Eating Disorder Treatment | Serenity Wellness & Counseling | Cypress

Has An Eating Disorder Made You Feel Alone And Unworthy Of Love?

Are you struggling with an eating disorder and you don’t know where to turn for help? Do you feel alone and misunderstood? Does it seem like no one in your life can give you the support you need?

When you’re dealing with an eating disorder, it often feels like there’s a little voice in your head telling you that you’re not worthy or loveable. You may overeat or undereat to cope with painful emotions. Perhaps family and friends don’t understand what you’re going through. They may ask you “Why can’t you just eat more?” or say “It’s just food,” as if your struggles aren’t a big deal.

You May Suffer From Anorexia, Binge-Eating, Emotional Eating, Or Another Disorder

Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes. Maybe you find emotional relief in food and binge-eating seems to help you calm down. Or perhaps you have a restrictive eating disorder and are extremely limited in what you can eat. If you have perfectionist tendencies or negative body-image, you may suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Your desire to lose weight may drive you to engage in purging, fasting, and even self-induced vomiting.

If you or your child or loved one struggles with an eating disorder, we would be honored to work with you. Here at Serenity Wellness & Counseling, our goal is to help you improve your body-image and change your relationship to food.

Eating Disorders Often Arise As A Way To Deal With Suffering And Lack Of Control

Eating disorders affect people of every age, race, gender, and background. Approximately eight million Americans struggle with an eating disorder—about seven million are women and one million are men.[1] The causes of eating disorders vary from person to person. Some people may be prone to unhealthy eating habits because of genetics, brain chemistry, or childhood trauma.

Oftentimes, lack of control is at the root of eating disorders. For instance, a child who grows up with overly strict parents may feel like they don’t have control over their life. Similarly, a child whose parents are divorcing may also feel helpless about their situation. As a result, they may obsess over their body because it’s all they have control over. In this way, eating disorders usually arise to make up for a lack of something in someone’s life.

Today’s Unrealistic Beauty Standards Cause Many People To Suffer From Negative Body-Image

In the social media age, we are bombarded by images of beautiful models and celebrities who appear to have perfect bodies. The internet is loaded with Tik Toks and advice columns about dieting, staying in shape, and getting the perfectly-toned stomach. When people fail to live up to the culture’s unrealistic standards, they often spiral down and worry that they don’t look good enough. And when this happens, eating disorders are all but inevitable.

If you want to overcome your eating disorder and improve your self-esteem, we encourage you to connect with us. Our mission is to validate you and support you unconditionally on your journey of recovery and empowerment.

Eating Disorder Treatment Can Help You Break Out Of Limiting Behaviors And Live The Life You’ve Always Wanted

Let’s face it: there may be numerous times when loved ones who tried to help you only made things worse. Perhaps they told you “Why can’t you just take a bite?” or “Why don’t you just exercise more?” Comments like this are hurtful and probably just make you want to isolate more. When you have an eating disorder, simply eating more or changing your lifestyle is not as easy as it sounds.

After all, you may know what you have to do to fix your situation, but sometimes knowing the answers isn’t enough. That’s why our approach to counseling goes beyond surface solutions. We want to figure out the root cause of your eating disorder and address the emotional wounds driving it. At Serenity Wellness & Counseling, we understand that an eating disorder is not a choice and we seek to provide a compassionate, judgment-free environment in which to share your struggles.

What To Expect In Sessions

After establishing an atmosphere of safety and comfort, you and your therapist will assess the level of care required for your recovery journey. How motivated are you to achieve your goals? Is therapy appropriate for you, or is a more serious form of intervention needed? Do you have a care team in place? If not, how willing are you to secure one? These are all questions that we can answer together.

Most importantly, we want to help you strengthen your support system and get connected to new resources. Ideally, you would work with a nutritionist, doctor, and psychiatrist in addition to seeing a counselor. This will help you achieve healing in every area of your life. And if you have a child or loved one struggling with an eating disorder, we will work on helping you increase your supervision of their meals.

Tailoring Your Treatment Plan

Eating disorders have a way of encouraging “all-or-nothing” thinking. For instance, if you’re struggling with overeating, you may feel like you’ve lost all hope as soon as you eat a big meal. It’s as if one false move means you might as well give up. That’s why our practice draws heavily from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

At its core, CBT seeks to help you reverse negative thought patterns and overcome the pitfalls of all-or-nothing thinking. Instead of telling yourself, “If I eat a full meal, I will gain weight and no one will love me,” you can learn to see things from a more balanced perspective. CBT can help you see that relapses are normal and a step back is not the end of the world.

Our practice also draws from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), which is about implementing new structure and routines into your life, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which can help you identify core values and commit to changing your lifestyle. All three of the modalities we use can be tailored to your needs, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

An eating disorder can make your life feel limited and your whole world small. Therapy is a chance to break your limitations and live the life you’ve always desired. Whether you or a loved one is suffering from an eating disorder, we believe that our approach to treatment can provide the encouragement and compassion you’ve been missing.

You May Have Some Concerns About Eating Disorder Treatment…

I’m worried that therapy will cost too much.

Although therapy is an investment, it’s important to consider how much time, money, and energy you’ve already invested in your eating disorder. In the long run, counseling can save you the trouble of having to deal with an eating disorder for years to come. It’s an investment with potentially lifelong benefits. What’s more, we offer a sliding-scale fee so that therapy is affordable for virtually anyone.

How long will recovery take?

Everyone’s timetable of recovery looks different. The important thing is to be patient with yourself—you are worth your recovery. What matters is that you heal, not how long it takes to get there. Our therapists are experienced in helping clients navigate the transitional struggles of recovering from an eating disorder. For instance, if you overcome anorexia, you’re likely to gain a little weight. This could lead to body-image issues, which may reorient the focus of sessions. Recovery is an ongoing process and it doesn’t need a definite end date.

I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to recovery.

It’s okay if you’re hesitant about therapy. Your eating disorder has probably been voicing negative thoughts and driving your behavior for a while. Letting go of that voice can be like grieving the loss of a relationship—it takes a while to figure out who you are without it. But if you’re reading this page, that shows that there is at least some desire to change. Therapy is a chance to explore that desire and decide if you’re ready for recovery. There is no pressure to commit right away.

Your World Doesn’t Have To Feel Small Anymore

Whether you’re dealing with anorexia, bulimia, food addiction, or any other type of eating disorder, we believe treatment can help you get on the path to recovery. To contact us, you can call 281-944-SWCC for a free 15-minute phone consultation.

[1] https://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm