety of biological and social factors. A combination of genetics, temperament and personality, traumatic experiences, societal pressures, and environmental factors each play a role to varying degrees for each individual.

Scientists are currently working to better understand the biological or biochemical causes of eating disorders. We understand more about these factors now than we did 20 years ago, but there’s still a long way to go.
There is, however, a bit more certainty when it comes to the psychological, social, and interpersonal factors that often correlate with eating disorders. Study after study has shown that low self-esteem, living in a culture that places extreme value on achieving the “perfect body,” troubled peer and family relationship, and a history of physical or sexual abuse are all strong risk factors for developing an eating disorder.
As a parent, there is very little you can do without advanced medical interventions to influence your child’s genetic make-up or biochemical processes. But, there is a lot you can do to try to mitigate the psychological and emotional risk factors for eating disorders.

Developing Body Positivity from an Early Age

Here are few do’s and don’ts that may help your child develop a healthy attitude about his or her body and prevent the onset of an eating disorder:

You Are Not to Blame for Your Child’s Eating Disorder
As a parent, it’s true that you do have a significant amount of influence on your child’s emotional and social development. However, this does not mean that if your child develops an eating disorder, it is all your fault. You can do everything “right” as a parent, and still have a child who struggles. That’s because though you are a strong influence in your child’s life, you are not the only influence. Brain chemistry, messages from the media, peers, and your child’s own personality all play a role.
It’s also important to remember that if your child does have an eating disorder, you are not alone. One of the most beneficial things about Family Week at Remuda Ranch at The Meadows is that family members get to meet other families of patients struggling with ED, and discuss their pain, their similarities, and their differences in safe, open environment. Developing these types of support networks is critical to the healing and recovery of both the patient and his or her entire family.
For more information about how Remuda Ranch at The Meadows can help, call us at 866-390-5100.

Horses Are Helping Patients Overcome Eating Disorders

Horses have played an important role in the history of Remuda Ranch at The Meadows. The word “Remuda” refers to the group of horses used to give rest and provide a fresh start for the journey ahead.
Back before Remuda Ranch was an eating disorder treatment program, it was a dude ranch. Horses helped ranch guests get a fresh start along the dusty desert trails; today, these extraordinary creatures help women and girls get a fresh start along the road to recovery from eating disorders.

Why Does Equine Therapy Work?

Why do so many of our patients find working with horses to be such an essential part of their healing process? Maybe it’s because horses offer them unconditional acceptance. It is not typically in a horse’s nature to be judgmental or critical. So, when working with them, patients are finally able to shed their fears of not being good enough, and their fears of being imperfect.
Remuda horses are gentle, affectionate creatures who display a natural curiosity about the world around them. A patient may come into the program with a fear of horses or fear related to other areas such as commitment or responsibility. As the bond between patient and horse develops, these fears and other feelings of anger or inadequacy often dissipate. What’s more, as a patient cares for a horse, it helps reduce her focus on herself. Spending time together, whether riding, grooming or communicating on any level, the two develop a relationship of mutual respect and trust.
Working with these large animals also gives our patients an opportunity to learn healthy new skills. Each patient discovers how to practice effective communication and achieve the proper response from her horse.
One success builds on another and in no time, her feelings of self-worth, confidence, and effectiveness return.

Equine Therapy at Remuda Ranch

Once a Remuda Ranch patient is deemed medically stable, she is able to attend equine therapy sessions led by an Equine Specialist and a Mental Health professional. These shared equine sessions provide meaningful and life-changing experiences. The session can be as unique as each person, as they shares aspects about their perception of the events. In equine therapy, we build an emotionally safe environment by encouraging each person to share their own reality and what it means to them.
Rather than instructing or directing solutions, we allow our clients to experiment, problem-solve, take risks, employ creativity and find their own solutions that work best for them. That’s because we believe that all people can find the best personal solutions for themselves when given the opportunity to discover them. The same is true whether completing their equine activity or managing their eating disorder.

Treatment for Eating Disorders

Equine therapy is just one of many ways we teach women and young girls how to cope in their daily lives and feel confident and at ease without resorting to dangerous eating disorder behaviors. We take a multifaceted approach tailored to the needs of each individual patient. Types of treatment include individual and group therapy, culinary training and nutritional counseling, trauma work, and optional Christian programming, and much more. Call us today to find out how we can help you or a loved one 866-390-5100.

Dual Diagnosis, Addiction and Eating Disorders: Self Destructive Behavior

It is fairly common for people to struggle with both an addiction and a mental health disorder at the same time. This is known as a “dual diagnosis,” or having at least two conditions that co-occur and interact with one another. Just how someone suffering from depression may habitually binge drink as a way to self medicate, someone suffering from anxiety, depression, OCD, self-harm or PTSD can develop an eating disorder as a means to cope with her underlying mental disorder.

Dual Diagnosis and Eating Disorders

Lately there has been a growing body of evidence to support the similarities between eating disorders and addictive conditions like drug addiction and alcoholism. The American Society of Addiction Medicine now holds a wider definition of addiction to include not just drugs and alcohol, but also “process” addictions like food. This is because all of these substances have a very similar effect on the brain.

