Eating Disorders

The secret shame, self-loathing, and desperation is overwhelming for people suffering from an eating disorder. They are often stigmatized and judged as being weak or attention seeking but the truth is that eating disorders are a real, treatable condition often brought on by deep-rooted pain. At Los Angeles Christian Counseling, we are committed to helping sufferers overcome their disorder. Find the help, guidance and support that you need to overcome your illness and walk in the freedom that Jesus has promised.

Anorexia Nervosa

The eating disorder anorexia nervosa makes a person associate their sense of self-worth with how thin they are. This triggers an intense and irrational fear of gaining weight and often leads to extreme behaviors such as the refusal of food, excessive exercise, or controlling calories through consumption of diuretics, laxatives, or even by intentional vomiting after meals. People suffering from anorexia typically have an incorrect view of their weight, often believing that they are overweight even when others repeatedly assure them that they thinner than they should be. Christian counseling for eating disorders has a good track record of helping treat anorexia.

What are the Symptoms of Anorexia?

Physical symptoms of anorexia include extreme weight loss accompanied by emotional and behavioral symptoms that are expressed by a strong compulsion to keep body weight under control.

Physical symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Extreme weight loss
• Low blood pressure
• Dizziness or fainting
• Hair loss or breakage
• Constipation
• Irregular heart rhythm
• Intolerance to cold

Emotional and behavioral symptoms include:

• Acute fear of gaining weight
• Fasting, dieting, and excessive exercise
• Extreme reduction of calorie intake
• Preoccupation with food
• Moodiness
• Depression
• Denial of hunger feelings

The Dangers of Anorexia

The eating disorder anorexia nervosa affects your mental and physical health and can be life-threatening. The continued refusal of food leads to a nutritional deficiency – nutrition that is necessary for the optimal functioning of the whole person.

Anorexia causes long-term damage to your heart. Continued starvation leads to irregular heart rhythms, fainting, and dizziness. Anorexia can also cause a low heart rate and low blood pressure, putting you at risk for heart failure.

It impacts the health of your bones and muscles, decreasing bone density which leads to brittle or fragile bones (osteoporosis) and causing muscle deterioration and weakness because they are not receiving the needed nutrients.

Anorexia makes your skin and hair weak. Poor nutrition leads to an increase in hair breakage and hair loss and fragile skin that is often dry and flaky.

It also depletes energy levels, causing you to become easily fatigued. It also lowers your core temperature. Because your body lacks the necessary layer of body fat for insulation, it is unable to properly regulate its own temperature. Consequently, you will acquire a sensitivity to cold which can lead to the growth of a downy hair all over your body and face (called lanugo) as your body attempts to keep itself warm.

Anorexia is a serious condition that should not be swept under the carpet. Often sufferers are quick to deny that they have anorexia and live in denial about how dangerous and destructive their behavior can be. Almost half of anorexia sufferers will also develop bulimia. If you suspect that you or a loved one may be struggling with anorexia, we urge you to seek professional help as soon as possible. Christian counseling for eating disorders can, along with medical intervention, help you to regain control, rebuild your health (both physical and mental) and address the root causes of your disorder.

Bulimia Nervosa

The eating disorder bulimia is characterized by overeating (binging) followed by induced vomiting (purging) in order to rid the body of the extra calories. This may also be accomplished through the use of enemas, diuretics, or laxatives. As with anorexia, bulimia sufferers are preoccupied with staying thin. One difference, however, is that bulimics tend to keep a healthy weight. Their normal appearance coupled with no visible food issues mean that bulimics can often successfully keep their condition hidden for many. Christian counseling for eating disorders can help you and offer hope if you, or someone you know, may be bulimic.

What are the Symptoms of Bulimia?

Bulimia nervosa is a grave condition that poses a significant health threat. The process of binging and purging has both physical and psychological symptoms.

Physical symptoms:

• Binge eating followed by purging
• Cheek and jaw swelling
• Call used knuckles and backs of hands
• Irregular bowel movements
• Discolored or stained teeth

Emotional and behavioral symptoms:

The Dangers of Bulimia

There are significant risks for bulimia sufferers. Without adequate nutrition, it is impossible for your body to function properly. In addition to poor nutrition, the associated behavior of bulimics also poses health risks. This includes induced vomiting, laxative abuse, and binge eating creating a set of wide-ranging issues.

