Five Ways to Control Eating Disorders

Ideally, eating disorders should be treated by a trained health professional as soon as the problem is detected. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Many patients resist professional help, or are in denial about their condition. An eating disorder is a serious condition that rarely improves on its own, and these conditions can pose serious permanent health risks, even death. However, if professional help is not sought out immediately, there are certain things a patient can do while arranging for medical and psychological help. Here are six things an eating disorder patient can do to help prevent serious and permanent health damage.

1. Spend times with friends, family members, and loved ones every day. If you suffer from an eating disorder, spending time with those you love and trust can do much for your physical, spiritual and psychological health. Make it a point to spend time with those you love every single day, even if it’s only to go to a movie or to run errands. Spending time with those you love can not only help lift your spirits, it can help distract you from potential triggers that can lead to emotional eating, excessive exercising, or stringent dieting and eating habits.

2. Get busy. Fill your schedule with things you love to do. If you have a lot of time on your own, sign up for a class you think you will enjoy or consider doing volunteer work. Filling all the holes in your schedule with work and fun can help keep you healthy.

3. Keep close track of your feelings. Emotional eating, dieting, and excessive exercising are often triggered by strong feelings, such as frustration, depression, loneliness, sadness, and anger. One way to keep track of how you feel is to practice a routine of daily journal writing. Writing down your feelings, no matter how negative, can greatly help relieve the stress and anxiety that often accompany them.

4. Also keep track of "self-talk." Self-talk refers to the little voice in your head that is often critical and negative. Becoming conscious of negative self-talk can help the eating disorder patient diffuse the power of such talk.

5. Strive for a healthy well balanced diet, and avoid dieting at all costs. Dieting relies on deprivation, and deprivation often leads to frustration and other negative emotions. Instead of thinking of food in terms of dieting, consider adopting an overall healthy diet that strives for moderation. Eat a variety of fresh foods, and try to eat your meals in the company of others rather than eating alone.

6. Limit the amount of exercise you do. If the patient is prone engaging in a too-strenuous exercise routine, they should limit their exercise sessions to a maximum of thirty minutes. Eating disorder patients should seek out activities that they will enjoy, rather than engage in strenuous or competitive activities. Non-competitive sports activities and other fun activities like dancing and walking can be beneficial and restore the patient’s understanding of movement as something joyous.

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