Mindfulness Training For Eating Disorders

Most eating disorders are linked to significant amounts of stress, mood disturbance, anxiety, phobias, substance abuse, and physical complications. All these factors have to be addressed when someone is trying to overcome an eating disorder.

Mindfulness training is a technique which can help a person to cope with all these factors. Mindfulness means a calm awareness of body functions, feelings, emotions, thoughts and sensations. Mindfulness consists of paying attention to an experience of the present moment - without moving into thoughts from the past or concerns about the future. Using mindfulness training people with eating disorders can attain control over their body and mind.

What exactly does mindfulness do for the mind and body? The main benefits of mindfulness are:

1. Calm and quiet the mind. This will bring more happiness, joy, positive feelings, appreciation and gratitude into people's lives. It will also increase kindness to yourself and others which is necessary for ED sufferers as they often behave badly to themselves and others due to their conditioning.

2. Diminish the grip of habitual responses that cause suffering. ED sufferers all have certain habitual responses to their feelings, thoughts and emotions. For example, bulimics have habits to binge-purge at a certain time a day; anorexics have strict habits and routines about their diets and exercising.
Mindfulness can diminish these habitual behaviours to the point that the sufferer is able to choose how she/he is going to behave at a particular moment.

For example, instead of realizing 10-30 minutes later that you've been lost in bad thoughts about your body, weight, food, your bad memories or fantasies from the past, a person can stop themselves after only 30-60 seconds from wandering thoughts using mindfulness training. With practise, people can increasingly observe these habitual responses and choose to respond in other more constructive ways.

3. Develop a stronger "observing self". This means to observe what one does. It is like you having a third person who sits inside your own chest and constantly watches what you do.

Mindfulness makes a person become an observer of what one does, thinks and feels. This helps to have better control over their eating disorder thoughts and behaviours.

For example, when a person gets stressed, instead of reaching for alcohol or going on a binge -purge cycle, the person could simply sit and observe the negative emotions and sensations which were brought on by the stress until they are gone.

Unlike relaxation techniques mindfulness can be developed to the point where it can be practiced in the middle of stressful situations. So instead of reacting to stress a person starts to respond wisely. While being mindful a person can still remain alert and respond appropriately to the situation at hand, instead of being over powered by it.

4. Slow down the pace of thoughts and become more attune to the present moment. Eating disorder people often complain that they have too much continual inner "chatter" and images from the past or from the future in their minds.

This chatter and images don't simply go away, because that's the nature of the human mind. But they can be settled down with practice. This settling down of the mental processes brings relaxation and freedom.

With practice one will have the ability to choose what to think about instead of being dragged along with uncontrolled thoughts and feelings. This effect can be experience after just 8-12 minutes of mindfulness state of mind. So, if one practices mindful awareness at least 10 -15 min a day, it may possible for him/her to choose what to think instead of their thoughts going uncontrolled.

Mindfulness will also increase your concentration letting you perform task , study and work with better accuracy. It also improves the immune system and general health. It regulates the autonomic nervous system which control automatic functions of the body organs. Mindfulness is a great anti- aging factor as it improves metabolism of the cells.

Most eating disorder sufferers who practice mindfulness training find it an incredible tool to beat their problem right at root of the disorder, in the subconscious mind.

Autor: Irina Webster

Dr Irina Webster MD is the Director of Women Health Issues Program. She is a recognised authority in the eating disorders area. She is the author of the published book "Cure Your Eating Disorder: 5 Step Program to Cure Your Brain". To learn more about mindfulness training for Eating Disorders go to http://meditation-sensation.com

Added: December 6, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Eating Disorders - Does My Anorexic Daughter Need to Leave College and Come Home?

If your daughter is away at college and has an eating disorder, you have every reason to be concerned. You also have every right to intervene if you feel it is necessary for her to be closer to home. She may not agree, but you have to do what you feel is best for her and her health.

Here are three indications she may need to come home or attend a college closer to home:

1) She is engaged in treatment and after several months is showing no signs of improvement or continues to regress further into eating disorder behavior.

2) Other people like her college friends are starting to contact you because they are so concerned.

