Posts Tagged ‘Disorders’

« Older Entries

Eating Disorders and Prozac

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Prozac is the most common prescribed medication for eating disorders.

There are many opinions about the treatment of eating disorders with Prozac.

Some people say that Prozac was useful for them to fight their eating disorders. But many people report it didn’t make any difference in how they felt and even created more health problems than they had before taking it.

Why is it that some people get benefits from this medication and some do not? And should Prozac really be a first line medication for eating disorders?

First, let’s look at the reasons why Prozac as an eating disorder treatment could be effective.

Prozac is an antidepressant. And since up to half of eating disorders sufferers have an additional psychological disorder such as depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder, Prozac can help a sufferer by treating these disorders.

Also, Prozac is designed to restore and maintain healthy levels of a brain chemical called serotonin, which controls mood, feelings and appetite. So, by controlling mood, feelings and appetite Prozac makes a sufferer feel better and more in control.

So what is the other side to the use of this drug? Not all people who have an eating disorder suffer from depression or have other emotional problems. So, if people take Prozac just to restore and maintain their serotonin level in their brain they develop resistance to the drug and need higher and higher dose of Prozac as time goes by. Then if they stop the medication or decrease the dose they simply slip back to their old eating habits straight away and can also suffer debilitating withdrawal symptoms.

The question arises: how can we make the use of this medication more effective for more people?

Most conventional health care professionals believe that the most effective approach is an integrated treatment strategy: one that uses a combination of Prozac treatment with active counseling to treat an eating disorder. But any counseling treatment should include active self-help, self-education and family therapy.

The problem is many people although on Prozac, fail to control their eating disorder while on their own after returning from the therapist or the clinic, so slip backwards.

People should not think that they can simply walk into a doctor’s office and be given a pill and that is the end of it; where suddenly the eating disorder disappears overnight.

This is a sure fire remedy for failure.

If you have been prescribed a pill (like Prozac); you should immediately seek out more education and psychological help regarding your disorder. You have to develop good strategies of self-control, self-evaluation and self-presentation. Without mastering all of these strategies you will always slip back to old eating habits despite the help of Prozac.

Self-help and self-education are important as they teach the sufferer to act while on their own at home, as the eating disorder lives with you at home and not in the doctor’s office.

I suggest you start your self-education and self-help by reading books. One of the best books about eating disorder management and treatment is at http://www.mom-please-help.com

In conclusion, it is fair to say that Prozac can be very helpful for some eating disorder sufferers, especially for those who combine it with an active behavioral treatment. But there are many others who will not benefit from it at all: due to individual specifics, wrong consumption or other reasons. So learning more about the disorder and seeking other ways to improve yourself could be the right way to win against your eating disorder.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Eating Disorders | No Comments »

Eating Disorders ? It?s Main Causes

Friday, March 12th, 2010

What is Eating disorder?

Eating disorders involve extreme disturbances in eating behaviors—following rigid diets, gorging on food in secret, throwing up after meals, obsessively counting calories. But eating disorders are more complicated than just unhealthy dietary habits. At their core, eating disorders involve distorted, self-critical attitudes about weight, food, and body image. It’s these negative thoughts and feelings that fuel the damaging behaviors.

People with eating disorders use food to deal with uncomfortable or painful emotions. Restricting food is used to feel in control. Overeating temporarily soothes sadness, anger, or loneliness. Purging is used to combat feelings of helplessness and self-loathing. Over time, people with eating disorders lose the ability to see themselves objectively and obsessions over food and weight come to dominate everything else in life.Main causes of eating disorder are:

Family problems. Some individuals with eating disorders come from disordered families. The families of anorexic patients are often characterized by extremely controlling parents and poor boundaries between the parents and the child.

Social problems. Most people who develop eating disorders report having painfully low self-esteem before the onset of their eating problems. Many patients describe going through a painful experience such as being teased about their appearance, being shunned, or going through a difficult break-up of a romantic relationship.

Major illness or injury can also result in an individual feeling extremely vulnerable or out of control. Anorexia and bulimia can be attempts to control or distract themselves from such trauma.

Self Esteem- The one trait that is obviously apparent in all sufferers of an Eating Disorder is their low self-esteem. Often they feel as though they are not good enough, that they never do anything right, that they are scrutinized by others for their appearance, and that their lives would get better if they could just lose weight. Sufferers can feel like they do not deserve to be happy, that they do not deserve good things to happen to them, and that they don’t deserve to have anything but what is felt as a miserable existence.

Gender- It is widely understood that eating disorders usually affect women, although eating disorders in males are on the rise. Because women are affected more often, being female must be considered a risk factor that cannot be controlled.

Dieting- Dieting is one behavior that deserves special attention due to its profound effect on the development of eating disorders

Genetics- Research is always looking for ways in which genetics may make eating disorders more likely. What science is learning is intriguing.

Biological factors- Temperament seems to be, at least in part, genetically determined. Some personality types (obsessive-compulsive and sensitive-avoidant, for example) are more vulnerable to eating disorders than others. New research suggests that genetic factors predispose some people to anxiety, perfectionism, and obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviors. These people seem to have more than their share of eating disorders.

Psychological factors- People with eating disorders often are legitimately angry, but because they seek approval and fear criticism, they do not dare express that anger directly. They do not know how to express it in healthy ways. They turn it against themselves by starving or stuffing.

Cultural pressures- Westernized countries characterized by competitive striving for success, and in pockets of affluence in developing countries, women often experience unrealistic cultural demands for thinness. They respond by linking self-exteem to weight.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Eating Disorders | No Comments »

Binge Eating – a Component of All Eating Disorders!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau

Binge eating is a critical component is all eating disorders, including anorexia and bulimia. Understanding binging is the key to resolving all weight-related disorders.

