For people showing signs of bulimia nervosa and trying to begin treatment, there are several ways they can get help for that concern. Most importantly, for intensive bulimia nervosa recovery options, there are facilities that can help them. However, the methods of treatments can go far beyond the reductions of symptoms of bulimia nervosa and have a major impact on people’s lives. Treating the disorder, but also treating each client as a person first and helping them build good emotional health and coping skills, can make the difference between a relapse and a full recovery. That’s why seeking out treatment for any eating disorder is so important, because it can reduce the problems that the individual undergoing treatment experiences in other areas of their life. Emotional strength, confidence, and the logically consider life choices and make them mindfully are traits that can be taught and encouraged, and they can all be important building blocks for a life free from bulimia nervosa. Everyone has goals, passions, and dreams. Some of those things may have been put on hold when they’re in the grip of an eating disorder. By engaging with the life-enhancing treatment options available at quality bulimia nervosa treatment centers, recovered clients can regain not only a healthier lifestyle but a path back towards those goals. It’s never too late to start realizing those dreams again. Through becoming fully recovered from bulimia nervosa, patients can refocus their lives on other things and get back into doing the kinds of activities that they might have enjoyed in the past.
1. Removing Binge-and-Purge Cycles
One of the biggest things bulimia nervosa recovery will focus on is helping to remove the compulsive urges to binge eat and subsequently purge. These behaviors are often a coping mechanism for an underlying cause like depression. That’s why behavior-altering therapy is so important to people who are being treated for bulimia nervosa. They need the opportunity to explore the causes of the disorder, so they can focus on addressing them directly and with clear eyes. The newfound coping skills gained in therapy for eating disorders are vital for avoiding self-destructive thoughts and behaviors. Treatment for an eating disorder certainly focuses on the issue at hand, but it’s also interested in finding the root cause of the problem and how it’s affecting people in a larger sense. When patients learn confidence and control in one area, they’re often able to apply those lessons to other aspects of life, making a holistic recovery. That extends these new life skills beyond treatment and helps them continue to grow as people.
2. Focusing on Progress in a Controlled Environment
Among the ways that bulimia nervosa recovery can help is by providing a controlled environment in which to prepare for a return to the chaos of everyday life. This is most common with inpatient treatment, but can also be successful for people visiting bulimia nervosa treatment centers that offer outpatient or day treatment services. Having a controlled environment is important because it removes stressors and triggers for disordered actions, and allows for a focused period where only the disorder is considered. This period is perfect for teaching life skills like meditation and mindful decision making. The skills that are learned during the time in that environment go a long way toward keeping the recovery on track. Tending to the soul as well as the body is part of the recovery from bulimia nervosa, and it’s one of the things that Oliver-Pyatt Centers put an emphasis on. Especially during residential treatment, clients will always be in the right environment to tend to their needs and work toward their recovery goals. As they do that, they find a higher level of value in their life and build their confidence so they can go out into the world more boldly. Becoming fully recovered is often about more than just the symptoms and signs of bulimia nervosa.
3. Learning to Become Secure and Comfortable with Your Body
The teaching and implementation of therapeutic tools like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) or nutritional therapy in bulimia nervosa treatment centers is a very important part of the overall treatment process. They allow people in treatment to get in touch with the way they perceive themselves and identify flawed or disordered thinking. Treatment centers that help people focus on their own security and comfort also show them how their disorder has changed their thinking. They can take this knowledge to rehabilitate their self-image, as well as how to apply these skills any other life concerns they may still have. Therapeutic tools are generally self-esteem boosters, which also helps people feel secure. If the cycle of binge eating and then purging brought a warped sense of comfort to the client, finding new ways to feel comforted will naturally reduce the urges to binge and purge. Because of that, these tools are excellent ways to help the individual simply live a better and more fulfilling life that they can enjoy and appreciate. Restoring the sense of security in daily life and any feelings of comfort about their body lost through their disorder is rewarding for both the client and professionals helping them.
