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Orthorexia Treatment
Orthorexia treatment is the same as treatment for other eating disorders and addictions. Most people believe that addiction is about the use and abuse of addictive substances like alcohol and drugs. Some believe that eating disorders start due to the additives in certain foods. Yet the disease of addiction is manifested in many kinds behaviours too, hence the new and unusual issue of orthorexia.
Orthorexia is an unmanageable fixation on the eating of healthy foods. The orthorexic disorder clearly illustrates addiction: the behaviours are not necessarily harmful in themselves. Rather, it is their misuse that can be destructive.
In the case of orthorexia, the focus on healthy eating could, in principle, be of benefit. However, orthorexia describes a dangerous fixation that can lead to malnutrition, potentially causing great harm.
Fundamentally, the disease, like any addiction, is a harmful symptom of an underlying problem.
Treatment requires both cessation of the addictive behaviour and therapies to help the sufferer deal with the emotional conflict at the root of the disorder.
Social Isolation
Orthorexia is an eating disorder characterised by the extreme avoidance of foods that are considered unhealthy. The sufferer may shun, for example, fatty or salty foods. In other cases, orthorexia may be characterised by an obsession with fad diets.
Orthorexics often refuse to eat anything that they have not prepared themselves, which can have severe effect on their everyday lives and lead to social isolation.
Orthorexics can press their healthy views on foods onto others; this can make eating with them a difficult experience.
Restoring Harmony
People with orthorexia obsessively pursue a feeling of well-being, but such a compulsion is, by definition, unbalanced and unhealthy. However, this may not be immediately obvious to the sufferer.
It’s an irony that, Anstice Wright, the director of Oasis Counselling Centre understands. “At Oasis, we encourage a healthy lifestyle. Obviously eating healthy foods is a critical part of being healthy. The problem in these cases is a lack of balance,” says Wright. “Oasis helps people restore balance to their lives. That’s the true key to healthy living.”
The holistic treatment programme at Oasis helps patients restore harmony to their lives. By emphasising good food and exercise in a balanced manner, combined with special activities like yoga, Oasis guides patients to a properly balanced, healthy lifestyle.
Acknowledging the problem
Overcoming any eating disorder needs professional care. But treatment cannot be forced on a person: they have to acknowledge that they have a problem.
This does not mean that concerned friends and family members are powerless to act. In consultation with a professional, it may be possible to stage an intervention to help convince the orthorexic he has a problem.
Treatment
Effective treatment helps patients modify their behaviour, in conjunction with therapies and support programmes to treat the underlying emotions at the root of the problem. Obviously the solution to orthorexia is not to begin eating unhealthily. Rather, the patient will learn to assess their needs and begin to pursue a balanced, properly healthy life.
This process will take time and persistence. For this reason, a period of in-patient treatment is advisable to treat orthorexia and other eating disorders.
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