Healing After the Crisis

Restoring weight and ending eating disorder behaviors are just the first step. I know, I talk about them a lot. But that's because they ARE the first step and still not agreed upon out there. But Healing After the Crisis is the next, and just as important.

Comments

  1. This is such a good post by Dr Ravin. The difficulties, I think, with many treatment regines in the UK are:

    1. Patients are released from EDUs at too low weights when they are not recovered physically or mentally but are at their most anxious.

    2. Patients are given standard therapies (like CBT, DBT, 'body image' treatments), but they're not 'tailor-made' for the individual's very individual difficulties.

    3. Follow up therapy is absent or inadequate for people who need it. And the people who need it are those who were struggling with 'life' pre-AN, and for whom the same difficulties remain after weight gain and weight maintenance.

    And I think that follow-up therapy needs to be 'tailor-made', to accommodate the individual's specific problems. A one-size-fits-all approach is unhelpful. For me, personally, CBT was not very helpful for the specific difficulties I have; DBT strategies were a little more helpful, in some ways; 'body image' therapy was all-but-useless and 'off the beaten track'; a psychodynamic approach, that helped me to focus on aspects self-understanding and self-acceptance was incredibly helpful.

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  2. BTW, I meant 'regime' and not 'regine' in the first paragraph.. Typo...

    Happy New Year Laura :)

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  3. I agree with everything Cathy has said - brilliant post but difficult to get the necessary treatment in most societies (although for different reasons) I would have thought.

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  4. I think mention of healing for the parent and or caregiver should be recognized as well. My d has recovered from the whole ordeal much faster then her parents. We are still working through issues that arose as we brought our d back to health, and while she has moved forward in recovery fairly fast, for us it has been a longer, bumpier road.

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  5. Thanks for posting this! Over the past year and a half, I worked on completing steps 1-4.

    For step 4:

    I took the MBTI personality test and I had some helpful sessions on how to manage and cope with my personality type.

    It's an ongoing process!


    I have been putting off this part of Step 5:

    "Who are you, now that ED has been kicked to the curb? What are you about? What do you want from life?"

    I use to be terrified of answering those questions. I would cry, self-harm or just walk out when someone would ask me that. I couldn't handle thinking in the singular tense.

    Just now, I looked at those questions and they don't look so scary anymore.

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  6. Anonymous, I cannot express how wonderful your description is and how I am cheering for you on this process you describe. Sending virtual high-five!

    Cathy, you are describing just what I hope for: that tailor made approach. There are certain things that will be true for all (notably: nutrition and a safe environment) but without looking at the specific needs, skills, strengths, and resources of the individual we fail to truly support recovery.

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