Tips for Getting Treatment for Eating Disorders

What if you can't persuade the person you care about to get the treatment he needs, no matter what you do? Or, what if you are not ready to take the next step toward recovery, if you have an eating dis­order yourself? Eating-disorder specialists point out that there are steps to take, short of treatment, to mediate the effects of an eating disorder. While you or someone you know is getting ready to begin treat­ment, doctors suggest the following tips:

- Drink lots of fluids to ward off dehydration.

- Take vitamin and mineral supplements for nutritional support without adding calories.

- The use of diuretics (and other forms of purg­ing) can create serious electrolyte imbalances; if you must use diuretics, be sure to eat potassium-rich foods (such as bananas). Add fitness bars or shakes to your diet, if you can, to provide at least some nutrition.

- Rinse your mouth with an antacid after vomit­ing to reduce damage to the throat, esophagus, and tooth enamel.

- Switch from stimulant laxatives to bulk laxa­tives, such as Metamusil or Fiber Con, and drink lots of water while taking them. These won't upset the fluid balance of the body the way stim­ulant laxatives do and are a safe way to come off laxatives.

- To cut down on bingeing, try eating small amounts of food every three hours.

- To try to accept your body, focus on one good thing you can find about it, and stop reading fashion and fitness magazines.

- Get a thorough physical exam, including a full set of blood tests and an EKG heart-function test. Stay in close touch with your doctor to take care of any physical problems the disorder may trigger.

These suggestions are not treatments, of course. Rather, they are simple stopgaps—methods of dealing with a few aspects of an eating disorder before real help comes in the form of professional treatment.

Getting into treatment

Getting treatment for someone who restricts food or who binges or purges can be very difficult. After all, if this person could cope with psychological and emotional distress, he wouldn't need to use food as a means of distraction.

Sometimes when the sufferer is secretly ready to let go of her disorder, it just takes the urging of a friend to motivate the first step toward treatment. For example, a roommate might offer an informa­tional pamphlet and express the wish that it be read. Or, a spouse might make an appointment with the family physician on the pretext that it is just an annual checkup. But it is not always so easy to get some friends or relatives into treatment.

Convincing someone to get help may take the careful intervention of other family members, friends, and professionals. Very often the sufferer is willing to go to a non-eating disorder specialist—a skin doctor or dentist, perhaps—to be treated for some of the side effects that have resulted from an eating disorder. Or, someone who is already in recovery might persuade your friend or loved one to go to a support group meeting "just to try it out." If someone in your family is in therapy, his therapist might request that the whole family come in for a session and take it from there. Or, it may take emer­gency hospitalization for a medical crisis that resulted from the disorder to get someone within reach of treatment. In the meantime, the loved ones of the victim are suffering.