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Paying for in-patient eating disorder treatment can be challenging for some individuals in the best of economic times but in today’s economy it can be nearly impossible.

For over a decade, Rosewood Center for Eating Disorder’s mission has been to make treatment for eating disorders accessible to everyone no matter what their economic standing is.

At Rosewood, we work directly with insurance providers to determine insurance eligibility prior to admission and we accept 3rd party payment for treatment. Our team of case managers and insurance specialists develop the treatment plan and level of service that will serve the patient best based on their individual needs.

We offer a complete continuum of care for men and women at Rosewood, from our Intensive In-patient program to our more affordable, Intensive Outpatient Program with Transitional Housing.  We design the treatment program around the patient’s immediate needs.

The National Eating Disorders Association, NEDA publishes a free survivial guide affording treatment, you can access it here, NEDA Eating Disorder Survival Guide

What Coaches, Parents, and Teammates Need to Know:

In a study of Division 1 NCAA athletes, over one-third of female athletes reported attitudes and symptoms placing them at risk for anorexia nervosa. Though most athletes with eating disorders are female, male athletes are also at risk–especially those competing in sports that tend to place an emphasis on the athlete’s diet, appearance, size, and weight requirements.

Involvement in organized sports can offer many benefits, such as improved self-esteem and body image and encouragement for individuals to remain active throughout their lives.  Athletic competition, however, can also cause severe psychological and physical stress.  When the pressures of athletic competition are added to an existing cultural emphasis on thinness, the risks increase for athletes to develop disordered eating.  In a study of Division 1 NCAA athletes, over one-third of female athletes reported attitudes and symptoms placing them at risk– especially those competing in sports that tend to place an emphasis on the athlete’s diet, appearance, size and weight requirements, such as wrestling, bodybuilding, crew, running, and football.

Risk Factors for Athletes:

• Sports that emphasize appearance or weight requirements. For example:gymnastics, diving, bodybuilding or wrestling- i.e. wrestlers trying to “make weight”.
• Sports that focus on the individual rather than the entire team.  For example:gymnastics, running, figure skating, dance or diving, vs. basketball or soccer.
• Endurance sports. For example: track and field running, swimming.
• Inaccurate belief that lower body weight will improve performance.
• Training for a sport since childhood or becoming an elite athlete.
• Low self-esteem, family dysfunction, families with eating disorders, chronic dieting, history of physical or sexual abuse, peer, family and cultural pressures to be thin, and other traumatic life experiences.
• Coaches who focus only on success and performance rather than on the athlete as a whole person.

Three factors have been thought to contribute to the odds that a person will be dissatisfied with his or her body: social influences, performance anxiety and the athlete’s self appraisal.

Protective Factors for Athletes:

• Positive, person-oriented coaching style rather than negative, performance oriented coaching style.
• Social influence and support from teammates with healthy attitudes towards size and shape.
• Coaches who emphasize factors that contribute to personal success such as motivation and enthusiasm rather than body weight or shape.

The Female Athlete Triad includes:

• Disordered eating
• Loss of menstrual periods
• Osteoporosis (loss of calcium resulting in weak bones).  The lack of nutrition resulting from disordered eating can cause the loss of several or more consecutive periods, this in turn leads to calcium and bone loss, putting the athlete at greatly increased risk for stree fractures of the bones.  Each of these conditions is a medical concern.  Together they create serious health risks that may be life threatening.  While any female athlete can develop the triad, adolescent girls are most at risk because of the active biological changes and growth spurts, peer and social pressures, and rapidly changing life circumstances that go along with the teenage years. Males may also develop similiar syndromes.

The International Olympic Committee has published recommendations for reducing the risk of the Female Athlete Triad, click here for the link to the report.

This article is courtesy of the National Eating Disorder Association.

Dara Torres

For athletes, being thin means more than succumbing to pressure from fashion magazines and the media. Much more.  Making your weight to increasing your speed, the pressure for athletes to keep their weight at a certain level equates to pleasing coaches and securing a victory.

Even though men are not immune from eating disorders, by and large, the majority of eating disorder cases affect females. Most often, it strikes females in late adolescent and college years and comes in the form of anorexia nervosa or bulimia.  According to the organization Athletes with Eating Disorders, female athletes are at a double risk for developing an eating disorder.  Female athletes that participate in sports that value appearance and a lean body like figure skating or gymnastics, are more prone to an eating disorder.

