Finding Therapy for Anorexia or Bulimia in Beverly Hills, MI—Counseling and Treatment
More and more stars have opened up about their struggles with bulimia or anorexia: Kesha, Demi Lovato, Zayn Malik, Elton John, Jane Fonda, Zoe Kravitz, Russell Brand, Shawn Johnson, Lily Collins, and Hilary Duff, just to name a few. With so many celebrities who have been diagnosed with eating disorders, the association between Hollywood and unhealthy body image is growing stronger and stronger. But an estimated 30 million people fight bulimia or anorexia. Eating disorders are not just for the rich and famous.
Eating disorders are not just a picky phase either. Bulimia and anorexia are serious disorders that distort a person’s eating habits and self-perception. They have severe consequences for a person’s health. Anorexia, in fact, has the highest death rate of any psychiatric disorder. But only about 10 percent of people who have bulimia or anorexia receive the treatment that they need.
Recognizing the problem is an important step in treatment because when people seek help, there are effective medical, nutritional, and psychological interventions available. Counselors can tailor a plan that meet each person’s individual needs for holistic care.
Thriveworks Beverly Hills provides therapy for bulimia and anorexia, and our counselors have helped many clients find the medical and psychological care they need. Are you plagued by negative thoughts about your body? Have irregular eating habits become a part of your life? Thriveworks Beverly Hills wants to help.
Acknowledging Anorexia and Bulimia
Anorexia and bulimia may be the most well-known eating disorders. They are often linked together, and they do share many characteristics. They afflict both women and men. Depression and anxiety disorders often co-occur with them. While they most often surface during adolescence or young adulthood, anybody—young or old—can develop bulimia or anorexia.
Despite their similarities, anorexia and bulimia are separate diagnoses.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) acknowledges anorexia nervosa with the following symptoms:
- Restricting food consumption to less than one’s body needs that results in a substantially lower body weight than normal (based upon developmental trajectory, age, weight, physical health, and sex).
- Intense and illogical fear of gaining weight or being fat.
- A distorted self-perception that experiences one’s body shape and weight as larger and heavier than reality.
The DSM-5 acknowledges bulimia nervosa with the following symptoms:
- Binge eating repeatedly, that includes…
- Lost control over food consumption.
- Ingesting substantially more food than most people would eat under similar circumstances and during a similar period of time.
- After binges, using unhealthy, repeated behaviors that attempt to limit weight gain, such as using diuretics, laxatives, or other medications; fasting for too long or too frequently; inducing vomiting; or exercising excessively.
- A self-image that is consumed with body weight and size.
Accompanying Health Problems
As people fight against bulimia or anorexia, their well-meaning friends and family may compliment them on how skinny or healthy they appear. While these compliments may come with good-intentions, they are ill-informed. Being healthy and being skinny are two different concepts, and far from promoting a person’s health, bulimia and anorexia may cause a series of devastating health problems.
Bulimia can cause tooth decay, kidney damage, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gastric rupture, constipation, electrolyte imbalance, ulcers, and heart failure.
Anorexia can cause infertility, disrupted menstrual cycles, low blood pressure, low heart rate, increased risk of heart disease and failure, abnormal heart beat, anemia, premature osteoporosis, low white blood cells, disrupted endocrine system, kidney damage, and death.
How Do Bulimia and Anorexia Develop?
The specific circumstances of how, why, and when anorexia or bulimia develop in a person’s life are usually personal and intimate. However, therapists often group the causes of anorexia and bulimia into two distinct categories: biological causes and environmental causes.
- Biological causes may involve nutritional deficiencies, genetics, and irregular hormone functions.
- Environmental causes may involve peer pressure to have a certain body type; living in a culture obsessed with body type, thinness, and impossible concepts of beauty; or childhood abuse or family trauma.
Anorexia or Bulimia Therapy
The counselors at Thriveworks Beverly Hills have tailored treatment plans that meet their clients’ nutritional, medical, and psychological needs. Want to give each person the holistic care they need to restore positive eating habits and a healthy self-perception.
Scheduling therapy can be intimidating and asking for help takes courage. We want to make the process as easy as possible. That is why a person will answer your call and help you schedule an appointment. That is why we offer evening and weekend appointments. That is why we work with many insurance companies. That is why many first-time clients see their therapist the following day.
Do not fight bulimia and anorexia alone. Let the professionals at Thriveworks Beverly Hills craft a treatment plan that considers your individual needs. Call today to get started.
