Compulsive Over/Under Eating

Compulsive over and under eating are both eating disorders. As such, they represent potentially life threatening health conditions that can be treated through Eating Disorder Counseling. Most sufferers will attest to the fact that the quality of life is severely diminished when they are behaving compulsively. The physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences can be life diminishing for the victim and his/her loved ones. We believe that diet plans and behavior modification strategies in and of themselves are grossly insufficient. The Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services staff is trained in using the 12 Step approach to Eating Disorder Counseling to promote recovery. Our approach to Eating Disorder Counseling relies heavily on spiritual principles.

When we eat too little or too much we are doing so to change the way we feel. Treatment through comprehensive Counseling for Eating Disorders is available and recovery is possible.

Eating Disorders Defined

What is an eating disturbance or disorder?

An eating disorder can be life threatening and life diminishing in much the same way that Alcoholism and other addictive disorders injure the body, mind, and spirit of the victims. We must eat to survive. Total abstinence, as we understand it in other addictive disorders, is an impossibility. For those suffering with compulsive overeating, the portion is always too small. The compulsive under eater fears becoming fat and the compulsive over eater fears hunger. Both eaters are deprived emotionally and spiritually and view their control over food as the solution.

Who develops eating disturbances and disorders?

Eating disorders are found in all populations, neighborhoods, age brackets, and economic classes. There is no discrimination. They occur in both sexes and while more women might be diagnosed with an eating disorder, it would appear that men are equally susceptible.

Why do people develop eating disturbances and disorders?

There are as many different theories to answer this question as there are flavors of ice cream. The truth is we really do not know why. Science may give us reliable data to explain the development in the years to come but for today we can only theorize. We believe that eating disorders have physical, emotional, and spiritual components which must all be addressed in the course of recovery if the sufferer is to know freedom.

What are the signs of an eating disturbance or disorder?

Some common physical, emotional, and spiritual signs are:

• Significant weight loss or gain
• Menstrual cycle irregularities
• Dental problems (such as loss of enamel)
• Unexplained dizzy or fainting episodes
• Chronic fatigue
• Facial swelling
• Preoccupation or distorted body image (when overweight seeing self as thin beneath a layer of clothes; when thin seeing fat that others do not see)
• Dehydration
• Preoccupation with food
• Eating consumes a great deal of time
• Consumed with calorie counting
• Obsessive fear of eating foods that contain fat
• Lost in a constant dream of "diet cures"
• Overwhelming fear of gaining weight
• Avoiding situations where food is served
• Needing to weigh oneself frequently
• Purging behaviors through the use of: vomiting, laxatives, diuretics, exercise, enemas, starvation
• Loss of hope for gaining control over weight, food, or body
• Social and emotional withdrawal related to body image
• Low self-esteem, agitation, depression, and mood swings associated with weight gain or loss

Areas of Focus of Counseling for Eating Disorders

Recovery from compulsive over/under eating is a life long process that will need to address a wide array of physical, emotional, and spiritual issues. Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services offers private and confidential Counseling for Eating Disorders to individuals and families whose lives have been touched by eating disorders. Some of the areas of counseling focus in which our clients have usually expressed interest include:

• Establishing A Plan For Abstinence
• Understanding the 12 Steps As They Apply to Counseling for Eating Disorders
• Practicing The Principles Of Recovery In All Our Affairs
• Developing A Healthy Body Image
• Healing A Troubled Marriage
• Developing Intimate Relationships
• Helping A Loved One Get Help For His/Her Problem
• Fighting Depression
• Understanding the Food is Neither Love Nor The Enemy
• Exploring Spirituality
• Detachment With Love
• Improving Communication
• Working With At-Risk Teens
• Parent Coaching Using The 12 Steps

Eating Disorder Counseling Treatment Options

The Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services is commitment to the provision of a comprehensive array of services has come from the breadth of experience that we have accumulated in the treatment of addicted people and their loved ones. It is our aim to share in the design of your therapy program in a way that puts your needs first.

The following modalities are available at each of our offices:

• Individual Counseling for Eating Disorders

Individual therapy is designed to provide analysis, direction, and support in a therapeutic relationship whose hallmark feature will be mutual respect and responsibility. We believe that a therapy session should be guided by the needs of the client and treatment plans are designed around the needs the client presents. The frequency of sessions and the duration of the therapy relationship are determined by the client. Our staff has an experiential orientation which ensures that sessions will focus on real life problems and solutions with numerous opportunities for clients to practice change outside of the therapy session.

• Group Counseling for Eating Disorders

  Counseling Eating Disorders in a group setting provides a melting pot of personalities for each of the group's members to develop skills needed to relate to a diverse population of people. As experiential therapists, our staff guides the group process through real life problems. Extensive training in Gestalt Therapy and Psychodrama combined with vast experience in the Eating Disorder Counseling and personal recovery experiences ensures that our recovering staff will bring a wide breadth and depth of skills to the treatment experience. Groups are generally designed as closed ended which promotes optimum confidentiality and group cohesiveness since all group members will commit to weekly attendance for a predetermined period of time. Once group begins, no new members will be admitted to the group until graduation.   

• Family Counseling for Eating Disorders

  Effective family therapy must begin with the bonding of values between therapist and family members. Therapy should never dictate the values to which the family members must subscribe. When the values between therapist and family are incompatible, therapy can not be successful. The Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services staff practice 12 Step oriented family therapy from a model which combines theories of natural and logical consequences with the spiritual principles of recovery used by 12 Step Groups.

In this approach, all family members share a responsibility for the upkeep of the family and responsibility for the quality of their respective relationships with other family members.

Children are not permitted to disregard their responsibility for family's well-being simply because they are "kids." Likewise, parents are not permitted to avoid being held accountable by their children by hiding behind the "because I am the parent and I said so" rule.

• Eating Disorder Counseling for Couple's

  The development and maintenance of a rewarding romantic relationship will involve an intense commitment to the 12 Steps and a willingness to address the challenges that each member has brought to the union. Leadem Counseling & Consulting Services staff will work to assist the members in resolving immediate conflicts while working to uncover the antecedents to the current difficulty.

• Diagnostic Assessment in Counseling Eating Disorders

  An assessment to determine if an individual is suffering with a eating disorder should involve a comprehensive investigation into the individual's developmental relationship with their problematic relationship with food. When providing designing services for Counseling Eating Disorders, a comprehensive diagnostic assessment should include the following components:

• Review of past/present medical history
• Review of all previous records related to eating disorder treatment
• Review of all records related to psychiatric or other mental health treatment
• Review of the individual's historical and present use of alcohol and all other mood-altering substances.
• Review of individual's historical efforts to gain control over eating, body image, or life style.
• Interviews with the significant others in the sufferer's life
• Review of potential symptoms related to the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV TR)

 

• Aftercare Support

  Counseling Eating Disorders in a residential setting often requires aftercare support services. Our staff can provide therapeutic services to people suffering with eating disorders who are completing residential treatment and require transition support to stabilize their early recovery efforts. The focus of aftercare support is primarily on bridging the gap to 12 Step Groups and developing a relapse prevention plan.

• Parent/Child Therapy

  These services focus therapeutic support on the following issues:

• Eating Disorder Education for School Age Children
• Developing Insight Into the Ways In Which the Children Have Been Impacted By The Disorder
• Methods for Explaining Parental Involvement In A 12 Step Program
• Methods for Rebuilding Trust
• Parenting Through the 12 Steps