Dara Torres is a 41 year old Olympic swimmer, currently competing in Beijing. In a recent interview, she openly discusses the pressure to be think and make weight as a swimmer back in her college years.  When the scales were tipping too high for her coaches likes, a friend in her dormitory showed Dara how to purge.

Dara’s bulimialasted for about 5 years and during those years she competed in the 1988 Olympics and was ranked Number 1 in the world for 100 freestyle. Dara placed 7th in the 1988 Olympics.  When she decided to try out for the 1992 Olympics team, she realized that she could never make it if she continued on with her bulimia.  Even though she was making weight, she had no energy. So Dara decided to quit. Just like that. Cold Turkey.

Fast forward to today, 16 years and one pregnancylater and you have Dara’s inspiring physical and mental condition sending a clear message to all of us, including her young daughter.  If you treat your body with respect and protection, its power can surpass your wildest expectations.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

The British Times On-line featured a story this week about British athlete Allie Outram who recently published her memoir “Running on Empty”.  The book describes Outram’s struggles with anorexia and bulimia and how her eating disorder and intense training regimens nearly killed her.  The former Olympic long distance runner developed anorexia in her teens.  She spent two years in an inpatient hospital setting being treated for her eating disorders but later developed bulimia while in recovery from anorexia.  According to Outram, she isn’t alone in her struggles.  In fact, she says, the athletic community and the nature of sports not only helped to conceal and legitimize her disorder, it also encouraged it:

“At one World Cross Country Championship, I can confidently say that, of six of us in the Great Britain junior women’s team, four had some form of eating disorder,” said Outram. “It is so common in the sport, yet no coach or team manager ever expressed concern.  I was never told that I was too thin, and was never withdrawn from a race because of my weight.”

“Outside of sport, people would think I ate too little and exercised too much, but within athletics my behavior was not only accepted but endorsed and encouraged,” she said. “There are lots of others like me so it was easy to hide.”

Last year a study was published in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal, which revealed that almost one in five of Britain’s leading female distance runners has an eating disorder or has suffered from one in the the past, compared with just one percent of the general population.  Last month. researchers at the University of Denver revealed that female athletes and exercisers tend to exhibit eating disorder symptoms more often than those who don’t exercise as regularly.  At least one-third of female athletes have some type of disordered eating according to studies done completed by eating disorder experts.

Athletes who have spoken openly about their personal journey with eating disorder are Charlotte Dale, a former European junior cross-country champion, and Bryony and Kathryn Frost, 24.  The Frost twins were considered track medal contenders at the 2012 Olympics, but last year revealed how they survived on just a few pieces of fruit a day.  Liz McColgan counts her second place finish in the run-up to the 1988 Seoul Olympics to her low body weight and eating disorder. “I was so weak and undernourished that I didn’t have the energy to sprint for the line,” she said.  Kimiko Hirai Soldati, a 2004 Olympic diver, struggled with bulimia and now performs public speaking programs to other women to create awareness about eating disorders.  Gymnast and Olympic gold medal winner Nadia Comaneci come forward and admitted struggling with anorexia and bulimia, along with 1972 Olympic gold medal winner Cathy Rigby, who suffered from anorexia and bulimia for 12 years and went into cardiac arrest twice because of it.

These females athletes are the lucky ones. They admitted they had a problem and got the professional help they needed at eating disorder treatment centers. Eating Disorders is a deadly disease however.  World class gymnast, Christy Henrich, died in 1994 at age 22 from multiple organ failure brought on by anorexia.  Seven years later, German rower and 1988 Seoul Olympic eight time gold medallist, Bahne Rabe, died at age 37 as a result of an eating disorder.  And in 2003, Helen Lee, a former Middlesex county and South of England cross-country champion died at the age of 18 from pneumonia and organ failure thought to be a direct result of her long-term battle with anorexia.

Eating disorders are liable to be considered “women’s disorders.” In our society, men are not allowable to show the weakness of having mental health disorders, much less suffer from eating disorders. In view of the fact that men and eating disorders is a problem, they virtually always keep this a painful secret. According to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Disorders, men comprise about one million Americans who are ill with from eating disorders.

