 Our
Relationship With Food
Eating disorders and food issues are very serious for many people. Our
trained Chicago therapists will explore the cause of your food-related
problems and find ways to help you start concentrating on your life as
a whole, both physically and emotionally.
Please select a topic below:
Food Issues
Eating Disorders
Food Issues
I have tried so many diets, but none of them enable me to sustain
good eating habits. How can I lose weight and keep it off?
The dieting mentality sets people up to restrict or deprive themselves.
The resonating concept here is deprivation. If you are depriving yourself
of food, you are also likely depriving yourself of other abundant and
nourishing things in your life, like happy relationships. For example,
if you go out to dinner with friends and you are all-consumed with what
you are eating, it makes it impossible to focus on enjoying yourself and
your friends. Restricted eating often leads to overeating, which can lead
to deep feelings of guilt and depression. But most often overlooked are
the emotions behind eating.
Consulting a therapist who specializes in eating disorders or problems
related to food can help you identify your unhealthy eating patterns,
and truly understand your personal relationship with food. Therapy can
be beneficial in helping people let go of their food obsessions, and focus
on understanding their bodies, feelings, and actions. Conscious eating
is allowing yourself to be aware of the emotional triggers that cause
you to overeat, and helping you connect with your feelings, instead of
burying them in food. The goal is to create a physically and emotionally
nourishing lifestyle, and make a stronger impact than you would achieve
by dieting alone.
[ Top of Page ]
Eating Disorders
People who have a difficult relationship with food; People who are
always 20 lbs. overweight; People who deprive their self of food or is
prone to over indulging their self with food .
Eating disorders are complex, multifaceted illnesses, which require a
multidimensional approach to care and support. 24 million Americans suffer
from eating disorders, while 50% of those meet the criteria for depression.
Since we live in a culture, which is obsessed with thinness and dieting,
it can be difficult to recognize when one's thinking or behavior has become
dangerous. Eating disorders are very serious. Eating disorders have an
impact on both physical and mental health. Left untreated, eating disorders
can be fatal.
People develop eating disorders as a way of dealing with the conflicts,
pressures, and stresses of their lives. Eating disorders may be used as
a way to express control when the rest of one's life seems out of control.
At the Center for Personal Development, we specialize in offering our
clients assistance in overcoming the wide range of eating disorders.
Select a disorder below for further information:
Compulsive Eating
Body Issues
Anorexia
Bulimia
Weight Management
[ Top of Page ]
Compulsive Eating Disorder
Compulsive eating is very serious and has an impact on both physical
and mental health. Left untreated, compulsive overeating can lead to severe
medical problems including high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease,
and depression.
What is Compulsive Eating?
Compulsive overeating can affect women or men, though it appears twice
as often among women. People with compulsive overeating disorder suffer
from episodes of uncontrolled eating or bingeing followed by periods of
guilt and depression. Compulsive overeating is marked by the consumption
of large amounts of food, sometimes accompanied by a pressured, "frenzied"
feeling. Compulsive overeating disorder may cause a person to continue
to eat even after she becomes uncomfortably full.
Compulsive Eating Warning Signs
There are many warning signs, which indicate that someone may be suffering
from compulsive overeating disorder. A person with compulsive overeating
disorder may exhibit one, all, or any combination of these warning signs.
Becoming aware of these warning signs is the first step in helping someone
suffering from compulsive overeating.
Common Compulsive Eating warning signs:
- Eating large amounts of food when not physically hungry is a sign
of compulsive overeating
- Eating much more rapidly than normal is a sign of compulsive overeating
- Eating until the point of feeling uncomfortably full is a sign of
compulsive overeating
- A person with compulsive overeating disorder may often eat alone because
of shame or embarrassment
- A person with compulsive overeating disorder has feelings of depression,
disgust, or guilt after eating
- A person with compulsive overeating disorder has a history of marked
weight fluctuations
How can I help someone with compulsive eating disorder?
You may know someone suffering from compulsive eating disorder. You may
suspect that someone you know has compulsive overeating disorder but are
not certain. You may feel that you are beginning to exhibit some warning
signs for compulsive overeating. What should you do?
If you feel that you or someone you know may be suffering from compulsive
eating disorder, it is important to seek professional counseling as quickly
as possible. If untreated, compulsive overeating will become part of a
destructive cycle, which can continue for years and cause significant
health problems.
[ Top of Page ]
Body Issues
Developing healthy approaches to positive body image
Body image is how you see yourself, and your perception of how others
see you. With body issues, everyone at some point and time has an issue
with their body. There are societal and family issues that come into play.
Society encourages dieting and applauds weight loss. Often times, particularly
when someone feels like there are out of control, the one thing they believe
they can control is how much food they put in their mouth. Thus, people
often have unrealistic expectations with regard to self-improvement following
weight loss. The goal is to make peace with your body image, and break
out of the prison you have set up around the perception you have of your
body.
