We offer treatment of eating disorders

People with eating disorders think almost constantly about food. There is a pathological focus on the number of calories consumed and burned. Even a modest weight loss will be accompanied by an almost euphoric control-and-victory experience. In the same manner, a weight gain of just a few hundred grams gives rise to self-hatred – some even feel a need for self-harm – and a feeling of complete loss of control.

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There is also a focus on avoiding fatty foods, a desire to skip meals whenever possible, hiding food inside the mouth (in order to spit it out later), or moving food around on the plate to hide the minimal food intake. Foodstuffs are often carefully weighed during preparation and again during intake, and many want to prepare their own food, because they don’t trust others to follow their own rigid rules: no fat and no sugar in the food. Many engage in excessive exercise. This may take place daily at a fitness center, but even ordinary, daily activities can be transformed so that one “always walks” instead of taking the bus, and takes the stairs instead of the elevator. Many have also tried slimming, laxative and diuretic agents to prevent weight gain. Others provoke vomiting, or try fasting for several days at a time.

It is not unusual for a person with an eating disorder to be placed within the bipolar spectrum (mood fluctuations). For people with bulimia,​ eating binges are more common in depressive phases. Some eating disorders also involve a need for order, and rigid rules are made to regulate eating scenarios. Food may have to be eaten in a certain order, or the table must be set in a certain way. Many avoid eating with others, and going out with friends for a restaurant meal is completely out of the question. Others are extremely focused on how they sit at the dining table, or how the food is arranged on the plate.

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Anorexia

Anorexia is characterized by a self-provoked weight loss and a highly distorted body image in which body weight and form is overestimated. People with anorexia starve themselves and exercise excessively to the point of extreme underweight, which causes much suffering to the patient and to the family that witnesses it. A person with anorexia seldom responds to the family’s worries and assurances that they are “thin enough”.