Eating Disorders And Their Effect On You

Eating Disorders and Drug Addiction

Depression, though, isn't the only correlative affliction to which eating disorder victims are subject. No less importantly, and perhaps even more dangerously, eating disorders can and often do exist in tandem with drug dependency, and eating disorder treatment patients comprise an especially at-risk group for drug addiction and drug abuse. It follows, then, that eating disorders treatment must, when necessary, be administered in conjunction with drug rehab care…and, conversely, that effective drug treatment must take full account of an addict's susceptibility to acute or chronic eating disorders.

The chemical underpinnings of eating disorders make eating disorder victims especially prone to the whiles of drug addiction. As was true of eating disorders and depression therapy, no eating disorder treatment plan can be effective if it fails to take full account of drug abuse and drug dependency. If an eating disorder treatment patient is also a drug addict, he can't beat his eating disorder without addiction counseling. There is, in the end, no other way to get better.

It also bears noting here that drug treatment and drug rehab must address any latent or nascent eating disorders, like compulsive overeating, in the addiction treatment patient. In fact, there isn't any practical distinction between an eating disorder victim suffering from drug addiction and an addict suffering from an eating disorder; both individuals need joint eating disorder and addiction treatment, and neither one of them can get better without expert comprehensive care. Again, real healing, be it from an eating disorder or a drug dependency, has got to be holistic healing.

Eating Disorder Recovery

An obvious point, in conclusion: Eating disorder treatment only counts to the extent that it effects full and lasting eating disorder recovery. Eating disorder treatment matters because eating disorder treatment patients matter: because eating disorder treatment patients are real people, who suffer real pain and live real lives. If they're going to get better, eating disorder treatment patients have got to get better for good. It's the same whether it's treating anorexia or treating bulimia. With so much at stake, anything less couldn't ever cut it.

An eating disorder treatment program can't be called successful if it only helps patients get better for a few months, or a few years. An eating disorder victim isn't healed if he relapses, and eating disorder recovery doesn't count if it's marked first and foremost by fragility and desperation. With that in mind, it's fair to say that only those eating disorder treatment programs which account for patients' long-term health-with established ties to 12-step support groups, for example-are substantively conducive to the eating disorder healing process.

But discussions of long-term health are perhaps best left for the long-term, because the eating disorder healing process can't start until you take the first step. For now, you know what's important: You know that you need help to beat your eating disorder, like bulimia nervosa , and that the eating disorder treatment program that's right for you can only be the one which treats you as you actually are. Again, there's too much at stake here for you to settle for anything less than the most expert and most intimate eating disorder care. For your own sake, and for the sake of the people who care about you, make today the day you start taking control of your future.

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