The Center for Mood and Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders

Anorexia, Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder are prototypes of illnesses that actually appear along a continuum in varying degrees and forms. These three diagnostic categories provide a basic framework to describe some very different clusters of symptoms and internal experiences. As with Mood Disorders, the majority of those who seek treatment for an eating problem don’t fit neatly into the preexisting categories of Anorexia or Bulimia.  60% of those who are suffering have a very personalized and unique pattern that is causing disruption in their relationships and ability to function and be healthy.

In addition to diagnosing, treating and stabilizing current symptoms, our clinicians operate from an understanding of the eating disorder as a dynamic illness whose symptoms change overtime. Many who have initially restricted intake later develop symptoms more common to bulimia. Others develop anorexia in response to efforts to lose weight gained from initial bingeing patterns. Still others alternate between long restricting periods and periods of bulimia. Without such a historical view, significant clinical information can be lost which directly impacts the outcome of care. At the Center for Mood and Eating Disorders, all of these symptoms and associated medical risks are treated, while addressing the possibility of a co-occurring mood or anxiety problems.

We live in a culture that promotes an unhealthy, one dimensional notion of identity that is based on appearance and glorifies unrealistic expectations of our bodies. This places pressure on all, but for some it can pose a far greater risk. Current research has shown that the development of eating disorders is more biologically determined than we previously understood.  While the impact of traumatic life events, negative family dynamics and the cultural pressure to be thin are all factors the development and maintenance of an eating disorder; brain chemistry appears to have everything to do with who is most vulnerable to these factors and who is not.

Our approach is to focus on the whole person and to assist you not only in mastering the destructive patterns of your eating disorder, but to attend to the deeper issues that contributed to the development of the illness, to deal with the more negative moods, obsessions, and need for exactness and perfectionism. Struggles over food, appetite and hunger can be symtolic expressions of ambivalence over need, desire and vulnerablility.