An eating disorder is a mental health issue that causes disturbances to your diet and the way you view food. There are various treatment options available for Anorexia treatment.

There are several types of eating disorders. Anorexia is one of them. People with eating issues may eat too much food, too little food, or keep thinking a lot about their body shape or weight. But without treatment, this can become serious. Also, it affects the quality of life. However, recovery is possible with treatment. This often involves a team of experts that work together to help you. Therapy is one of them.

Below, we’ll try to know the different types of therapy, how effective they are, and ways to seek help for yourself or a loved one.

 

There are many available levels of care. Based on the needs, the treatment options are chosen.

Anorexia Treatment: Intensive outpatient or outpatient

Outpatient means that you come back home after your treatment session. This level of care is for people who:

• need less monitoring on a daily basis
• are doing well socially and in work.
• are making progress in their recovery

But, outpatient programs vary based on an individual’s needs. Some may have many and longer sessions in a week. But, few also have only once or twice a week.

Anorexia Treatment: Partial Hospital Visit

This also means “day hospital” visits. But, this is more intensive. This may be for someone who:

• have to be monitored on a daily basis
• Also, this impacts their ability to function, but is not an immediate risk.
• may do activities like bingeing, fasting or purging daily.

This also has sessions that can be for many hours and most days out of the week.

Anorexia Treatment: Residential

In this, people live in a setup that is like a home. Also, they are taken care of and monitored throughout the day.

This is for people that:

• need longer term care.
• also, they need monitoring daily.
• importantly, are not responsive to above 2 types of treatment options.

But, the duration that a person spends here is based on how severe the issue is.

Anorexia Treatment: Inpatient hospitalization

This means staying at a hospital. It is for a medical emergency such as-

• not very stable vital signs
• symptoms that have worsened quickly
• other medical issues because of anorexia or another health condition.
• thought of committing suicide.

This aims to make you stable. Post-discharge, the person joins any of the other types of treatment mentioned above to help them more.

There are many types of therapy such as-

Anorexia Treatment: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT helps to know and work with the thought patterns and beliefs related to-

• food habits
• body weight
• body shape
• appearance

After observing these thoughts, you learn how to change them. This also makes you feel better. CBT is for many mental health issues. But, people receiving CBT for eating issues feel better soon.

Anorexia Treatment: Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

IPT also treat eating issues. In IPT, your eating issues are seen in the context of social and interpersonal relationships.

Four different “problem areas” are there in IPT. These include:

• Interpersonal deficits: This often includes feelings of isolation or a lack of close, fulfilling relationships.
• Role disputes: This often means a difference in expectations between yourself and one or more important people in your life.
• Role transitions: This is typically concerned with big life changes, such as being on your own for the first time.
• Grief: This can include feelings of loss due to the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship.

Your doctor will work with you to explore how issues in each of these problem areas contribute to your eating disorder. They’ll then help you develop strategies to improve your communication and interpersonal skills to help reduce your symptoms.

Anorexia Treatment: Family-based treatment (FBT)

This is also the Maudsley Method. It’s often for children or teens that have an eating disorder.

In FBT, the family members are important and they also help in doing things like:

• trying to keep healthy eating patterns
• keeping and getting back to a healthy weight
• trying to stop unhealthy eating behaviors.

Anorexia Treatment: Dialectal behavior therapy (DBT)

This works on difficult emotions. With DBT, you also learn how to change unhealthy eating behaviours. Some of the skills that it works on are-

• The way we communicate with people around.
• Our way of expressing emotions.
• Being flexible and open.
• Managing stress and issues.
• Practising being in the present.

Anorexia Treatment: Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

ACT makes you change your actions and not your thoughts or feelings. It also means that there are many behaviours that we do because of our mental health state. In this, you try to know what your core values are. Later, you have goals that satisfy these values. The main aim is to accept all feelings and to put effort to change your actions. Through this, you can also lead a better life and begin to feel better.

Anorexia Treatment: Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT)

CRT focuses on looking at the big-picture and making the mind more flexible. It is also one of the treatments for anorexia nervosa.

In CRT, many tasks break the rigid thinking patterns. Some examples of such tasks include:

• using your right and left hand to draw or write.
• trying to switch your focus between two tasks.
• reading and making a summary of difficult texts.
• finding many ways to navigate a map
• thinking of alternative ways to use everyday objects

Anorexia Treatment: Psychodynamic psychotherapy

The overall goal of this is to help you know the reason for your eating disorder. This also looks at your internal conflicts and motives. The main idea is that many of the issues are because of unresolved wants and needs. Hence, by knowing the root cause we can deal better with our issues and heal faster.

You may be thinking about which types of therapy are most effective. The answer to this question can depend on your needs and issues. Additionally, different types of therapy work best for different individuals. Also, you might need to use a combination of treatments to deal with your issues. Because of this, you may need to try a few different approaches before you find one that works for you.

To Know More about the Best Anorexia, Enroll for a Course on Our Website