When the problem of men and eating disorders comes up, and the men do see their doctors for help, physicians will take a detailed medical history. They more often than not discover that the disorder began to appear as teen-agers. An adolescent peer group can be incredibly emotionally harsh; “fat boys” are made fun of and isolated from others. The social pressure to be thin is overwhelming in the midst of today’s teens.

Men and eating disorders describe both anorexic and bulimic behavior as adolescents. On top to starving themselves, they play sports and exercise greatly just as teen-age girls and grown women do. “Boys don’t get fat” unenlightened pediatricians tell mothers. “He’s just got some baby fat that will get away on its own.” But it doesn’t, and trouble eating isn’t supposed to happen in men.

Do Men and Eating Disorders Boast the Same Symptoms as Women?

Yes, but with one exceptionally important difference. People of either gender can develop an eating disorder, and they remain their eating behavior secret. Men and eating disorders is a topic which sort of ties that knot of secrecy even tighter. As adults, they are nearly always morbidly obese. They don’t socialize with others, in particular women. They hardly ever date or get married.

Eating disorders, in the midst of either gender, aren’t a matter of conceit; wanting to fit into a smaller pair of jeans. In truth, eating disorders don’t really have anything to do with food! What drives men with eating disorders is a must to be in control of something, anything. They don’t do well expressing emotions, are perfectionists, and don’t tolerate themselves to be less than perfect and have an extremely seated self-loathing. The one thing men can at all times control is the amount of food they permit themselves to eat. The bathroom scale becomes their worldly enemy.

More Possible Causes

Some researchers have lately found that genetic factors may be the reason why a probable more than half of the population may develop the risk of contracting anorexia nervosa and more studies on the genetics of bulimia in addition to binge eating are ongoing.

Another cause of eating disorder may be personality of the person which is at least partially genetically determined and there are a number of personality types like the obsessive-compulsive or sensitive-avoidant who are additionally at risk of having an eating disorder, than are other people.

There is also one more point worth considering when judgment about the cause of eating disorder and that is that hormones that are produced when a person is stressed aid to form fat cells. In particular, in Western civilizations where life is competitive, quick paced as well as challenging and full of stress there may be a connection between this type of modern lifestyle and the increased instances of overeating.

A lot of people join an eating disorder and the media for the way those suffering are portrayed in the press. With the fashion industry apparently pushing for smaller and skinnier models and the press portraying them as something out of the ordinary, there is plenty of responsibility for an eating disorder and the media can be partially responsible.

In Spain, the country recently placed a bare minimum weight on models, recognizing that serious health problems can increase from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating. Spain’s legislators claimed many of the models were torment from an eating disorder and the media was helping push that unhealthy trend.

Whether other countries will go after Spain’s lead will depend on how the fashion industry reacts to charges of pushing the satisfactoriness of an eating disorder and the media’s reaction to the latest stand. The largest problem, however, is the models suffering a disease denial to admit they have a problem.

Cindy Heller is a professional writer. Visit Nighttime Eating Disorder to learn more about compulsive eating disorder and bulimia eating disorder. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cindy_Heller

Definition of Compulsive Overeating

The National Institute of Mental Health indicates that “community surveys have estimated between 2% and 5% of Americans experience binge-eating disorder in a 6-month period.”

Symptoms of binge-eating disorder include:

Recurrent episodes of binge eating, characterized by eating an excessive amount of
food within a discrete period of time and by a sense of lack of control over eating
during the episode.

The binge-eating episodes are associated with at least 3 of the following: eating
much more rapidly than normal; eating until feeling uncomfortably full; eating large
amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry; eating alone because of being
embarrassed by how much one is eating; feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed,
or very guilty after overeating.

Marked distress about the binge-eating behavior;
The binge-eating occurs, on average, at least 2 days a week for 6 months,
The binge-eating is not associated with the regular use of inappropriate
compensatory behaviors (e.g. purging, fasting, excessive exercise).

People with binge-eating disorder experience frequent episodes of out-of-control
eating, with the same binge-eating symptoms as those of bulimia. The main difference is that individuals with binge-eating disorder do not purge their bodies of excess calories. Therefore, many with the disorder are overweight for their age and height. Feelings of self-disgust, and shame associated with this illness can lead to binging again, creating a cycle of binge-eating. The Institute recognizes binge eating as an eating disorder with severe consequences that cannot be reversed by simply attempting to apply willpower. The binge eater is seen as being out of control and obsessed with food.

