Anorexia Nervosa

ANOREXIA NERVOSA

People with Anorexia limit the amount they eat, and, as a result, have a low body weight. They are also afraid of weight gain and, by and large, refuse to gain weight. The reason these individuals are so fixated on their weight is that thinness is central to their self-evaluation. In addition, their skewed perception often leads them to believe they are living in larger bodies. Because of this, individuals with the disorder may not even think that they need to gain weight, that they have an issue or that they need therapy for Anorexia.

Meanwhile, people with Anorexia often receive praise for their low weight. This, likewise, makes those with this mental illness more reticent to gain weight. Most of those with this eating disorder also do not recognize how serious their condition is. This also encourages their desire to maintain an unhealthy weight. When taken together, these factors often make these people resistant to getting help. All told, they often like a great deal about their disorder in spite of its drawbacks.

​There are two types of Anorexia:

• Restricting type involves a range of behaviors, for example: dieting, fasting and excessive exercise.
• Binge-eating/purging type involves purging behaviors, like self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse, after binges.

Even though the binge-eating/purging type sounds like Bulimia Nervosa, there is one key difference. Namely, those with Bulimia have a more “normal” weight than those with Anorexia.

THERAPY FOR ANOREXIA

Even though an Intuitive Eating approach is ultimately part of recovery for those with Anorexia, more structured meal plans are used first to help restore a healthier weight. This may include a meal plan or the use of a food exchange to begin with.

In addition to Intuitive Eating, CBT-E is an evidence-based therapy for Eating Disorders. Like Cognitive-Behavioral approaches generally, CBT-E considers the function of behaviors. Thus, in this case, the focus is on understanding what causes and maintains Eating Disorder behaviors. In order to help those with Anorexia gain awareness, CBT-E makes use of behavioral logging. Another consideration in treatment is how much importance is given to weight. More often than not, people with Anorexia measure there worth based on a limited number of categories. As stated above, these individuals also place a lot of their self-worth on their weight. Therefore, it is important to explore other categories considered in self-evaluation and the amount of importance placed on each. For many with Anorexia, moods also impact their behaviors. Therefore, learning how to manage feelings can be part of CBT-E.