What is binge eating? Do we all binge occasionally? Is binging synonymous with love of food?

Binge eating is uncontrolled eating, often accompanied by shame and guilt. In other words, it is an act with full awareness as well as helplessness. Binging episodes occur quite frequently – often at least once or twice a week.

Shame and guilt often propel the resultant purging, which is getting the excessive amount of food out of the body system. Purging out of fear of weight gain is a critical component of bulimia, which is a disorder alternating between binging and purging.

Binge eating plays a pivotal role in any eating disorder, which is a psychological disorder using food to cope with disturbed emotions.

Many people have emotional problems, but they may not have an eating disorder. So how does one develop binge eating, or who are vulnerable to this disorder?

Binge eating often begins with having an unhealthy abnormal food relationship. If you ear normally, you have reduced risk of binge eating even if you do have emotional problems.

Any dieting is abnormal eating. Initially, an individual may want to control weight through dieting, but without much success. Then that individual may try one diet after another with no substantial solution to the weight problem. It is this feeling of deprivation of food (feeling the unfairness of being deprived of the joy of eating), accompanied by despair and frustration (feeling the inability to lose weight despite the efforts), which ultimately turns the individual from the diets into binge eating. As a result, cyclical eating problems develop and persist, indefinitely perpetuating the eating disorder.

Binge eating, a self-deprecating eating disorder out of subconscious fear of not being able to stop eating voluntarily, may begin in the formative years of an individual with unhealthy eating patterns, or in young adulthood as a result of incapability of handling emotional, social and environmental stress. Binge eating may also have a physiological connection with depletion of serotonin, a neurotransmitter, leading to unbalanced brain chemistry. Interestingly, many depressive patients are vulnerable to binge eating, often turning to foods to calm their nerves.

To confront someone close to you with binge eating may result in relentless control battles. It is important to understand the importance of disengaging yourself from food issues, and that striving to control someone’s eating behavior, in spite of your good intentions, may only aggravate the problem and interfere with the patient’s capacity to change.

Accepting your own limitations and removing yourself from the problem are critical to disengaging someone from binge eating. The eating-disordered individual is responsible for the consequences of eating behavior, such as over spending on food, or cleaning up the mess from vomiting. Do not make excuses for the eating-disordered individual. It is important for the individual to learn to take responsibility for the consequences of the eating behavior.

Do not proffer advice or opinions. Remember, an individual with an eating disorder is looking for approval, often a sign of anxiety or insecurity. Your reassurances or suggestions may at best provide only temporary relief. The individual must learn to develop own judgment and perception of self-worth – which are often absent in an eating-disordered individual. Just be supportive and demonstrate your love and care. Don’t play the role of a therapist!

Quite often, an eating disorder may be due to an unfilled void in one’s life. Something may be missing in one’s life, and that void needs toe be addressed in order to pave the way for recovery.

Develop a healthier relationship with the eating-disordered individual through better communication, establishing responsibilities, and respecting rights (the right to grow up, and the right to take full responsibility for one’s actions, among others).

Gradually, the eating-disordered individual will see the abnormal eating behavior patterns, and make the necessary changes or to seek professional help. Yes, this takes patience and perseverance. Don’t forget that it takes time to develop the binge eating disorder; accordingly, it may take a while to disengage oneself from that eating disorder.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Eating Disorders | No Comments »

Natural Remedies for Anxiety and Panic Disorders

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Because a lot of people today do not like taking medications for their disorders, they often opt for alternate medication for their anxiety.  This includes aromatherapy, acupuncture, herbal supplements and meditation.  These will work well if the anxiety is not severe and there is no severe underlying depression that is causing the anxiety or panic disorder.

We all get anxious once in a while – we wouldn’t be human if we did not have some anxiety in our lives.  But some people have extreme anxiety while others have mild anxiety.  The difference would be someone who suffered frequent anxiety attacks caused by an underlying condition such as obsessive compulsive disorder or panic disorder.  These conditions cannot be mixed with those who suffer from anxiety over taking a math test. 

In cases where the anxiety is not as severe to the point where it is stopping someone from doing their every day business, they may try alternate means of treatment before they resort to medications.  Some of the alternate means of treatment include:

Herbal supplements

Kava , St. John’s Wort, Valerian and Sam-e are all herbal remedies that have been known to quell minor anxiety and depression.  Kava has a very calming effect and can be taken a few days a week to help with minor anxiety.  St. John’s Wort is better in treating depression, that often accompanies anxiety.  Valerian and Sam-e of the newest herbal supplements that have shown promise in helping with anxiety attacks.  However, you should not take these supplements along with prescription remedies and if you find that they are not helping you, you  should talk to your doctor about another option.  These herbal supplements are made for those with mild to moderate anxiety and depression and not for those with severe disorders. 

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the anxiety healing art of inhaling infused oils that will get into your bloodstream and cure whatever ails you.  Aromatherapy can also be used when mixed with other oils as a massage oil. Many people swear by this type of treatment in that it does them wonders.  Again, this type of alternative therapy is made for those who have mild to moderate forms of anxiety or depression. 

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a way that some people use to rid themselves of all sorts of problems, including anxiety and depression.  Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years and can help heal aches, pains and even headaches.  Some people who suffer from depression or anxiety swear by this healing method which has its roots in ancient China. 

Meditation

Meditation is yet another way that you can help yourself overcome your anxiety attacks.  Meditation is something that has been around for thousands of years and is often associated with Hinduism or Buddhism.  But it is also very good for finding peace of mind when you are trying to relax.  You can take a class in meditation or you can watch a DVD to learn how to master this ancient eastern practice.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in anxiety | No Comments »

« Older Entries