But the National Institute of Mental Health also states that “eating disorders can be treated and a healthy weight restored. The sooner these disorders are diagnosed and treated, the better the outcomes are likely to be.”
A compulsive over eater is at health risk for a heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, kidney disease and/or failure, cancer, arthritis and bone deterioration, and stroke. Additional health risks include decreased mobility due to weight gain, insomnia, sleep apnea, and deteriorating mental health accompanied by declining intimacy.

 

 

 

 

Skeleton

Anxious to highlight the gravity of an often-overlooked disorder, Canadian doctors have calculated that women with anorexia die on average about a quarter of a century earlier than other women.

The B.C. specialists who published the research this month say they hope their dramatic life-expectancy statistics will both motivate anorexia patients to get better, and spur governments to more generously fund work on the condition.

Their number-crunching revealed, for instance, that a woman who develops the disorder at age 15 will live on average to age 56 - 25 years less than the average Canadian female.

“Anorexia nervosa is basically not recognized as a serious disease by society and government, in my opinion, certainly not compared to heart disease and cancer,” said Dr. Laird Birmingham, the University of British Columbia psychiatry professor who led the research.

“Most people have a picture of supermodels who lose too much weight because of dieting and think ‘How pathetic is that?’ “

The findings might also counter a stigma that has turned the disease into a “modern-day leprosy,” he said.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder whose sufferers typically refuse to keep their body weight within 15% of normal, have an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted body image, and have missed at least three consecutive menstrual cycles because of their weight loss.

About half those who die commit suicide, while the rest succumb to medical problems, often out-of-control heart rhythms related to their brain abnormalities.

The mortality rate has been pegged previously at about 5%, but no one had worked out the actual life expectancy of anorexics, said the article in the Journal Eating and Weight Disorders.

The researchers analyzed mortality statistics for 954 anorexia patients in B.C. over a 20-year period ending in July, 2000, using “decision analysis” software that compares such outcomes as death or illness in different groups.

Depending on the age - from 10 to 40 - when the women developed anorexia, their life expectancy was reduced on average by 22 to 25 years, the study concluded.

The numbers are averages, meaning that many patients who make full recoveries in treatment can expect a normal life span, said Dr. Birmingham.

Dr. Leora Pinhas, psychiatric director of the eating-disorders clinic at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, said she was not surprised by the statistics, and agreed it could help draw much-needed attention to the seriousness of the disorder.

“It’s a psychiatric disorder that cuts years off people’s lives, that kills people,” she said. “That’s not how people usually see mental-health disorders. It’s a really acute, serious illness and it’s interesting to me how calm people are about that.”

A shortage of money and personnel in the field means that specialists are “constantly reeling under the workload” and patients can wait as long as eight months to get treatment, Dr. Pinhas said.

The disease is sometimes given short shrift because of a misconception that it results simply from personal lifestyle choices or the influence of family, said Dr. Birmingham.

There is mounting evidence, though, that patients have a genetic predisposition to the condition, and that their brains act abnormally, he said.

Imaging has shown, for instance, that fear centres in the brains of anorexics “light up” when they are asked to eat food, the psychiatrist said.

Dr. Pinhas said she sees the disease as caused by a combination of biological factors and psycho-social influences, such as a culture that encourages people to lose weight.

Meanwhile, Dr. Birmingham has started telling patients about the life expectancy figures to drive home the gravity of their problem.

“What this says is ‘I have to get better or my life is going to be a lot shorter.’ “

National Post

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=662082

Flip the pages of any men’s or women’s fashion magazine and you will notice that among male models, thin appears to be in.  A recent article in the New York Times attributes this trend to a growing attitude influencing major fashion shows around the world: skinny guys welcome, muscular dudes need not apply.  More and more, men resembling the traditional high-fashion male model are being dropped from consideration for the toniest runways and fashion magazines.  Instead, agent and producers are looking for smaller framed gentlemen and emblazoning the pages of magazines with depictions of the rail-thin, “perfect” male figure.

Over the past several years, the general public has become more aware of eating disorders and the media’s role in perpetuating the myths that lead to serious illnesses.  Celebrities are starting to speak out against culture’s tendency to revere models, athletes, actors, and others who are virtually devoid of body fat as the standard bearers of beauty; support groups, hot lines, and rehab facilities offer help to those who are caught in the throes of eating disorders; and some high-powered fashion organizations have put strict limitations on how thin their models are allowed to be.  All of these are steps in the right direction; however; most of the awareness is promoted and geared toward one section of the population:women.  The fact is that men have also historically struggled with eating disorders and are susceptible to the same tragic and possibly fatal consequences.

