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We treat Eating Disorders using a team approach.

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​The team will consist of a Dietitian, Therapist, and affiliated Physician and or Psychiatrist. You may only be seeing one of our staff members or utilizing our complete team. This is totally up to the patient. We are happy to work with theTherapist, Dietitian or Physician that you are currently seeing.
We work in baby steps to prove to the patient that they will be ok changing some of these behaviors through education and trust. We work as partners. People of all ages, both male and female, suffer from eating disorders. Approximately 60% of our practice is related to eating disorders or disordered eating including Anorexia, Bulimia, Compulsive Overeating, Yo-Yo dieting, or Closet Eating.

All patients will see Staci for their initial consultation. Then together with Staci, you will decide if you will be working with a Counseling Dietitian and/or Psychotherapist to start your treatment process. If you are currently seeing a Psychotherapist or Dietitian we are happy to work with your choice of a team member outside the office. We currently work with many outside counselors.

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Anorexia Nervosa is a disease in which you restrict your caloric intake. You may starve yourself. You simply do not allow enough food into your body. Usually you will notice the weight loss over a couple of weeks or months.

Bulimia Nervosa is where you are taking food in and then you are purging it. Usually is involves overeating binges followed by purging: throwing up, the use of laxatives or diuretics, diet pills, over exercising, or restricting calories. This is usually followed by depressive thoughts.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) involves binge eating and eating out of control. These patients also suffer from guilt and highly saddened thoughts. Yo-yo dieting refers to losing and regaining weight. Each time this happens, you are actually increasing your percentage of body fat. When you lose weight you lose muscle and fat. It is only fat that you are regaining. The higher the body fat, the slower the metabolism. Therefore, the next time you diet it becomes harder to lose weight.

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) is when an individual is extremely picky and has little interest in eating foods. Individuals typically eat a limited variety of preferred foods, which has a great impact on their nutrition status, health status and proper growth and body function

Orthorexia Nervosa refers to the obsession with proper or 'healthful' eating. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish since there is a fine line with being a healthy person who is aware/concerned with the nutritional quality of food, but this disorder demonstrates the fixation and obsession that damages their own well-being and their life. Warning signs may be compulsively checking nutrition labels and ingredients, an increase in concern of healthy ingredients, cutting out an increasing number of food groups, showing a high level of distress when 'safe' or 'healthy' foods aren't available, etc. 

Compulsive Over Eating (COE) is similar to Binge Eating Disorder, however, it is unique in that an individual doesn't binge in spurts, but rather continuously eats a large amount of food consistently, even when they are no longer hungry.

Yo-yo Dieting is also know as weight cycling.  This term refers to the constant cycle of losing and gaining weight representing the motion of a yo-yo. Many times the individual will experience the extremes of both ends of the cycle: losing  a lot of weight and gaining a lot of weight. 

Closet eating is also a very common occurrence. Nearly everyone has quirks about what they feel they should or shouldn't eat in front of other people. It can be as innocent as not wanting your spouse to see you eating a candy bar, or as serious as a continuous "eating secretly routine" which can go unrecognized by the individual.

Other Specified Feeding Or Eating Disorder (OSFED), previously referred to as Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) is a term for types of eating disorders that do not fit into any of the other eating disorder categories due to mixed, complex symptoms. While less understood, OSFED is not less serious or less deserving of treatment than any other eating/feeding disorder or struggle.

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​QUESTION
What is an Eating Disorder, or Disordered Eating?

ANSWER
When a person plans their life around their food or their exercise routines, instead of the food working around their life . In other words, food has become the center of their world and their diet and eating habits get in the way of their normal life.  Many people are also stuck with some ritualistic type of behaviors. For example, you can't eat after a certain hour or you need to exercise for an exact amount of time. It is very scary to break from these routines because the patient truly believes that they need to keep these strict routines in order to maintain or lose weight. 

The Eating Disordered patient may develop his/her identity through their thinness or eating disorder behavior and relish the special attention he/she gets for it (good or bad). The patient may be experiencing special feelings of uniqueness which can perpetuate the patterns of behavior and reinforce the controlling and damaging relationship with food. In other words, this behavior becomes part of their identity and the patient begins to excel at it. This usually make one feel good about themselves. They feel very much in control and empowered, when they are actually losing control. People often don't seek help because they don't consider themselves to be truly bulimic or anorexics. There are many patients who "fall between the cracks", people who practice only some anorexic or some bulimic behaviors, however, they  are truly suffering greatly.

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