Treatment of eating disorders in adults

Says the head of the clinic of psychiatry and psychotherapy,

psychiatrist, psychotherapist Natalia Rivkina

Overweight is one of the key problems of modern society. Obesity is a complex disease that may be associated with endocrinological disorders, but is most often the result of eating disorders, its balance and correctness. Unfortunately, food is becoming a form of addiction not only for a large number of adults, but also for children. For many, eating is a way to cope with emotional stress, bad mood, or anxiety.

Causes of eating disorders in adults

When food becomes the only available way to calm down, get rid of heavy or anxious thoughts, we can talk about the development of eating disorders. 

Patients often refer to this problem as food addiction. Many people are familiar with the situation when, coming in the evening after a hard day's work, their hands themselves reach out to

refrigerator. Most often there is a need for something sweet, flour, sometimes the desire to eat a larger portion than usual. Some patients snack at night when they cannot sleep, or experience excessive anxiety trying to cope with this condition.

Danger of eating disorders

The danger of eating disorders is that a person with a tendency to overeat does not always realize that food is becoming a way for him to solve emotional problems. It is often only in consultation with a psychotherapist or psychiatrist that you can find out the real causes of this problem. 
Most often, patients with "food addiction" turn to endocrinologists, nutritionists, or general practitioners. They complain about being overweight, unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, and uncontrolled eating. The problem of eating disorders is complex, it includes both biological mechanisms related to pleasure and psychological factors. Therefore, an integrated approach is needed to deal with the problem.

Treatment of eating disorders in adults at the EMC clinic

At the first stage, somatic problems are eliminated. First of all, endocrinological. To do this, the patient undergoes a full examination. We must exclude specific physical factors that provoke increased appetite and disrupt nutrition control. If there are no somatic problems, the next step is a clinical and psychological examination. We must exclude depression, anxiety disorders and analyze the factors that lead to eating disorders. If there are concomitant mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, or panic disorders, we select drug therapies to treat these conditions. There are drugs from the group of antidepressants that block obsessive impulses to eat. In addition to correcting mood disorders, increased anxiety, or sleep problems, we give patients tools with which they can control food-related impulses. The main component in the correction of eating disorders or "food addiction" is psychotherapy. We use cognitive behavioral therapy as our main method. With the help of special trainings and behavioral exercises, we teach patients to control their condition without the help of food.

We teach you how to control your food intake. It must be remembered that any diets and food restrictions in the case of an eating disorder are ineffective. We often hear from patients that they limit themselves to eating throughout the day, skip breakfast and lunch, and as a result, they break down in the evening and eat not only their dinner, but also the meals they missed in the morning and afternoon. This makes a person's emotional state even worse. He stops enjoying eating. A psychotherapist, sometimes together with a nutritionist, builds a rational meal plan with the patient. But the most important thing in the work of a psychotherapist is the prevention of eating disorders. The therapist helps the patient to solve emotional problems that may contribute to the development of food addiction.