Last year, researchers from Harvard conducted a study of eating disorders among a population of 3,000.  Twenty-five percent of those with anorexia nervosa and bulimia were men, and males made up 40 percent of binge-eaters.  These statistics are much higher than once believed, and these numbers may be just the tip of a very dangerous iceberg.  Many men who suffer from eating disorders are not likely to seek help, or even to tell anyone at all.  And eating disorders among men often go undiagnosed by physicians because their symptoms may be ascribed to other conditions such as depression.

Awareness and the accessibility of confidential help may need to have a marked and focused presence for both men and women who may have an eating disorder.  Anorexia and bulimia are deadly disorders, and the rising number of people suffering from them is cause for alarm for both sexes.

1. Remember there is no single cause for an individual’s eating disorder.  Don’t blame yourself.  Your job is to be supportive.  Looking for reasons and blaming the past is counterproductive.  Blame only hinders the healing process making the eating disordered person even more guilty and ashamed.  Eating disorders are very complicated and causes are always a combination of individual, family and cultural factors.
2. Share your thoughts, feelings and frustrations (without discussing the person) with others who are involved.  Also talk directly to the person with the eating disorder without laying guilt or blame.  Admit that you sometimes feel angry, frustrated, helpless or afraid.  Showing these feelings gives her permission to feel or express her feelings.  Realize the importance of patience and that recovery is a gradual process.
3. Be a good role model around food and when discussing food or weight related issues.
4. Take care of your own social and emotional needs. If you are exhausted (emotionally or physically), you won’t be able to provide emotional support.
5. Compassion does not mean being manipulated by the person.  Require that the person be responsible for his or her behavior and deal with the consequences of it.  Don’t be afraid to upset her.  She needs to learn to deal with frustration, diappointment and anger.  Avoid urges to protect the person from the natural consequences of her behavior.  Pain caused by consequences may be necessary for recovery.
6. Remember the person has an eating disorder, but don’t let the person’s identity get too wrapped up on that.  Refrain from speaking of “the anorexic” or “the bulimic”.

1. Try to be objective, calm, and caring in discussing the individual’s behaviors that concern you.  Avoid offering simple solutions to the person like “just eat and you’ll feel better”, or “don’t throw up anymore”.  If it were that simple, there wouldn’t be a problem.  Do not try to control the disordered eating behavior.  You can’t make it stop.  Threatening, punishing, blaming, or monitoring will only lead the person to become more secretive.  Eating disorder is an attempt to solve unseen emotional issues.  Accept the person for who she/he is.  Make it clear to them that your feelings don’t depend on their weight, shape, size or eating habits. 
2. Don’t comment on weight or appearance.  Comments on anyone’s weight or appearance reinforce the cultural pressure to be thin at all costs.  Rather than focusing on outward appearance, learn to notice and appreciate her personality, thoughts, opinions, and inner feelings.  The eating disordered person needs to value all aspects of herself and tune-up to an inner sense of self rather than continue to rely on external measures for self esteem.
3. If a person is in acute medical danger or when dealing with minors you must exercise responsibility and authority.  Trying to CONVINCE them they need treatment may not be an option.
4. Try to maintain as normal and healthy lifestyle as possible.  It’s important for you and the person with the eating disorder not to structure your life around the eating disorder.
5. As much as possible, try not to allow your like to be disrupted by discussions (arguments, threats, bribes, guilt, or blame) concerning issues of weight, eating and food.  Do not buy food soley to satisfy the eating disorder person nor allow her to dictate menus or mealtimes.  Household chores involving food should be negotiated.
6. Encourage the person with the eating disorder to take responsibility. Allow them to participate in treatment decisions.  Don’t shield the person from the consequences of having an eating disorder.  Seek consultation from a qualified professional.  The prognosis for recovery is always better when the eating disorder is identified early on.  Be certain to see a professional that specialized in the treatment of eating disorders.  If your loved one has weight loss, vomits, abuses laxatives or any physical complaints, she should see a physician.
7. Try to stay patient.  The physical, psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural rehabilitation of a person with an eating disorder takes time.