Online Therapy for Eating Disorders
This is a repost of our blog originally posted in 2020.
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Can Online Therapy Help With Eating Disorders?
Online therapy for eating disorders has significant pros and cons. Here, we’ll discuss the reasons why seeking online therapy for an eating disorder might or might not be effective.
Pragmatically, it can be very important sometimes to be able to have a professional offer you “blind weights”. This is a method of weighing where your eating disorders team can know how your weight is doing but you aren’t made aware so that you don’t offer your eating disorder that ammunition. You also need to be in person with a physician.
Accounting for this factor is one of the things that makes online therapy tricky for eating disorders. If you pursue online therapy for an eating disorder, make sure that this factor is accounted for. You may be able to use a blind weight reading scale at home or connect with a dietician to weigh you.
Professional support is really necessary to combat eating disorders. They can be quite complicated because they affect both the body and mind, and because they have to do so much more than just eating behaviors. Ideally, a team including an eating disorders therapist, dietician, and primary care physician can help you to get back on track.
Why In-Person Treatment is Important
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For many, eating issues have to do with your body and “embodiment” – the sense that you really live inside your body and aren’t just a head or brain being carried around. Embodiment makes people feel safe, whole and complete. One way that embodiment happens when you spend time, in person, with other embodied people.
When you are in person with an embodied therapist who is really listening to you, you can achieve limbic resonance, a neurological term for the state in which your right brain is very activated and you are able to access your emotions easily. Many have found the experience of limbic resonance to be a vital component to healing from eating disorders.
Online Treatment or No Treatment?
However, and this is a big however, ONLINE TREATMENT IS MUCH BETTER THAN NO TREATMENT AT ALL. While embodiment and limbic resonance should be a part of your eating disorder treatment at some point, there is a great deal of work that can be done over telehealth. Most eating disorders professionals, including Monarch Wellness, offer online support.
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First and foremost, you can be supported so that you aren’t in this fight alone. Eating disorders can take over your headspace, and it’s important to have people who can offer you an outside perspective.
Friends and family can support you as well, but without training it can be very difficult to say the right thing, and actually pretty easy to say the wrong thing and accidentally make things worse. The amount of support needed to combat an eating disorder can also put a strain on relationships and take emphasis away from the other, really enjoyable and important things in the relationship.
What Online Therapy Can Offer
With a trained eating disorder team online, you can begin to normalize your eating patterns. You can learn about how eating disorders affect your body and brain. You can begin to look at the thought patterns that your eating disorder activates, such as black and white thinking, self-criticism and perfectionism. All of this is important, foundational work can help you to hit the ground running when you are back in person with a team and able to experience the in-person support, embodiment and limbic resonance that are so vital to fully healing.
Reach Out
If you’re considering professional support, we’re here to help. Please reach out to schedule a free, no-commitment consultation. There’s no fee and no obligation—just click the button below to get started.
You can also call or text us at 202-656-3681, or email us directly. Give yourself the opportunity for the support you deserve.