Eating disorders can directly affect a person’s mental and physical health. An eating disorder is not a lifestyle choice but a diagnosable mental health disorder. Seeking treatment as early as you can for an eating disorder is the best course of action as this provides the best chance of recovery. A residential eating disorder treatment program can help you with both treatment and recovery and get you to the long-term goal of healthy eating. The Crossroads team can answer any questions you have about residential eating disorder treatment, so give them a call at 877.978.1667 today.
Mental Health and Eating Disorders
Eating disorders affect the mind, body, and soul. They involve unhealthy eating behaviors, thoughts, and emotions that can further aggravate eating patterns. There are different kinds of eating disorders, and they each manifest themselves differently. At Crossroads, we treat:
- Bulimia
- Anorexia
- Binge eating
While most commonly diagnosed among women, eating disorders affect millions of women and men, not just teenage girls.
Do You Need Eating Disorder Treatment?
One of the best ways to determine whether you or a loved one are at risk from an eating disorder is to take an honest look at your behaviors. For instance, you can ask yourself these simple questions to determine whether your behaviors surrounding food are unhealthy:
- Do you often make yourself feel sick or uncomfortably full after you’ve eaten?
- Are you worried that you have lost control over your eating habits?
- Have you lost more than fourteen pounds in three months?
- Do you believe that you are overweight when others say you are too skinny?
- Do thoughts of foods or behaviors surrounding food dominate your life?
Answering “yes” to two or more of the questions indicates that you may be at risk.
Knowing It’s Time to Seek Treatment for An Eating Disorder
It can be difficult to admit that you or a loved one needs treatment for an eating disorder. It’s essential to educate yourself and understand the potential warning signs. These signs include:
- Always having an excuse for why you’re not eating
- Excessive eating that is uncharacteristic and noticeable to others
- Constantly talking about weight or losing weight
- An overabundance of bathroom trips during a meal
- Taking laxatives or dietary supplements
- Being embarrassed or depressed about your eating habits
- Damage to teeth and scrapes on knuckles from regular self-induced vomiting
If you recognize these or other signs of an eating disorder, getting help is paramount. Seek the guidance of a doctor or other trusted medical professional to get you into the right kind of treatment program to address your unique needs. Please don’t be ashamed to seek out the help and support you need. Doing so can change your life for the better.
Find Mental Health and Eating Disorder Treatment at Crossroads
Successful recovery from an eating disorder requires professional medical help, ideally through an intensive outpatient or residential eating disorder treatment program. Crossroads in Maine offers programs designed for women to help those struggling to achieve lifelong recovery. We believe in gender-responsive models, as we know that women do not always have the same struggles as men do. Crossroads also offers a very integrated care model to address eating disorders and addiction through a dual diagnosis program. Each condition can be managed side by side throughout every step of treatment.
We want to help the women we treat by helping them understand the underlying causes of their eating disorders. Therefore, eating disorder treatment at Crossroads may include treatments such as:
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Trauma therapy
- Medical nutrition therapy
- Motivational interviewing
Give the Crossroads team a call today at 877.978.1667 to get all the information you need on mental health and eating disorder treatment.
