EATING DISORDER TREATMENT

MBHA’s Eating Disorder Treatment Philosophy

Regardless of the type of eating disorder, MBHA offers a comprehensive treatment approach which usually includes individual and group psychotherapy, nutritional counseling, medical monitoring, medication management, family support, education and more. MBHA’s team of specialists can incorporate carefully chosen treatment options that offer an individualized, compassionate, and thoughtful treatment approach.

MBHA’s Eating Disorder Treatment philosophy is weight neutral and aligned with Health at Every Size™ principles. MBHA recognizes that health is multifaceted and not simply reflected by body size. At MBHA, we work with our clients to understand and find freedom from the rules and falsehoods of diet culture, develop a more intuitive and peaceful relationship with food and movement, and find ways to cope with the difficulties of living in a society that so equates health with body size and thinness with superiority without needing to resort to disordered eating behaviors.

MBHA’s therapists and dietitians have vast expertise in treating all forms of eating disorders. The most common eating disorders are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder. Other lesser-known eating disorders include Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) and Rumination Disorder. There is also a category called Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED) that encompasses all eating disorders that do not meet the strict diagnostic criteria for any of the above eating disorders.

Regardless of diagnosis, all eating disorders present serious mental and physical health challenges and are deserving of compassionate, collaborative and attentive care. Eating disorders do not discriminate based on age, gender, race, sexual orientation, body size or any other characteristic or identifier. MBHA understands that achieving and maintaining health is a complex process and is prepared to help.

  • Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by severe food restriction in both the quantity and variety of foods consumed. Despite popular depictions, Anorexia can present in people of all body sizes and one does not need to be emaciated or underweight to be struggling with Anorexia.

  • Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, over-exercise, and/or and the use of laxatives or diuretics.

  • Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is the most common form of Eating Disorder in the United States, estimated to impact approximately 2% of all adults. BED is characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food, often very quickly and to the point of pain and discomfort. BED is typically accompanied by feelings of a loss of control during the binge and shame, distress, or guilt after the binge. Despite popular depictions, BED can be present in people all body sizes and one does not need to be in a larger body to be struggling with Binge Eating Disorder.

  • Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder is characterized by extreme picky or selective eating which most often begins in early childhood, which typically resulting in a person not consuming enough calories to grow and develop properly in adolescence or to maintain basic body function as an adult.  Unlike Anorexia, ARFID is not characterized by distress about body size.

  • Rumination Disorder is characterized by regular involuntary regurgitation of food that occurs for at least one month. Regurgitated food may be re-chewed, re-swallowed, or spit out and usually within 30 minutes of every meal. The cause is also not body image based.

  • Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED) is a category that encompasses all eating disorders that do not meet strict diagnostic criteria for any of the others in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5). One of the more well-known types of eating disorders that fall under the OSFED category is Orthorexia, which is characterized by an obsession with “healthy” eating. While OSFED is a diagnosis that encompasses many different forms of eating disorders, it is no less serious and requires treatment just as does any other eating disorder.

“At the end of the day, our recovery must be based not on shame or perfectionism or the need to impress others, but on our willingness to be kind to ourselves.”
~ Erica Spielgelman