Regular Eating—a Cornerstone of Eating Disorder Recovery

Regular Eating in Eating Disorder Recovery in Los Angeles [photo description: a black couple smiling as they wash and cut vegetables] Represents a possible person in recovery from an eating disorder engaging in regular eating in Los Angeles, CA.

If you have been struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating, step one of recovery requires the establishment of daily regular eating. This is important for people with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, and ARFID in all body sizes. Regular eating is one of the earliest goals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Eating Disorders …

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Can CBT for Eating Disorders Be HAES®-aligned?

CBT plus HAES for Eating Disorders [Image description: large bodied gender neutral person seated and facing a therapist whose back is to the camera]

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the most effective approach for treating adults with eating disorders, including bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. The most recent and commonly taught and implemented version is an “enhanced” protocol, CBT-E (Fairburn, Christopher G., 2008). Unfortunately, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for eating disorders is not always employed in a weight neutral way, …

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Exposure in the treatment of Eating Disorders

Exposure therapy is widely recognized as a necessary (and sometimes sufficient) ingredient of treatment for most of the anxiety disorders including phobias, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.  Anxiety is a core psychological feature of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.  However, instead of being afraid of heights, speaking in public, having a heart attack, or contamination, individuals with eating disorders are primarily afraid of food, eating, and shape and weight.

Both cognitive-behavioral therapy and family based treatment, two empirically validated treatments for eating disorders, employ exposure techniques.  Exposure works through the process of habituation, the natural neurologically-based tendency to get used to things to which you are exposed for a long time.   During exposure, habituation occurs as people acclimate to their fear and come to realize that nothing actually dangerous is occurring. Habituation promotes new learning of safety, tolerance of fear feelings, and extinction of the fear avoidance urge. 

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