[ Top of Page ]
Anorexia
Anorexia is very serious and has an impact on both physical and mental
health. Left untreated, anorexia can be fatal. People develop anorexia
as a way of dealing with the conflicts, pressures, and stresses of their
lives. Anorexia may be used as a way to express control when the rest
of one's life seems out of control.
What is Anorexia?
Anorexia is self-imposed starvation. Anorexia is a serious, life-threatening
disorder, which usually stems from underlying emotional causes. Although
people with anorexia are obsessed with food, they continually deny their
hunger. Women with anorexia often also limit or restrict other parts of
their lives besides food, including relationships, social activities,
or pleasure. Anorexia can cause severe medical problems and even lead
to death.
Anorexia Warning Signs
There are many warning signs, which indicate that someone may be suffering
from anorexia. A person with anorexia may exhibit one, all, or any combination
of these warning signs. Becoming aware of these warning signs is the first
step in helping someone suffering from anorexia. When you help someone
with anorexia, you may end up saving her life.
Common Warning Signs of Anorexia:
- A person suffering from anorexia is thin and keeps getting thinner
- A person with anorexia may end up losing 15% or more of her ideal
body weight
- A person with anorexia continues to diet or restrict foods even though
she is not overweight
- Anorexia creates a distorted body image—a person with anorexia feels
fat even when she is thin or underweight
- A person with anorexia is preoccupied with food, calories, nutrition,
or cooking
- A person suffering from anorexia will deny that she is hungry
- A person with anorexia will tend to exercise obsessively
- Anorexia may cause a person to complain about feeling bloated or
nauseated even when she eats normal—or less than normal—amounts of food
- A person with anorexia may weighs herself with abnormal frequency
- Loss of hair or thinning hair may indicate anorexia
- A person suffering from anorexia may feel cold even though the temperature
is normal or only slightly cool
- A person with anorexia may stop menstruating
How can I help someone with anorexia?
You may know someone suffering from anorexia. You may suspect that someone
you know has anorexia but are not certain. You may feel that you are beginning
to exhibit some warning signs for anorexia. What should you do?
If you feel that you or someone you know may be suffering from anorexia,
it is important to seek professional counseling as quickly as possible.
If untreated, anorexia will become part of a destructive cycle, which
can continue for years and may eventually lead to death.
[ Top of Page ]
Bulimia
Men and women who live with Bulimia seek out binge and purge episodes
-- they will eat a large quantity of food in a relatively short period
of time and then use behaviors such as taking laxatives or self-induced
vomiting -- because they feel overwhelmed in coping with their emotions,
or in order to punish themselves for something they feel they should unrealistically
blame themselves for. This can be in direct relation to how they feel
about themselves, or how they feel over a particular event or series of
events in their lives. Those suffering with Bulimia may seek episodes
of bingeing and purging to avoid and let out feelings of anger, depression,
stress or anxiety.
Men and women suffering Bulimia are usually aware they have an eating
disorder. Fascinated by food they sometimes buy magazines and cookbooks
to read recipes, and enjoy discussing dieting issues.
Some of the behavioral signs can be:
- Recurring episodes of rapid food consumption followed by tremendous
guilt and purging (laxatives or self-induced vomiting)
- A feeling of lacking control over his or her eating behaviors
- Regularly engaging in stringent diet plans and exercise
- The misuse of laxatives, diuretics, and/or diet pills
- A persistent concern with body image can all be warning signs someone
is suffering with Bulimia
[ Top of Page ]
Weight Management
There is no diet or weight loss trend/fad that seems to work in the long
run. What people need to maintain a healthy weight is a healthy food plan,
an exercise regime, and to work with a therapist to identify and understand
the emotional factors behind eating, the triggers of emotional eating,
and to discuss strategies behind developing a health food plan, and working
through the triggers behind their own emotional eating patterns.
Depriving yourself of calories (or dieting) increases obsession type
thoughts about food, and tends to lead to binge eating or overeating.
Further, dieting or restricting of calories, or burning of calories actually
decreases body satisfaction, because what we can’t have becomes more meaningless
to us.
Some of the consequences of restricting food intake include:
- You ignore or distrust your inner signals for hunger
- You become dependent on external references
- Goals of adherence can lead to perfectionist tendencies
[ Top of Page ]
QUICK LINKS:
Counseling and Therapy
:: Life Strategy :: Therapeutic
Issues :: Background Information
Psychological Assessments
:: Useful Resources ::
Privacy Policy :: Site
Map :: Home
Center For Personal Development
444 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1820 | Chicago, IL 60611
Tel: 312.755.7000 | Fax: 312.755.7001
Web: www.chicagotherapist.com
| E-mail: info@chicagotherapist.com
|
Substance
Abuse 
Relationships