Title : Helping those who suffer from binge eating disorder gain recovery by obtaining peace with food and emotions, in addition to psychotherapy, meds and a nutritionist
Abstract:
Binge eating disorder (BED) affects roughly 2.8 million adults in the United States. Between binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia, binge eating has the highest prevalence among Americans who suffer from an eating disorder. The audience will learn the signs to look for and that everyone has a journey to recovery. While psychotherapy, medication, and nutritional support all help in binge eating disorder recovery, attendees of this workshop will learn how important it is to include a specialized peace-with-food approach by the clinician. Examining and dissecting the traumas a child grew up with and then healing the inner child allows the patient to understand the reasons their eating disorder began in the first place and to help recover from the trauma. While that is paramount, patients must also learn how to separate food from their emotions. Whether boredom, anger, frustration, or sadness, I will show how emotions need to be felt and not pushed down by food. Most patients with binge eating disorders feel that certain foods hold a specific power over them. I will explain in the workshop how food is simply food with no special powers. Diet culture runs rampant in society; children and adults alike absorb the message that certain foods are good or bad and, therefore, assign a moral value to themselves for eating those foods. I will show how to break these constructs. Finally, attendees will learn how important it is for patients to take care of their own needs and take part in hobbies or passions that are for them alone to find happiness and fulfillment from within. When the clinician uses all these mechanisms, patients can find food freedom and not live their lives obsessed with food. I can speak from both the viewpoints of someone who treats people with BED but who also was a binge eater herself for 30 years and is 16 years recovered.
Audience Take Away Notes:
The audience will learn that while therapy, medications, and nutrition are helpful in binge eating disorder recovery, a clinician also needs to address issues that will help the peace with the food part of the puzzle. Learning about peace with food will help clinicians who only manage childhood trauma with psychotherapy and medication. Hence, they know their clients need more well-rounded treatment to recover. There are so many layers to eating disorder recovery, and peace with food is an essential layer of that transformation. The information will empower those in the audience who are suffering from BED to determine what kind of help they should obtain to recover fully.
