A Three-Way Approach To The Treatment Of Anorexia?

Answer 1

Anorexia Nervosa is one of the most prevalent of all known eating disorders, and those who suffer from this condition manipulate their eating habits without regard for their health or wellbeing with the single objective of losing weight.

Several types of treatments have been developed to combat this pervasive disease, and these can be separated into at least three different categories. As anorexia nervosa is a condition that has both physical and psychological implications - sufferers usually reduce their food intake to lose weight and increase their self esteem - the best approach is generally a melding of two of the three treatments: the medical and the psychological. The third treatment type is more informational and mainly serves to teach patients about good nutrition.

The medical treatments that have been designed to combat anorexia aim mostly at dealing with the physical symptoms that are in evidence when the disorder is first discovered. Patients can, for instance, be extremely malnourished and can also be suffering from ancillary conditions including abdominal bloating, severely dry skin and debilitating headaches.

The treatments that combat the psychological aspects of the disorder include, among others, counseling and therapy, and, here, the first priority is to convince the patient that their self esteem does not depend entirely upon their perception of their physical attractiveness as based on how much they weigh. Patients can - and should - attend both individual and group therapy sessions, and they should concentrate on both improving their self esteem and learning new ways of coping with stressful events.

Trained dieticians are usually the people who are in charge of teaching anorexia nervosa sufferers all about how to improve their nutritional intake. Once the disorder has been identified and any relevant physical conditions have been treated, what remains is to help the patient gain back the weight they have lost. Patients have to re-learn correct eating habits, and this usually takes quite a while as their level of success depends on the rate at which their therapy sessions are progressing.

Anorexia nervosa is a virulent and deadly disease, but the treatment options do work, and, given enough time, sufferers can be totally cured.