Do I Have An Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders are considered as complex forms of mental illnesses. Anybody, irrespective of gender, age or background can start to experience one. Most common types of eating disorders include anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder.

Ask yourself “do I have an eating disorder”. But how can you be fully convinced that either you have it or don’t? The following set of questions, that you again need to ask yourself will help understand if you behave in a way that exhibits propensities towards you having developed food disorders. You should pay attention and respond back to the questions with honest answers. Only then can you make headway to the right anorexia, bulimia or binge eating treatment followed by a successful recovery.

·         Do I possess eating habits which are dissimilar in comparison to my family and friends? (Yes)

·         Can I live through a day without having to worry about what I will or won’t eat? (No)

·         Do I have a preference to eat alone so that no one gets to see me eating? (Yes)

·         Do I often make excuses like “I have already eaten” or “I am not feeling well”? (Yes)

·         Do I often have unmanageable eating binges when I consume a lot of food and later I deliberately vomit? (Yes)

·         Do I cut food into small portions or hide food? (Yes)

·         Do I have a conceived notion about “safe” foods that I can eat and “unsafe” foods which I feel aren’t good for my health? (Yes)

·         Do I end up furious when others become interested in knowing what I eat or put pressure on me to eat more? (Yes)

·         Am I always afraid that my fears about food and eating would never be understood by anyone? (Yes)

·         Do I enjoy cooking foods for others but rarely eat them myself? (Yes)

·         Do I fast for long periods of time and eat very little to control my weight? (Yes)

·         Do I frequently hear it from my friends that I am thin, yet I don’t believe them because I think I’m fat? (Yes)

·         Do I press the panic button when I discover that I’ve gained weight? (Yes)

·         Do I resort to using laxatives or diuretics as a way to keep my weight under control? (Yes)

·         Do I have a mind-boggling apprehension of putting on weight? (Yes)

·         Do I engage in immoderate exercise to stay in shape and end up getting restless if by chance I miss a workout? (Yes)

·         Am I incapable to maintain a healthy and consistent weight appropriate to my age, height and build? (Yes)

·         Do my menstrual periods stop or become irregular because of no certain medical reasons? (Yes)

·         Do I spend extensive hours reading about dieting, calorie counting exercising or fitness? (Yes)

·         Do I feel depressed and bad-tempered and like to spend most of my time in solitude? (Yes)

·         Do I show tendencies to be a perfectionist and become irritable when things aren’t perfect? (Yes)

If your answers are in congruence to the ones put in parenthesis beside each question then in all earnest probability you’re struck down with an eating disorder. The earlier you get a comprehensive anorexia, bulimia, obesity disorder or binge eating disorder treatment, the better are your chances of a fast recovery.

Candid Family: Good Communication Helps Teens Avoid Trouble- Rivermend Health

The Importance of Relapse Prevention in Alcohol Addiction Treatment

A relapse is always ominously close to people who have recovered from an alcohol addiction. The perils of an imminent relapse continuously unnerve a person who’s either in the early recovery phase or maintaining sobriety for many years. It has been observed that people who undergo a detoxification on their own under no medical intervention frequently bring on a relapse that happens due to the arousal of severe physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms.

Relapse prevention plays a vital role in addiction to alcohol treatment. This is because abstinence from alcohol leads to a significant void. Once the detox is completed, relapse prevention alcohol counseling is initiated with the primary focus on coming to the aid and abet of patients to identify triggers and stressors and build robust coping mechanisms to stay away from alcohol addiction or tackle it in a more effective manner. Alcohol addiction counseling and recovery also incorporate the aspects to help clients get better in health and wellness, practise living a self-steered life and make an effort to achieve their full potential.

Benefits of relapse prevention alcohol counseling

At RiverMend’s Atlanta recovery center, clients gain an understanding of the distinctive tone of alcohol addiction by hearing it from others. Specially designed group activities enlighten them of the fact that they’re not fighting alone. They are provided with a set of treatment programs and skills to put to use during stressful situations. The principal focus is imposed on activities that foster a healthful and satisfying lifestyle, for example, yoga, fitness, mindfulness, CBT, equine and expressive therapies and self-care know-how.

