Finding An Eating Disorder Treatment Specialist

It is not hard to find someone willing to treat an eating disorder patient. Most therapists, social workers, doctors, and dietitians, with no particular specialty in the topic, will accept patients with anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. I've heard of a chiropractor, a massage therapist, and an astrologist taking charge of this life-threatening illness as well.

As parents and loved ones, I think it is really important that we do everything we can to make sure patients get care from clinicians who specialize in eating disorders. Further, it is our job to make sure these specialists are using evidence-based treatment methods.

Sorry, We Don't Treat Eating Disorders

I was shocked, and frightened, when two local clinicians told me they would not treat my child for anorexia. Now I look back and realize these two were right: they weren't qualified and were not willing to go beyond their training and experience. I wish more professionals would do this. I wish a few of the people who did offer to help had been less willing: their confidence led me to believe they were more experienced than they were. I had no way of knowing the difference and in my frightened state, I was looking for any port in the storm.

Now I know that eating disorders can't be treated by the same theories and approaches as one does other issues. Anorexia is a real illness, not a developmental stumble. It isn't something to address with social theories or ideas that make otherwise healthy people feel good. Eating disorders are not something for any one clinician to be treating without a coordinated team that includes medical, psychiatric, psychotherapeutic, and nutritional knowledge.

Dabbling In Eating Disorder Treatment

The problem I see out there is that since the public thinks eating disorders are just the far end of normal thoughts and behaviors, that many clinicians fall into this trap as well. My doctor, for example, likes to say "We all have eating disorders, don't we?" But if you talk with an experienced eating disorder specialist, you will see little patience for that attitude. Most people in the eating disorder community want the public, and their colleagues, to take these conditions seriously and to refer to specialists.

As small as the supply is out there for truly experienced and skilled eating disorder specialists, I still don't believe any patient deserves less. I think dabbling in eating disorder treatment is dangerous, and that parents need to educate themselves enough to know the dabblers from the specialists. Our kids are counting on us.