Eating Disorders
Imperial County Behavioral Health Services Do you or does someone you know have an eating disorder?
Eating disorders are a serious problem that significantly impair a person’s health, emotional stability and ability to function.
Eating disorders can weaken bones, create problems with the esophagus, permanently damage teeth, and cause intestinal disorders and heart disease.
“It’s a slow process of dying, if not from the eating disorder, then complications from it,” said Maricruz Bermudez with the Youth And Young Adult program at Imperial County Behavioral Health Services.
Eating disorders are real and treatable medical illnesses that affect about 3 percent of adolescents in the United States. While men also suffer from eating disorders, they are more common in females, Bermudez said. In fact, statistics show one in every 200 women is or has been affected.
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and their variants all are serious conditions that, left untreated, can be deadly. These often are accompanied by depression, anxiety and substance abuse.
Behavioral Health Services is here to help with a multidisciplinary team comprised of therapist, case manager, nurse, psychiatrist and often the client’s primary doctor. Treatment involves therapy to change unhelpful thoughts to healthier, more balanced thoughts and improve self- esteem.
The ultimate goal is for the individual to gain healthy coping skills that will allow them to improve their overall functioning. The department also works with families, helping them to identify red flags and provide a support system.
“Providing education to families regarding the difference between age-appropriate eating habits versus unhealthy eating patterns tied to eating disorders is extremely important, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as children and adolescents are spending more time at home,” said Juan Flores, Behavioral Health Manager.
Many people with an eating disorder have a distorted self-image, seeing themselves as fat, no matter how thin they become. They become obsessed with their weight and severely limit portions of food, types of foods they will eat, and sometimes over- exercise to work off calories what little they do eat.
Persons of normal weight or overweight can also have eating disorders. They may binge and may feel they have no control of this behavior. While we may be able to identify many of the symptoms or behaviors, a large part of what makes eating disorders problematic is that it is hard to identify what goes on in individuals’ minds.