Are the So Called Experts Who Treat Compulsive Overeating Actually Making It Worse?

I’m not going to make friends with my colleagues by saying this but I believe that the experts who work in residential treatment facilities or those involved with OA are doing more damage than good when it comes to helping people heal compulsive overeating.

Could it be possible that the traditional methods of treatment are causing a compulsive overeater to remain one forever? They put their clients on a strict diet immediately and use punishments as a way of conformity. They use diversion to get around triggers that set off binge cycles and it’s been this way for decades.

Let’s look at the Twelve Step Program approach that Overeaters Anonymous (OA) uses for their compulsive overeaters. It is the same program base as the AA program which requires complete abstinence however because we need food to survive they modify that to be a highly restrictive food diet.

One of the consequences of not following the OA diet is having your sponsor treat you like a five year old. You are sent to the corner of the room and you can only come out when you behave yourself and start following the rules. I’ve seen this happen. Unfortunately, I don’t think they understand that food is not the main issue for binge eaters.

By having to constantly repeat that you are a compulsive overeater, in the eyes of OA, you will always be one. They do not believe that you can be completely free of this disorder. What if their way of thinking is just years and years worth of the same old beliefs that have never been challenged? What would all the people who are in OA do if they found out it those beliefs weren’t true?

Now I’ll use a residential treatment facility as the next example. Residential treatment facilities do the same kind of food restriction, often times prescribing anti-depressants and having clients stay for 30-60 days at a time. They do “Talk Therapy” but I have yet to see them hold classes on becoming assertive and dealing with stress so that when the client is released back into the wild they can fend for themselves without falling back into the same trap they were in before.

So what if all the old ways of thinking are just that…old?

Now let’s say we taught clients how to reduce stress and use facts without emotions to see the real situations in front of them. What if we taught them how to make the brain want to achieve more by using small chunky goals that helped raise self esteem and self worth? How would they feel if we used positive means instead of resistance to completely heal compulsive overeating? Wouldn’t that be a better way of thinking?

We could send a message to the world that compulsive overeating is no longer a disorder you must live with forever.

I am reminded of when my dad had a heart attack a couple of years back. It was the old way versus the new way of thinking for us and we immediately chose what we thought would be the best for my dad. It came down to two cardiologists. One had graduated in 1968 and had a ton of experience and the other had graduated in 1990 with obviously less experience but specialized in the latest technology which meant my dad could have the heart catheterization procedure with minimal pain and not have to have open heart surgery.

So as you can see new ways of thinking versus old experiences may be the way to go!

Nadine Ann, founder of The BreakAway Program, has been helping people heal their compulsive overeating with an online program. For a short period, you can join at the present membership fee and have full admission to the soon to be released private social members site. Visit The BreakAway Program to Heal Compulsive Overeating Now.

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