Introduction: Mind/Body/Spirit Matters
I have been a clinical psychologist in the Los Angeles area for 23 years, having started out on the Medical School Faculty at University of California, Irvine. In that position, I was appointed to the teaching hospital, where I was the chief psychologist for the inpatient eating disorder program. We were recognized as the facility where physicians across the country would send their toughest patients. Thus, we had quite a challenge, providing treatment for those who had failed over and over in other outpatient or inpatient situations.
I treated only eating disorder patients, not only at the hospital but in my practice as well. I became known as the expert in the field, especially since very few even knew what the term “bulimic” meant at that time (back in 1983). I spoke internationally and one of my papers was chosen for the first International Eating Disorder Conference in New York City.
I still treat many patients with severe obesity, bulimia, night eating (a new corollary of binging), anorexia and the variations that arise from these challenges. I find every patient, without fail, to have many issues with their parents, with control, with obsessive/compulsive traits and, surprisingly, having had some form of incest or molestation in their past.
What is horrifying to me, besides the dangers of these disorders, is that younger and younger people are coming in with their parents, having said they felt they were too fat and were going on severe diets. Most, as you might guess, are far from fat and, in fact, often somewhat underweight.
I am writing a weekly column to heighten awareness of many psychological, spiritual, holistic issues that arise daily in my practice. I am starting with eating disorders because I find it extremely important to assess and start treating it as soon after it starts in the patient as possible. If a current patient (who has not mentioned she thinks about her weight or food in an obsessive way) even hints at beginning to starve herself or to vomit periodically, I have several alarms ring simultaneously inside.
I find that when someone has been doing the behaviors of those with eating disorders of any kind for several years, they are extremely tough to wean from these behaviors. There are many so-called rewards for their continuing to use this defense (which of course is what it is) and find it self-satisfying to such an extent that they don’t even want to consider treating that. They state they have come in for various other reasons. When a new patient comes to my office, stating she feels she has a disorder, it does not by any means mean that she is ready to begin deep work on herself and stop this dangerous behavior.
Early on I had a patient come into my office one day and state: “I will binge to the point of unconsciousness until my soul is no longer starving.” Even before she came in, though, I was and still am integrating spirituality (in the broad sense of that word) with psychology, knowing that only with both addressed will the patient truly heal.
Spirituality calls forth a part of the patient that often they have never thought of. Thinking that they don’t “need” it, they never talk about it as if it is relevant. Spirituality, though, is the critical aspect of treatment that focuses on the emptiness that all, at some point, report in their lives. It brings a sense of belonging, a sense of connectedness to something greater than they are and that they can begin to embrace as a Loving Force, mirroring to them what they haven’t had an experiential experience with until that moment. It is gently introduced, often after the patient speaks of that emptiness, the void that food has filled up until they began to see the detriment it was causing in their lives, which it inevitably does.
I will, over the next 12 weeks, be covering the following subjects, specifically related to eating disorders.
I treated only eating disorder patients, not only at the hospital but in my practice as well. I became known as the expert in the field, especially since very few even knew what the term “bulimic” meant at that time (back in 1983). I spoke internationally and one of my papers was chosen for the first International Eating Disorder Conference in New York City.
I still treat many patients with severe obesity, bulimia, night eating (a new corollary of binging), anorexia and the variations that arise from these challenges. I find every patient, without fail, to have many issues with their parents, with control, with obsessive/compulsive traits and, surprisingly, having had some form of incest or molestation in their past.
What is horrifying to me, besides the dangers of these disorders, is that younger and younger people are coming in with their parents, having said they felt they were too fat and were going on severe diets. Most, as you might guess, are far from fat and, in fact, often somewhat underweight.
I am writing a weekly column to heighten awareness of many psychological, spiritual, holistic issues that arise daily in my practice. I am starting with eating disorders because I find it extremely important to assess and start treating it as soon after it starts in the patient as possible. If a current patient (who has not mentioned she thinks about her weight or food in an obsessive way) even hints at beginning to starve herself or to vomit periodically, I have several alarms ring simultaneously inside.
I find that when someone has been doing the behaviors of those with eating disorders of any kind for several years, they are extremely tough to wean from these behaviors. There are many so-called rewards for their continuing to use this defense (which of course is what it is) and find it self-satisfying to such an extent that they don’t even want to consider treating that. They state they have come in for various other reasons. When a new patient comes to my office, stating she feels she has a disorder, it does not by any means mean that she is ready to begin deep work on herself and stop this dangerous behavior.
Early on I had a patient come into my office one day and state: “I will binge to the point of unconsciousness until my soul is no longer starving.” Even before she came in, though, I was and still am integrating spirituality (in the broad sense of that word) with psychology, knowing that only with both addressed will the patient truly heal.
Spirituality calls forth a part of the patient that often they have never thought of. Thinking that they don’t “need” it, they never talk about it as if it is relevant. Spirituality, though, is the critical aspect of treatment that focuses on the emptiness that all, at some point, report in their lives. It brings a sense of belonging, a sense of connectedness to something greater than they are and that they can begin to embrace as a Loving Force, mirroring to them what they haven’t had an experiential experience with until that moment. It is gently introduced, often after the patient speaks of that emptiness, the void that food has filled up until they began to see the detriment it was causing in their lives, which it inevitably does.
I will, over the next 12 weeks, be covering the following subjects, specifically related to eating disorders.
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