Counseling for Teens with Eating Disorders and How It Helps

One of the common misconceptions about teens and eating disorders is that the struggle is all about food, weight, and body size. What many fail to understand is that counseling for teens with eating disorders is crucial because their struggle goes much deeper.

Learning disordered ways of eating can begin with a diet or a simple desire to lose weight, but it usually is rooted in a deeper issue  –  a struggle with anxiety, depression, self-esteem, complex or chaotic family life, transitions, or past trauma.

There are several types of eating disorders. Anorexia is associated with severe food restriction due to a desire to either lose weight or maintain a low body weight and body size. Anorexia can also be characterized by a subtype, which includes some level of binge eating.

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder fueled by extreme purging measures such as vomiting, overexercising, or using dietary laxatives after periods of binging. Someone with bulimia is also fixated on body weight and can experience intense guilt and shame related to their behavior.

Another eating disorder is binge eating disorder. This is characterized by periods of excessive eating without purging afterward. Someone with this disorder may eat secretively. They also consume mass quantities of food even when not hungry and past the point of fullness.

There are several other eating disorders, such as Pica, where people eat non-food substances; rumination disorder, where a person eats and regurgitates after swallowing to then chew and swallow again; and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, known as AFRID.

This is characterized by avoidant behaviors associated with food, such as a fear of eating around others, the inability to take in necessary nutrients and calories, and poor development or nutrition deficits.

Lesser-known eating disorders are purging disorder, where a person uses purging behaviors to rid themselves of food even though binging is not part of their behavior, and night eating syndrome, where someone eats too much at night, often after waking up from sleep. Anything that includes disordered eating patterns but does not classify as one of these is referred to as OSFED (Other specified feeding or eating disorder).

With all eating disorders, the root cause is not the food. It can be about poor self-image, a sense of control, an obsession with perfection, traumatic events, and other means of coping that result in disordered eating patterns.

This is why counseling for teens with eating disorders helps in a variety of ways.

Counseling for teens benefits their family relationships

While individual counseling is usually a healthy part of a patient’s overall treatment for disordered eating, family counseling helps a teen whose family may not understand some of the stressors and triggers that can contribute to their teen’s behavior.

Counseling for teens and their parents can also give a patient insight into how his or her belief system and behavior is inaccurate. For example, if a counseling session helps a patient admit that he or she feels inadequate when compared to a sibling, family therapy can give parents a chance to help their teen see how they feel, what the positive personality traits of each child are, and that every family member has value and individual worth.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is also a helpful type of counseling for teens with eating disorders. This type of therapy is when a counselor helps your teen recognize disordered patterns, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors and learn replacement thoughts and behaviors that are more positive.

Counseling for teens with disordered eating can take months to years – it depends on how much the teen wants to get help, how supportive his or her family is during the treatment, and the severity of his or her disorder. However talking to a counselor can help a patient feel seen, and safe, and can provide insight that he or she cannot see within.

Gaining perspective, exchanging healthy thought patterns for unhealthy ones, and learning new coping mechanisms are all benefits that counseling for teens with eating disorders can provide.

Another type of therapy that teens with an eating disorder can benefit from is group counseling. This type of counseling gives teens a confidential support system with others their age who are going through similar struggles.

They can encourage each other when recovery becomes challenging, help to normalize healthy belief systems and eating patterns and provide ideas for healthy coping mechanisms during times of stress or when disordered eating patterns are triggered.

If you or a teenager you love exhibits symptoms such as these, it is time to try counseling.

• Fixation on body size or weight.
• Preoccupation with food.
• Secretive eating.
• Extreme weight loss or weight gain.
• Obsessive exercising.
• Frequently disappearing after meals.
• Comparing the bodies of others to their own.
• Constant dieting and fixating on calories, weight-related goals, or idolizing others who exhibit this behavior.

At times, it can be difficult to discern if a teen’s obsession with health and fitness is healthy or has veered into the unhealthy and disordered category. Counseling for teens can help identify whether or not the behaviors are classified as disordered. Most importantly, it can save teens from emotional and physical distress.

If you need a counselor, reach out to one of our offices today. We can make an appointment with a therapist who can guide your teen to freedom and wholeness again.