A professional who specializes in relapse prevention alcohol counseling gives assistance to clients while they embark on the transition to a new and novel support system and fade away from their past negative experiences. Eventually, the goal is centered on helping clients to draw up better choices, fight shy of high-risk circumstances and plan much in advance so as to avoid a relapse when the cravings show a sudden surge. In addition, the Atlanta recovery center also brings into practice real-life skills that reinforce independence, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties and a healthy way of life that aims at putting up a fight against even a chronic relapse. Benefits include:

• ·         Improved coping skills
• ·         Reduced guilt and shame
• ·         Diminished negative emotions and stress
• ·         Enhanced self-confidence
• ·         Improved ability to find a balance
• ·         Refined self-care
• ·         Better self-control and decreased impulsivity
• ·         Greater understanding of addiction and relapse
• ·         Decreased hazard of a relapse
• ·         Minimized risk of re-hospitalization

How does a relapse prevention alcohol counseling help?

Researches indicate that a deft handling of coping skills in the early stage of the alcohol treatment process remarkably diminishes the threats of relapse. A crucial facet of alcohol counseling is educating clients about the physical, emotional and mental stages of relapse.

Relapse prevention bails the clients out of difficult situations by discerning and circumventing external triggers that give rise to cravings for alcohol. Hanging out with drinking buddies is one such notable external trigger. Moreover, during alcohol counseling, underlying triggers like anxiety, depression, stress and boredom are recognized. Clients acquire knowledge of ways to alter unhealthy behavioral and thinking patterns and develop strategies to curtail urges and cravings

What Causes Eating Disorders? Top 5 Vital Factors

Any guesses for the quintessential oppos in committing an offence? Eating disorders and substance abuse most often pair up to form a similar intimacy. Researches and eating disorder information indicate nearly 50% people indulged with eating disorders come up against alcohol or drug abuse. Also, more than 35% of individuals with substance abuse take part in some types of dysfunctional eating behaviour.

These arrangements can constitute some typical forms of a mutual sponger. They generate a vicious cycle leading inexorably to a worsening of the situation filled with distraught emotions, mental agony, drugs, alcohol and weight loss.

Read:- 7 Cardinal Signs That Rule the World of an Alcohol Addict

What Causes Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders, drug abuse and alcohol addiction frequently share a lot of identical inherent issues. That’s why they often have an impact on people simultaneously. These key issues include:

1. Impulsive actions
Research studies show that being impulsive can stoke up eating disorders and concurrent substance abuse. When people fail to put the brakes on actions that are dangerous to their health, career, finances, behaviours and relationships the trait becomes impulsive.

That’s what causes eating disorders. Facets like binge eating disorder and substance abuse that leave people with an uncontrollable urge towards indulging in food or substance with dire consequences are mainly fueled by impulse.

2. Overlapping genetics
A relevant eating disorder information captured from a journal published in 2013 on alcohol and drugs revealed that a few of the selfsame genes that make a person susceptible to developing an addiction can likewise make them prone to disordered eating.

The data also mention that the genes which amplify the risk of alcohol abuse also expose people to jeopardy with behaviours such as binging, purging and laxative misuse.

3. Self-medicating
Substance abuse and eating disorders are regularly in the grip of self-medication which is a significant deterrent to eating disorder recovery.

Often addicted people have impaired coping aptitudes while having latent issues like trauma and mental health disorders. They take recourse to alcohol and drugs to fend for themselves. By the same token, behaviours like binging, purging, over-exercising can fill in a comparative purpose.

Read- Warning Signs Of Pain Medication Abuse

4. Challenging situations
Research indicates troublesome family circumstances, for instance, having parents who abuse on alcohol and drugs, pose threats of eating disorders, substance abuse and mental health maladies like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abysmal interpersonal relationships, unforeseeable irritability and affection problems like a decrepit, offensive and an excessively entrapped parent won’t most likely engender an eating disorder help to recovery.

5. Mental health problems
Numerous studies exhibit that eating disorders and substance abuse co-exist with kindred and repressed psychiatric indispositions, particularly mood and personality swings.

Regardless of the diagnosis completion status of mental health disorders, people still resort to alcohol and drug abuse or screw up eating tendencies to assuage a few of their symptoms.

With the help of useful eating disorder resources like articles on eating disorder treatment options, recovery tools, support groups and beyond, it’s possible to capacitate people battling with eating disorders to engage and bring in a temporary relief.

