In a society where body image is a constant topic of media attention, it’s easy to obsess over appearances. For some people, focus on body image becomes a destructive obsession so dangerous as to be life-threatening. The result is what doctors call disordered eating. The two most common are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However, purging disordered eating is another manifestation of a distorted body image. To help drug and alcohol addiction clients experiencing its effects, purging disordered eating treatment is often necessary. Without treating both conditions simultaneously, recovery will be compromised.

What Is Purging Disordered Eating?

a man talks to a counselor in a purging disorder treatment programThis condition features frequent self-purging of food by various means including inducing vomiting or misusing enemas, laxatives or diuretics. Unlike those with bulimia who tend to eat an excessive amount of food before purging, people with purging disordered eating do not binge before their purging episodes.

Although purging  is less common than other forms of disordered eating, it can have a devastating effect on a person’s physical and mental health as well as their relationships with others. Receiving purging disordered eating treatment can assist these individuals in recognizing the causes and triggers of their disease. It can also provide them with strategies to adjust their body image.

Symptoms that are common in people with purging disordered eating include the following:

  • Behaviors such as always going to the bathroom after eating and over-using laxatives
  • Obsession with body image and a tendency to always compare one’s physical attributes unfavorably with others
  • Signs of frequent vomiting that include popped blood vessels in the eyes, swollen cheeks, damaged teeth, and bad breath
  • Often occurs along with addiction to drugs or alcohol

A high-quality purging disordered eating treatment program can help drug and alcohol addiction clients to recognize the negative and erroneous thought patterns that led to their distorted body image.

Changing and Harnessing Destructive Thoughts Via Purging Disordered Eating Treatment

When someone has a type of disordered eating, they engage in unhealthy food-related behaviors. These behaviors are a result of distorted perceptions and expectations about their own weight and body shape. In spite of even strong evidence to the contrary, they see themselves as fat, ugly, and therefore unworthy of love or acceptance. They have a desperate need to control and attempt to correct their own perceived inadequacy and ugliness. As a result, they engage in destructive behaviors such as self-induced vomiting and obsessive laxative and enema use.

Purging disordered eating treatment involves taking time to understand the client’s total physical, mental and emotional history to understand the person’s misaligned relationship with food and eating. Often, there are additional factors such as depression, anxiety, and addiction to drugs or alcohol that combine to form a complex and challenging disease.

How Santé Center for Healing Can Help

The good news is that even long-standing and deeply entrenched types of co-occurring disordered eating and heal with professional help. Recovery from both disorders is possible. However, it takes commitment and a great deal of hard work. Santé Center for Healing is an addiction and purging disorder treatment program located on 16 beautiful acres in Argyle, Texas. When clients dedicate themselves to beginning their recovery journey at our facility, they receive effective, empathetic treatment for all problems and diagnoses in a healing and supportive environment. Purging disorder treatment with us involves the following offerings and much more:

  • Full assessment during admission
  • Individualized, monitored meals
  • Supervised trips to restaurants to learn food-related life skills
  • Concentration on body image and 12-step work
  • Educational and support groups that stress healthy cooking and shopping

If you’re tired of the toll your low self-esteem, obsession with body image, and food-related problems, help is available. Any bulimia treatment program or purging  treatment program will help you to understand the characteristics of these conditions, but few have decades of experience and hundreds of clients who are living healthy lives in recovery from co-occurring disordered eating and substance addictions. If you suffer from both addiction and purging, you can begin treatment today by making just one simple phone call to 866.238.3154. The compassionate, experienced staff and counselors at the Santé Center for Healing will help you to claim the happy, authentic life you deserve.