Eating Disorder Treatment

Eating Disorder Help is Available

If you are suffering from an eating disorder, treatment is available. Please call our nationally recognized toll-free helpline today at 1-800-542-4610 and get the eating disorder help you need to recover your health and reclaim your life. Caring professionals are standing by 24/7 to assist you and all calls are confidential.

Types of Eating Disorder Treatment Programs

Eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating and binge eating disorder are psychiatric illnesses and addictive disorders that affect over five million American women and men. This figure may not seem terribly high until you realize that thousands of these people will die from the physical problems caused by eating disorders. In fact, it is well known that most sufferers never seek eating disorder treatment.

Fortunately, with the right type of eating disorder treatment, people can get well and gradually learn to eat normally again. Because anorexia, compulsive eating, binge eating and bulimia involve the mind, body and spirit, physicians, mental health professionals, dietitians and addiction treatment professionals will often be involved in a person's eating disorder treatment. There are several types of eating disorder treatment programs:

Inpatient eating disorder treatment programs
Hospital eating disorder treatment programs
Residential eating disorder treatment programs
Outpatient eating disorder treatment programs

The type of eating disorder treatment environment one chooses should be based upon the severity of the eating disorder. Factors to consider when searching for professional eating disorder help include:

Your medical and psychiatric needs
Any drug or alcohol addictions
Your amount of available family and friend support
Your motivation

Research has shown that patients generally derive greater benefit from an inpatient or residential eating disorder treatment program rather than an out patient program. This is typically due to the additional structure provided which assists staff in monitoring and managing eating disorder behaviors. These types of centers also allow therapists greater parameters when addressing the underlying issues of the eating disorder. Some of the issues a patient needs to address which can trigger the need to binge, purge or restrict are:

Body image
Sexual trauma
Physical abuse
Relinquishing control
Gaining weight
Depression
Other mental health issues

The most critical aspect regarding the treatment of eating disorders is to recognize and address the eating disorder as soon as possible — like all bad habits, unhealthy eating patterns become harder to break the longer a person takes part in them. If you have an eating disorder, don't wait to get help — anorexia, bulimia, compulsive eating, binge eating and food addiction are all treatable. Get eating disorder treatment now!

If the process of locating the best eating disorder treatment program for you becomes confusing and a bit overwhelming, you can always call the national eating disorder helpline at 1-800-542-4610.

How to Choose an Effective Eating Disorder Treatment Program

First, there is no perfect eating disorder treatment program, but there are some programs that are better than others. We suggest that you take the time and compare your needs with the actual services provided by the eating disorder treatment program. For example, not all eating disorder treatment programs are designed to manage the medical complications that may accompany someone suffering from anorexia nervosa who has decided to completely restrict their food intake.

Questions to Ask When Considering an Eating Disorder Treatment Program:

What eating disorder populations do you treat?
What medical services are available?
Does the eating disorder treatment center have its own drug detox program for the person suffering from drug addiction and an eating disorder?
How does the center deal with issues such as sexual trauma, body image or sexuality?
What is their philosophy relating to compulsive eating, bulimia and anorexia?
What licenses and accreditation does the eating disorder treatment center have?
Does the center treat men and women?
What is the average length of stay at the center?