Therapy
 

Okay, I know several of you chicks have binge and overeating problems and I know some of you also have therapy, maybe for different reasons. I was just wandering, how many of you have found that therapy (such as behavioral therapy) has helped curve your bingeing?

I have behavioral therapy for social anxiety but have never brought up my issues with food but my mum has consistently told me I should and I'm starting to think the same. Just curious to see how many of you can actually pass by binges easily now after therapy..

I would like to know about this as well.

so no one to recommend for or against therapy?

one big fear I have is if I'm officially diagnosed with something, I'll have trouble getting health insurance later in life... I already ran into a problem because of anxiety attacks I had due to some deaths in my family. Insurance co's are insane.

I found therapy very helpful for dealing with root problems that have contributed to eating, but we didn't specifically address food during the sessions. So much other ground to cover, and I got to the point where I felt I could carry on without the help of a therapist. I have since applied techniques I learned to the subject of food and exercise. So, ultimately, it was helpful.

i worked with people with eating disorders using behavioral therapy. It can be pretty successful, but eating disorders are not easy to treat and can take a really long time. I'm not saying thats what you have. As far as the binges go, behavioral therapy is the way to go for treating it, just make sure the therapist you go to has experience with working with people with eating disorders and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy).

Jenn I'm having CBT at the moment but obviously eating isnt my only problem, I generally need to address a few problems but if I bring up food being a diversion to my true feelings CBT can be successful in helping me deal with that?

Part of my WL program includes group therapy classes/lectures. The instructors are all clinical psychologists who specialize in weight and eating disorders. Last week, I found it interesting that she said a therapist with no experience with weight issues sometimes, unknowingly, encourages and reinforces destructive behaviors, so she said it was CRUCIAL to find a therapist who specializes in these issues.

Oh Cr*p. :( It seems hopeless, I dont know where on earth I can find somebody to deal with that, or afford it.

Spoz, i don't know if this is an option, but at the school where i did my master's the counseling/psychology student's saw clients at a much lower rate. It still doesn't mean that you would get someone who has worked with eating disorders, it just happened to my specialty.

Huh, that's interesting that a therapist would unknowingly reinforce destructive behaviors. Like, how?

for example if someone has an eating disorder and is talking about how they "feel" fat, and the counselor will look them up and down and say, "i think you look fine or average". Which is the worst thing you can say to someone suffering from an eating disorder. Because the patient/client might take that to mean that they were still fat, because the real issue isn't what they actually look like, but why they are feeling the way they are. What is making them feel fat.

I'm not a therapist, nor am I trained as one but surely any well trained therapist would never make such an inappropriate comment in that situation. Isn't the whole point of therapy to look at a clients feelings and behavior and not how the therapist feels about it?

you would be surprised the number of asinine things some therapists say. And i used that specific example because that was said to a patient who tried to seek treatment from an unqualified therapist.

Okay thanks for all the info, it has definitely given me something to think about! :)

Hm. That was said to me by a therapist and I don't think it was harmful in any way. And that therapist DID help me overcome the worst of my bingeing. So I was surprised to read your opinion. Why do you think that is such a horrible thing to say to a patient?

I think the basis of any therapist or counsellor is to look and annotate why somebody feels a particular way, their opniion shouldnt come into it.

Depends on the type of counselling. Some counsellors are non-directive, others take a different approach.

I agree with you here, Spoz - especially when talking about CBT. It's a form of therapy where, in my opinion, the therapist gives the patient the tools they need so that they can help themselves from the inside out. It's a less direct/confronting approach than other methods of more traditional psychotherapy.

This is just my experience - I was treated with CBT for panic attacks last year.

Spoz, thanks for clarifying your point of view.

what is cbt?

CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)

Hey. I'm in psychodynamic therapy and while I don't address my weight and food specifically in therapy, I really think its helped me with related stuff...Mostly things with my upbringing and family, coming from a hugely overweight family except for a thin, overly critical mother. A bigger issue i talk about is work stress. I'm in a job where I'm really on call 24 hours a day, and I see a lot of crap. So learning how to find time for myself to go to the gym and to make my healthy foods has been critical in my journey toward a healthy lifestyle.

My insurance re-reimburses me all but by $20 co pay after my $200 deductible and I can say its been worth every penny.