Natural stimulants like taking care of our bodies, healthy amounts of exercise, being praised or being in love trigger special reward centers in our brain, making us feel good. These reward centers can also be activated through artificial means like drug use, alcohol, and food abuse such as binging, purging or even starving.

Chemical addiction and eating disorders arise from many of the same sources and display some of the same characteristics. Both conditions:

• Include common risk factors: family history, imbalances in brain chemistry, stress or childhood trauma
• Appear during stressful life transitions like the loss of a parent, a divorce or puberty
• Arise from low self-esteem, depression or anxiety
• Involve a pattern of compulsive behaviors
• Involve a preoccupation with a substance or activity
• Are chronic conditions that produce severe or potentially fatal side effects

  Self-Destructive Patterns of Addiction and Eating Disorders

  When the reward center of the brain is stimulated inappropriately, specifically through drugs, alcohol, or food abuse, it stops functioning the way it was intended to. These stimulants create a false sense of temporary happiness or relief with damaging consequences. An individual who struggles with an addiction or eating disorder may have a personality type that is prone to impulsivity, extremes and high anxiety and this creates a need for greater amounts of stimulation in order to feel well. Relief created by unhealthy stimulation only creates a greater risk for dependency and addiction forming habits. Despite severe medical complications, it is difficult for individuals struggling with addictions to give up their addiction, as in the case of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, alcoholism or substance abuse.
  
  

  Treatment of Eating Disorders and Alcoholism/Substance Abuse

  Since the addictive nature of eating disorders and alcoholism/addiction is similar, and the underlying issues pertaining to both conditions may overlap, it is crucial to treat eating disorders and addiction simultaneously in the recovery process. At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, our comprehensive treatment team addresses the various needs of women and girls with co-occurring disorders through medical, nutritional and psychotherapy treatments. Our trauma-focused and brain-based approach helps us find and treat the root cause of the patient’s addictions and behavioral disorders.
  
  At Remuda Ranch at The Meadows, we understand the seriousness of dual diagnosis. In a safe and nurturing community composed of their peers, people are guided on their journey of recovery by examining the underlying causes of their eating disorder and co-occurring disorders. The goal is for these individuals to gain the courage to face difficult issues including grief and loss; heal from emotional trauma; and become accountable for their own feelings, behaviors, and recovery. Please call us at 866-390-5100 or complete the form on our website to find out if our program is right for you.
  
  

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Understanding the Difficult Eating Disorder Patient

By Vicki Berkus M.D., Ph.D., CEDS, Remuda Ranch Medical Advisor

When they first begin treatment, patients often struggle and insist on “doing treatment their way.” I tell my patients’ families that they can typically expect a phone call after two or three days, during which they are likely to hear, “Get me out of here! They don’t understand me!”

To gain some insight into what a patient’s experience was like I went undercover and entered a treatment program as a patient struggling with laxative abuse. I packed my suitcase, hid laxatives in my hair and in the handle of my suitcase and walked through the front door.

My process as a patient started with the intake interview where I had to tell a complete stranger some of the most private things about me.

Once I was admitted, I was given an exam gown and my luggage was removed to be searched. I had to change into the exam gown in the shower so that the nurse could see whether I was hiding anything. Then, I was again questioned and went through a physical exam. I had blood drawn, an EKG, and weight taken without hearing or seeing the results. I then was allowed to eat and read the orientation packet.

I was exhausted after three hours of being somewhere I didn’t want to be, talking to people I didn’t trust and having no support (or perceiving that I had no support.) Throughout my stay, I was told when to eat and when to sleep, and had most of my personal items taken from me and locked away.

Finding Empathy for Struggling Patients

I knew as a doctor and eating disorder treatment professional that the purpose of all of this wasn’t to make me feel like an infant, but to make sure I was medically stable and safe in that environment.

Many of our patients don’t quite understand that. They are angry, tired, lonely, and scared. It takes courage to go through treatment.

My insight increased over the next few weeks as I ate with peers, attended Family Week, and sat in process groups observing the patients’ progress. Overall, it wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience for me; I can’t imagine having an eating disorder in my head and trying to go through this process. I’m glad I had a chance to experience it first-hand so that I would not longer have to base my assumptions on my limited perception.

Today, I tell my patients that I don’t expect them to like treatment or even want treatment; but, if they know deep down that their way isn’t working to just do it anyway. I think the key when trying to help eating disorder patients is to set boundaries and be firm while including incentives in their treatment that they can earn.

Starvation, biochemical changes in the brain and body while re-feeding, and co-occurring mood disorders all exacerbate the disease and the lack of control over emotions and behaviors. I think back to my residency days when I was on call every other night (at age 43) and remember that without proper sleep and nutrition, I was not fun to be around.

Think about the last time you were trying to function without the right amount of sleep or food, and try to remember how you felt when dealing with your patient or loved one as they enter into eating disorder treatment.

Remuda Ranch Can Help

The experienced staff at Remuda Ranch at The Meadows understands the pain that eating disorders can bring. There is hope. We can help you or your loved one get on the road recovery.

Our beautiful campus in the heart of the Sonoran Desert offers patients large rooms, indoor and outdoor horse arenas, a swimming pool, and a challenge course. Among the lush landscapes, patients are surrounding by peace and tranquility while they work with our team to overcome their eating disorders and dual diagnoses, and find peace within. Call us today 866-390-5100 or reach out online.

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