Eating Disorders

Poll

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Author:
Jonathan Huttner

When a person enters drug rehab or an addiction treatment facility and is diagnosed with a drug addiction and eating disorder, the question arises which addiction developed first and how do you treat two addictions?

First, let us define an eating disorder as the quality of one’s thinking as it relates to food and weight and not how much someone weighs. Then, we may take a look at various behaviors and address other criteria. In most cases, one’s thinking regarding food and weight became distorted way before they ever began using drugs or alcohol. It is not uncommon that after a period of time of trying to achieve certain self determined goals through binging, purging or restricting and not achieving those goals, that the person would turn to drugs as a means to accelerate the process or deal with the emotional whirlwind of depression, shame or self hatred. At this point we have an eating disorder and drug addiction going full throttle in an attempt to by the person to gain control. It rarely happens and is described as the “great illusion” by most treatment professionals.

How To Treat Drug Addiction And Eating Disorders

When entering a drug rehab or addiction treatment program with an accompanying eating disorder, the goal should always be patient safety. If the patient is not in a life threatening situation due to their disordered eating, then the individual usually enters detox for their drug addiction. After detox is completed, the person’s behavior as it relates to their eating disorder will be addressed. Whether it is binging, purging or restricting, the patient must be willing to address the behavior to achieve recovery. Realizing that abstaining from the eating disorder behavior will initiate cravings for drugs, the clinical staff at the addiction treatment facility must be acutely aware of the possibility of relapse. During this process, the addiction treatment facility must also address the issue of whether they are the appropriate setting for the patient and if not make a referral to another drug rehab or eating disorder facility.

You can find useful information regarding drug addiction, addiction treatment or eating disorders at www.recoveryconnection.org.

Jonathan Huttner is one of the the principals at Lakeview Health Systems, an addiction treatment,

alcohol and drug rehab facility.

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A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Eating Disorders... Eating Disorder - Treatment Options Eating disorder is an abnormal eating pattern that eventually deteriorates a person’s health and increases the risk of other diseases. In this disorder, people overeat, or eat just to satisfy a psychic need and not physical need. Eating disorder is life threatening illness if left untreated. Eating disorder which includes anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating are some of the serious forms of mental illness. Living a life with this illness imparts a feeling of insecurity, shame, anxiety. Mostly, the individual is left to struggle alone because of the complicated combination of physical and mental symptoms, but with proper medication, this illness can be cured. People with eating disorder feel that they are overweight and continue eating less and become malnourished. Most women, especially the teenage girls are affected badly by eating disorder because in order to look good they want to lose weight by starving themselves, which is totally unhealthy way of weight loss. People suffering with an eating disorder may show some psychological illness such as obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder and anxiety. They are likely to fall prey to dissociative disorder and multiple personality disorder. Sometimes, such people exhibit other addictive or self-destructive behaviors which include alcoholism, drug addiction, self-injury, cutting and self-mutilation etc. Other physical health problems associated with eating disorder are malnutrition, dehydration, kidney, heart and liver damage. Sometimes people eat large amount of food frequently and without any control over their eating even when they are physically not hungry, and after eating they feel disgust, depression or guilt because of overeating. This...