Mindfulness Alcohol Treatment – Unfold A New Chapter in Your Life with This Innovative Headway

Mindfulness is characterized by "a non-judgmental way of paying attention to emotions in the present moment." With mindfulness you need to focus your attention in the present moment.

If your mind keeps wandering in the past and the future or when strong emotions and cravings originate, mindfulness refocuses the mind to the present moment iteratively.

In the battle against addiction, the concept of mindfulness was introduced by American psychologist Alan Marlatt in the 1980s. The professor used the ancient Vipassana mindfulness technique over a group of prison inmates to help them overcome their alcohol and drug addiction and recover successfully.

Since then, mindfulness has been integrated into various western addiction treatments. These include:

• Mindfulness based Stress Reduction
• Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy
• Mindfulness based Relapse Prevention
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy
• Functional Analytical Psychotherapy
• Cognitive Behavioural Analysis System of Psychotherapy

The goals of mindfulness in alcohol addiction treatment

• The key objectives of mindfulness in curbing addiction include:
• To increase the consciousness of triggers or cues of alcohol addiction.
• To interrupt habitual reactive responses.
• To shift the patient’s thought process from an “automatic pilot” zone to a “mindful observer” area.
• To increase the patient’s tolerance level of discomfort.
• To decrease the urge to alleviate painful emotions with alcohol.
• To acknowledge the “present-day moment” instead of concentrating on the past/future “fixation”.

How to implement mindfulness in alcohol treatment?

In order to incorporate mindfulness based treatment at your alcohol abuse rehab, you need to embrace the person-centric approach. This indicates the acceptance and espousal of a non-judgmental viewpoint that enables you to fabricate an attachment with your addicted patient and create an ecosystem of “unequivocal forbearance”.

Once you’ve built this environment, you’ll need to have various meditation techniques implemented. Amid the meditation process, the patient is required to focus intensely on an object. 

It’s generally the exhalation of air through the nose. This is called mindfulness of breathing. As the mind wanders the patient must try to realign on the object and feel the breath of exhaled air while it’s leaving the nose and touching the lips.

You can implement the following commonly practised meditation techniques.

• Body scanning methodology
• Sedentary and sitting meditation (focused breathing that intensifies awareness, emotions and thoughts all through the body)
• Mountain meditation
• Walking meditation

These meditation techniques are typically carried out in sundry group sessions. You’ll need to instruct your patients about the process and they’ll perform these actions on their own.

You should also include “urge surfing” in this specialized treatment. Urges are considered to be distressful feelings sparked off by a cortisol build-up. 

The concept teaches the patient to only observe their urges and cravings as waves that ebb and rise. They shouldn’t put efforts in combatting or controlling the urge. 

Thus the patient learns how not to react to their cravings which eventually weaken in intensity and disappear altogether if performed correctly and consistently.

• Benefits of mindfulness in alcohol addiction treatment
• The immediate advantages of mindfulness in preventing alcohol dependence are as follows:
• Normalization of heartbeat rate
• Normalization of blood pressure
• Stimulation of a calming and relaxing response
• Settling of stress-provoking responses
• Rousing of sensory awareness 
• Activation of enhanced control towards distraction from alcohol attention

The long-term advantages of mindfulness are the following:

• Dampening of reactivity to stressful situations
• Generation of increased positive emotions
• Formation of increase self-awareness and insight

Best Rehabs in the Country- Recover from Eating Disorders

Compulsive overeating, having negative thoughts about body image or starving to get a pint-sized waist can reach an enormous high if proper medical care is not sought after. Excessive obsession with slim-trim figure or over indulgence in food can spiral out of control within short span, and affected ones will be left to face the brunt of life-threatening health hazards.

Why waste your precious life with eating disorders? Rather take care of health and habit by visiting medical practitioners at the rehab facilities in Atlanta. The need of the hour is to self-analyze or spot unhealthy eating practices among people in your family circle or friend groups.

What’s in the Mind of People Having Eating Disorders?
Eating disorders result out of a mental condition that seems to work in different manner in different cases.

Anorexic people fear of gaining even an ounce of flesh. Even being thin they opt for dietary aids and laxatives to purge (vomit) out food (even if taken in minimum). It is a kind of self-induced chronic starvation followed by hard work-outs and exercises. There have been numerous cases of models and commoners who have been the unfortunate victims of anorexia. Generally, women anorexia nervosa patients outnumber the male patients.

