Being committed

[Tristan]

Ok so lets say you know this person who has issues with oh say food. You know they have a history of dropping weight into a range they are told is not good. Do they wait four months to say something to the therapist or do do they say something soon. Keep in mind this person is in school until October and knows if they tell they will be forced into inpatient treatment. What would you tell them knowing they tried really hard to eat like a normal person and yet failed and stopped eating 5 days a week

[Heather]

Tristan an eating disorder is nothing that should be put off. It can serious ramifications if I'm right and I assume your talking about yourself please tell your therapist.

[Jess42]

I would urge the person to bring it up to their therapist during the next session.

[Jess42]

Well, chances are if this person has stopped eating it will continue unless something changes. Without going into specific details Tristen, why did this person stop eating or do you even know? There are many reasons from just loss of appetite to body image problems and it could be something physical or psychological. I fast sometimes for a couple of days in order to give the digestive system a break and or to shrink the stomach in order to lose a few pounds, which I'm not suggesting to anyone, but a loss of appetite is not a good thing psychologically or physically.

If it is something psychological and if the person is a close friend, talk to the person about why they can't eat. Sometimes all we need is to let loose and then the appetite may come back.

As for eating like a normal person, I can't eat like a normal person or I gain way too much weight. In basic training when others were losing weight and gaining muscle, I was getting fat just from eating three normal meals a day. I can tell you it wasn't from lack of activity for sure, just a different metabolism.

Also the less a person eats, the more the stomach shrinks and the more the appetite will wane. So if a person goes a while without eating they need to eat frequent small portions until the stomach stretches again to start feeling hungry. 

[kelly_aus]

They don't eat because they really don't like the effect food has on them. They are scared they did day last night but they are depressed now because they did eat a little food. They are going to try their best to eat a little every 5-6 days if they can but they are scared to do so

And they (You, I suspect) will end up very sick, very quickly. This person requires medical help - preferably yesterday.

[Jess42]

They don't eat because they really don't like the effect food has on them. They are scared they did day last night but they are depressed now because they did eat a little food. They are going to try their best to eat a little every 5-6 days if they can but they are scared to do so

That is way to long of a gap between eating. Your friend shouldn't be scared. The body's like a machine, cliche' I know but true and like a machine it needs fuel to function. Both physically and mentally. Does your friend see herself/himself as being fat? Afraid of getting fat? If depression is a side effect of eating it probably should be brought up in therapy. There are some things that may help when it comes to self hypnosis and positive image reinforcement but it really depends on how bad the dysphoria is.

You mentioned going back to the hospital, is it over the same thing? Was the hospitalization for the Psychological side or the physical side of losing too much weight? Has your friend tried hypnotherapy before? People lose weight, stop smoking and so on, maybe your friend's therapist can can refer them to a good hypnotherepist and one that they are confident in. Depending on the extent of the problem, hypnotherapy may help with self image problems and give the person tools and techniques to deal with it on their own.

[bethany]

They need to get medical help eating disorders are nothing to fool around with. And Eating once every five or six days will lead to starving to death. 

[kelly_aus]

They are going to get help because they know they can't handle this on there own. They just really want to make it through school first

I think the point we are all trying to make is that this needs to be dealt with now..

[Jess42]

I can really understand wanting to finish school first but this is pretty serious especially 5-6 days without eating. I wish your friend the best and hope they can work something out with the school but above that get help he/she needs.