4. Learning How to Accept Help from Professionals
Recovery from bulimia nervosa is something anyone should try to do alone. Having professionals who can help makes things easier, and an experienced staff at a treatment center, preferably those who are recovered personally, can make the difference. They’ve been through the same issue – and they know what to do and how to help. Professionals who treat eating disorders want to see their clients repair the damage done to the soul as well as the body by bulimia nervosa, and they want to see their clients live their best lives. When a recovered eating disorder treatment professional interacts with a client, they can add a touch of personal knowledge. By connecting with professionals, the client receiving treatment can get the support they need to succeed in both the long term and the short term of inpatient treatment. Personalized, empathetic treatment from people who’ve devoted their lives to passing on their knowledge about bulimia nervosa recovery means a more effective way to take your life back. By finding people who understand the journey and who are dedicated to a therapeutic approach that is kind, but also helpful, emotional, spiritual, and physical wellbeing can be secured. Many people with eating disorders don’t want to discuss them – by learning more about how to be helped, clients can also learn how to depend on the help that only pros can provide.
5. Understanding the Value of Every Person
One of the most important things that a bulimia nervosa treatment center can teach an individual is value. There is value in every person, and value in every experience. All too often, an eating disorder can begin a cycle of devaluation in which a person’s low self-esteem drives disordered behavior, which in turn fuels low self-esteem. With that in mind, seeking treatment for bulimia nervosa will help show a client their value and everything they have to offer to themselves and others going forward. A key to this is reminding the client that there can be a bright future. Their disorder may have convinced them that enjoying life and feeling good about themselves is impossible, but as they move toward being fully recovered they’ll see that’s not the case. With a human-centered approach that sees a client as more than just their disorder, Oliver-Pyatt Centers can help patients reclaim their value and positively refocus their thoughts. This allows for improved self-image, self-worth, and boosts confidence in both eating disorder recovery and other aspects of daily life. Tending to their soul as well as to their body sends individuals on a journey of healing and wellness.
6. Replacing Negative Thoughts and Actions with Positive Ones
Bulimia nervosa and truly any mental health disorder can derail a person’s life. Disordered thoughts and feelings have a way of becoming compulsive, and detract more positive ones from a person’s life. There may be times in life where there is more stress than at other times. Because of that, people with eating disorders may increasingly fall back on their disordered behaviors as a coping mechanism, like a person with bulimia nervosa increasing the frequency of their binging and purging episodes. This is very important to consider because anyone who is focused on becoming fully recovered will have ups and downs in life just like everyone else. In short, people in bulimia nervosa recovery must develop new coping mechanisms other than binge eating episodes and the following purging. The more integrated these positive coping mechanisms are in their behavior, the easier it will be for them to stay fully recovered once their treatment is complete. Something as simple as a five-minute meditation centering themselves at a time of stress can deflect urges to binge-eat and purge. A fully recovered staff at a facility knows the coping skills that they use, and they know what works for them and for others who have been along the journey. They can act as living proof that positive coping skills can lead to a happier, healthier, recovered life.
7. Gaining Confidence in Your Own Future
Avoiding fatalism and encouraging confidence in a happier, recovered life is part of what an eating disorder treatment center should instill in their patients. By setting recovery goals and working toward them, clients in recovery can have confidence that they have something to look forward to. Each success, each time an urge to engage in disordered actions is avoided, each meal eaten in company, each day without purging – these are stepping stones to a better future. Starting to set goals during recovery is important, as the patient has more to look forward to and a plan for what they’re going to do when treatment is complete. But that’s not all that should be considered. The development of confidence is about more than becoming fully recovered, and about more than just setting goals. It’s about an internal understanding that each person is not only capable of a recovered life, but is worth a happy, recovered life. They don’t need to binge and purge, because there are plenty of other things in life that bring them more joy. Eating disorder treatment helps people become fully recovered from their disorder, but it also teaches them self-value and self-confidence. These are keys to a positive outlook on life and the pursuit of a better future.