Bulimia patients too, seem to have a typical mental disposition. They always feel that their body have flaws and make desperate attempts to cover them up with loose-fit dresses. Bulimia nervosa affected people can binge on calorie as high as 200 in the shortest time. Queerly, what they binge they purge it out as a measure of compensating the calories gained. It is a kind of guilt-consciousness that makes them go for self-induced vomiting.

Sometimes, disturbed family life and heart breaks in love or personal loss can trigger mental complications like stress, anxiety and depression. This in turn can trigger the desire for binge eating in seclusion and in proportions that exceed the required intake of nutritional food, Tempting desire for food, even when tummy is full, can be the result of an improper hunger signal from the brain.

Any type of eating disorder is nothing but a kind of mental illness. This illness can be driven out by medications and psychotherapy care at the best rehabs in the country.

Get Treated at Eating Disorder Rehab Centers in Atlanta, US
The number of eating disorder patients is ever on the rise according to medical journals and survey reports. Lives of patients can be saved with medical attention. In Atlanta rehab centers for eating disorders there are expert doctors and counselors to bring the patients out on the path of recovery and good eating habits.

Integrated treatment is catered to by a group of therapists, counselors and dieticians. Individual cases are studied to give the best advice and care. One-to-one talk session or group talk therapy is practiced to promote a healthy attitude towards eating or uplifting self-image. Cognitive therapies to battle stress and depression are followed to help both inpatient and outpatient rehab Atlanta providing treatment for eating disorders. Medical facilities at these centers are of a global standard and are to be trusted.

7 Cardinal Signs That Rule the World of an Alcohol Addict

When it comes to making sense of whether you or your loved one has an alcohol addiction, it becomes difficult to be objective. Emotions go berserk, justifications and dissents trigger off mayhem. It seems tough to figure out where to draw the line between an acceptable level and a limit-crossing behavioural tendency. Expert therapists from alcohol treatment centers in Chicago assert that the boundaries are bleary to a reasonable extent.

Here are the 7 noticeable warning signs of alcohol abuse to look out for in yourself or your loved one.
 
1.    You lie about or hide your drinking
Denial is commonly observed in people grappling with alcoholism. Alcoholics usually exhibit a proneness to drink secretly. They effortlessly engage in spreading lies and falsehood about the extent to which they drink to make it seem trivial and scantily important.

2.    You drink to feel better and comfortable
Most of the people who are battling alcohol addiction mishandle the substance due to emotion-laced factors. According to alcohol treatment centers in Chicago, people partake in this dangerous proclivity to ward off the influence of negative feelings like stress, sadness, trauma, anxiety or depression. The relief it offers is just temporary. In the long run, it naturally aggravates the situation.

3.    You experience blackouts regularly
Excessive drinking due to alcoholism can spark off a condition where you stop having any memory of what transpired. Another red flag which renowned alcohol treatment centers often point out! Basically, it implies you drank without restraint. What drives you to drink overmuch? What’s the actual reason behind these sudden and recurrent blackouts? You need to ask yourself these questions.

4.    You show no stoppage once you get going
Alcohol treatment facilities in Chicago frequently come across addicted patients who can finish off bottles in quick succession without any display of trouble or embarrassment. Of course, it’s another pointer that you’re on a binge-drink spree and alcohol has overly invaded you.

5.    You drink under perilous and sensitive scenarios
You take alcohol when/where you really shouldn’t. For instance, before going to work, while driving, boozing against your doctor’s instructions or when you’re under an alcohol treatment medication in Chicago. Although still, nothing has gone awry, repeating such acts can run you into the risks of grave consequences. This strongly indicates that alcohol has become your foremost priority in life.

6.    You fail to care for your responsibilities
If you experience acute problems while executing your household errands or professional commitments owing to your drinking issue, you surely need a visit to the nearby alcohol treatment center and consult a therapist. Because by now, alcohol has conquered your senses! Alcohol has indeed gone too far from an intermittent indulgence to something that genuinely affects your everyday functioning.

7.    You hamper your close relationships
On the off chance that your drinking is engendering disturbing relationship issues with your family members, your significant other and your dearest companions, it's a sure-fire indication that alcohol is a matter of greatest importance to you than even the most beloved people in your life. Looking into this aspect, alcohol treatment centers in Chicago offer a beneficial program of behavioural couple’s therapy to rebuild broken relationships