Simply put, bulimia has a severe impact on your digestive system. The effects of bulimia are extensive, going far beyond a sore throat and stomach discomfort. Other dangerous effects on your digestive system include damage to your teeth, irritation or tearing of the esophagus, as well as heartburn and constipation to name a few.

Like anorexia, bulimia can also weaken your heart. Bulimics often suffer from low blood pressure, irregular heart rhythms, and place themselves at high risk for heart failure. In addition, the force of vomiting may rupture blood vessels in the face, often most noticeable in the eyes.

Bulimia will cause damage to your skin and muscles. Through poor nutrition, your muscles are dehydrated and weakened. By regularly inducing vomiting, there is also often scarring damage caused to the hands due to contact with stomach acid.

Your ability to reproduce is impacted. Female bulimia sufferers often suffer from irregular menstrual cycles and have difficulty getting pregnant. If you are pregnant and bulimic there are serious health risks posed to both you and your unborn child.

Statistics show that around four percent of women in America have struggled with bulimia at one point or another. Of these sufferers, it is estimated that a further four percent die from complications related to bulimia. Don’t fight this alone. Los Angeles Christian counseling for eating disorders can help guide you into the light and freedom of Christ.

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating occurs when an individual regularly ingests food in much larger quantities than is normal within a given time frame. Chronic weekly binge eating for three consecutive months characterizes a binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder sufferers have overwhelming feelings of shame for their behavior and consequently many choose to hide their disorder. People suffering from binge eating disorder improve with Christian counseling for eating disorders.

What are the Symptoms of a Binge Eating Disorder?

You might be suffering from a binge eating disorder if binge eating recurs frequently, typically followed by depression and shame. Binge eating carries with it many physical, emotional, and mental side-effects.

• Signs and symptoms of binge eating:
• Consuming immoderate amounts of food (usually within 2 hours)
• Choosing to eat in secret because of shame
• Feeling out of control of your eating
• Frequently eating to the point of discomfort
• Eating when you are not hungry
• Feeling disgusted, depressed and ashamed about your eating
• Frequent dieting without experiencing significant weight loss
• Chronic obesity and weight gain

Dangers of Binge Eating Disorder

There are many health issues associated with overeating. Chronic binge eaters overeat on a grand-scale which causes risky life-threatening conditions.

A binge eating disorder can lead to obesity. Two-thirds of binge eaters are obese and serious weight gain leads to many dangerous health issues such as diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, and high blood pressure.

Binge eating disorder can lead to heart disease. Because it has to work harder, an overweight person’s heart is unable to efficiently pump blood through the body and to the lungs, putting them at high risk for a heart attack or stroke.

Binge eating can also bring on diabetes. Chronic binge eaters are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes which has serious health implications, affecting the entire body, if not treated correctly.

The health implications of a binge eating disorder are serious and there is approximately three percent of U.S. adults who live with it. Of that three percent, almost half need professional treatment. If you suffer from a binge eating disorder, Los Angeles Christian counseling for eating disorders can help provide you with the solutions you need to achieve victory.

Quite often a person suffering from an eating disorder knows that they have a problem, but they find themselves unable to break free. Others live in denial and still others may believe their behavior to be perfectly healthy. If you are trying to work out whether your behavior is indicative of an eating disorder, your Christian counselor would ask you the questions like the following:

• Do you often induce vomiting after eating because of discomfort?
• Do you worry about the level of control that you have over your food intake?
• Have you recently lost weight – more than 15 pounds in the last three months?
• When people tell you that you are too thin, do you still think yourself overweight?
• Does food (or thoughts about food) dominate your life?

Admitting your disorder to yourself and others is a positive first step towards overcoming your problem. At Los Angeles Christian Counseling, we give you the guidance, support and resources that you will need to overcome whatever disorder you may have. Through a faith-based Christian approach to eating disorders, we can provide counseling that has the ultimate goal of helping you to regain control over your life.

Some of the Leading Causes for Eating Disorders

In the United States alone it is estimated that 11 million people suffer from eating disorders (10 million women and 1 million men), the majority of whom are youth. There are many factors that contribute to a person’s eating disorder. Christian counseling for eating disorders helps you heal and overcome your disorder by first seeking to understand how the disorder developed. Your Christian counselor will take a close look at the psychological, personal, and social issues that might be causing your eating disorder.

