One of the truths it is important to understand is that our thoughts lead to emotions, and our emotions then lead to behavior. What does this look like when your daughter binges and purges?
For example, your daughter goes to school and evaluates her worth based on body size and physical attractiveness. She looks at all the girls who are thin, blond and beautiful...which I hear often by the way. When she compares herself, she never measures up in her mind.
Her first thought may be, "I could never look like that." Deep down within however, she may have a thought that says, "Maybe you could, you just have to stop eating." Or "You could be thin if you throw up whatever you eat." Notice the response to the first thought is not necessarily hers. It is in the third person and is commonly called ED for eating disorder.
Before we get too far down the chain of thoughts though, let's look at the emotion that follows that very first thought. "I could never look like that," could evoke many different emotions. For example: shame, disgust, disappointment, rejection, fear, hurt and depression are just a few. So first comes the thought, then the emotion.
In this situation she may feel rejected and disgust toward herself after the initial thought. Part of the problem is she does not know what to do or how to handle these emotions and that is why she turns to eating disorder behavior. It is a good distraction and it is more comfortable and within her control to think about how to avoid the next meal or plan where she can purge.
The behavior is in the planning stage because she is thinking and experiencing emotions that lead to the binge and/or purging behavior. The binge/purge does not happen in a manner of minutes like your daughter may believe. It can begin at any point, follow a familiar chain of thoughts and emotions and culminate in the eating disordered behavior.
The goal then is to identify the thoughts and emotions that lead to the binge/purge and to intervene as early as possible. Once the thoughts and emotions are identified, your daughter will learn she has more power, control and choice over her behavior than she realizes.
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: January 24, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
RSS Feed (xml)
No comments:
Post a Comment