3) You, your daughter and her treatment team have set a date where a certain amount of measurable progress must be made. That date arrives and she has not been able to meet her goals.

Let's define some the terms; "a few months" and "progress." A few months can be 3 months or it can be 6 months, depending upon her health. It can mean one month if her doctor says she is in physical danger.

What does progress look like? Keep in mind the eating disorder has your daughter trapped and beaten down and will not give up easily. You cannot measure progress only in terms of weight gain. Just because she is only maintaining her weight or is not gaining weight does not automatically mean she is stuck and needs to come home.

You have to evaluate issues on multiple levels and consider every aspect of your daughter's personhood. Most likely you cannot answer these questions without feedback from those involved with her care.

Here are some examples in considering her overall personhood:

- Her relationships - Is she still isolating? Is she opening up a bit more with you about the eating disorder behavior and what is going on inside of her?

- Her mood - Has her anxiety or depression decreased since she began therapy?

- Her mental state - Does she seem any less obsessed with food, calories, weight, etc? Is she more able to concentrate on school because the eating disorder is loosening its grip on her mind?

- Her interests - Is she allowing things back into her life that she abandoned because the eating disorder consumed all of her time and energy?

Two more things to consider before making this decision are:

1) Has she made enough progress that her removal from the treatment team she knows and trusts would be more detrimental than helpful?

2) Is she physically and emotionally healthy enough to remain where she is, without more support from you?

Parents are often forced to abdicate total care of their daughters to professionals. I'm not slamming professionals, I am one. I want to give you permission as her parent, the one who knows her best, to get as involved as possible in her recovery. The amount of involvement depends upon what you, your daughter, the school and her treatment team can agree on and negotiate.

All I'm saying is you don't have to sit back and watch if your daughter is battling an eating disorder. Advocate for yourselves and for her. She may resist at first, but she needs you. She may need you differently than if she were still an adolescent living at home, but she still needs you.

Autor: Lynn A Moore

Do you want to learn more about eating disorders? If so, download my free e-book "Eating Disorder Basics for Parents" here: http://www.why-my-daughter.com/edb.html.

Lynn Moore educates, coaches, and consults parents on how to help their adolescent with eating disorder behavior. She will guide you through the treacherous waters of deciding what kind of help you need and what you, the parents need to do and can do to help your child.

Added: December 5, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Anorexia - A Growing Problem in Society

Around one percent of the population is believed to suffer from anorexia, and it causes devastation to their lives and the lives of those around them. Sadly, it has one of the highest death rates of any mental disorder as it is incredibly difficult to successfully treat.

Anorexia goes far beyond a normal desire to be thin, they have a very distorted perception of their weight. Even when their body mass becomes dangerously low it is impossible for them to look in the mirror and see themselves as anything other than fat. Anorexia completely takes over the sufferers life and everything starts to revolve around losing weight. This will predominantly be restricting calorie intake to an excessive degree, but they may also take laxatives. A person with this disorder may also exercise to extremes which is particularly dangerous in light of the fact they are not receiving sufficient nutrients and protein to function normally.

Over time, the lack of food starts to have serious effects on the body. Menstruation will stop, they will struggle to concentrate, downy hair grows over the body and bones become brittle. As the sufferer effectively starves themselves the heart is unable to function correctly and in extreme case of anorexia will eventually fail.

There is a strong correlation between certain personality traits and the likelihood of developing an eating disorder such as anorexia. Sufferers are usually intelligent, high flying achievers with a tendency towards being obsessed with perfectionism or routine. They are usually very introverted and may come from a family environment which is supportive of academic achievement but perhaps falls short when discussing emotional problems.

Combined with any traumatic life events such as a bereavement, stress such as imminent exams or personal problems such as being bullied, the person is at greater risk of developing anorexia. Because of the complex emotional issues involved when treating anorexia it is best to tackle it in the early stages, to make a good recovery more likely.

Autor: Leanne Williams

Leanne Williams is very interested in writing articles about health, but also writes about children's products. More recent articles include buying a kids digital camera and the specifications of different brands of childrens digital camera.

Added: December 3, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/