Psychological factors that contribute to an eating disorder:

• Depression or anxiety
• Struggles with low self-esteem
• Feeling that your life is out of control

Personal factors that contribute to an eating disorder:

• Unhealthy interpersonal relationships
• Issues with managing, understanding and expressing emotions
• History of being bullied regarding your weight or appearance
• History of trauma or abuse

Social factors that contribute to an eating disorder:

• Cultural pressures to conform to a body stereotype
• A limited definition of beauty defined by a specific weight and body shape
• Buying into societal pressure to value physical attractiveness over personality and character
• Stress related to racial discrimination and prejudice

Understanding the underlying causes of your eating disorder is the single most important step on your road to recovery. Christian counseling for eating disorders helps to identify the area that you are struggling in and will help you to find healing for those issues in order to overcome your disorder.

Successfully overcoming an eating disorder requires a team effort. At Los Angeles Christian Counseling, we will work alongside your doctor and a dietician to help move you along your journey toward recovery. Our counselors will guide you through the process of learning about your disorder, how it developed as well as equipping you will tools to gain mastery over it and experience the victory of a healthy, fulfilling life.

Our goals are:

• To help you establish a body weight that is healthy
• To work with you to discover the underlying causes of your disorder and to address those issues
• To journey with you as you unpack the impact that the eating disorder is having on you
• To equip you with tools to build your self-esteem as well as a healthy image of your body
• To introduce effective therapy methods

There is hope for you if you are living with an eating disorder. We want to work with you to understand your unique set of personal experiences and symptoms and together develop a Christ-based counseling approach that will be an exact fit for your specific situation.

At Los Angeles Christian Counseling, we utilize a wide range of effective counseling tools to help you overcome your eating disorder:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: CBT is a method of counseling that has been proved to be highly effective in treating eating disorders. CBT focuses on changing your negative self-image, how you talk about yourself, and disorder-related behaviors. Through CBT you are given tools to help you understand and learn how to take control of your thoughts, refocus them and learn healthy behaviors that will replace negative ones.

Family Therapy: Relationships with your family are negatively affected by your eating disorder. Through Christian counseling for families, you can learn more about this as well as helping family members to gain insight into your eating disorder. Family therapy also offers advice on how your family can support you throughout the process of overcoming your disorder.

Counseling for Depression: Many people who suffer from depression develop eating disorders, and those with an existing eating disorder may many become depressed as a result of the disorder. Through Christian counseling for depression, you can learn to manage your depression.

Advances in psychotherapy have produced effective tools for combating eating disorders. Christian counseling for eating disorders can help you find healing through establishing the correct treatments that will be most effective for your specific needs

Be Inspired By God’s Word

At Los Angeles Christian Counseling, we want to help you see how much God loves you and to guide you in the process of finding inner peace, a sense of self-worth, and the motivation you need to gain victory over your disorder. If you are feeling hopeless and don’t know which way to turn consider the encouragement of scripture:

Your beauty should not consist…of what is inside the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes. – 1 Peter 3:4

Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. – Proverbs 31:30

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. – Psalm 147:3

Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise. – Jeremiah 17:14

Are you able to counsel teens and children?

Yes. We are committed to helping people of any age overcome their eating disorders. If you think your child might be developing or already have an eating disorder, please contact us at (949) 386-7182 or online.

How long does eating disorder treatment last?

This is an individual process. It depends on many factors including your individual needs and how you respond to the treatment. It will be determined with the best interests of you, the client, in mind.

Are men also at risk of suffering from eating disorders?

Yes. Although eating disorders more commonly appear in women, many men also struggle with these life-threatening issues.

Which eating disorders do you offer help for?

Trained, specialized Christian counselors at Los Angeles Christian Counseling are available for treating a full range of eating disorders including, anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, eating disorder NOS, as well as other food and exercise issues.

Please get in touch with us today if you would like more information on eating disorders and Christian counseling.

If you or someone you love could have an eating disorder, please get help now! These disorders can have a serious impact on your health and can even be life-threatening. To get in touch please call us at (949) 386-7182 or set up an appointment online.