I've been told that part of the challenge in treating women is getting them to understand the normal process of aging. Women need to understand that the waistline they enjoyed as younger women is an unrealistic goal in middle age. Some female weight gain and for sure body reshaping is a result of normal hormonal and metabolic shifts, the natural result of aging and menopause.
That's not to say women in mid life now have an excuse to gain weight. They don't and neither do men. However, no matter how much they diet and exercise their body isn't going to look like it did in their twenties – unless they go overboard and spend hours on the treadmill. Regular exercise does play a very important and positive role for women as they age but excessive exercise is asking for trouble.
Finding the source of the eating disorder is the key in the treatment process. Unresolved adolescent or childhood traumas and conflicts are often the challenge that both patient and therapist face. Dealing with their feelings about aging and understanding that the body does slow down becomes part of the treatment.
I have decided to take an inventory of my progress. An inventory of the day I decided I would recover from an eating disorder.
I entered the Facility in February, 2007. The Facility was a place that was about how to treat women who suffer from eating disorders from the inside out. It wasn't about just feeding my once starved body but about treating my broken and damaged heart and repairing the inner turmoil that was going on inside that had poisoned my mind and ate my soul.
Once I decided to dig in and really do some intense work on healing the traumatic events that had happened to me as a child, it was then I could start to see myself as a woman. You see I just went along with the motions of portraying I was a perfectly happy child that grew up to be a perfectly happy woman. Wow! I should have won the Academy Award for the best lying actress in her own life story. I even had myself convinced I was perfectly happy an adult.
I never realized until I started the healing process how important my inner child was to me. As I started to confront the trauma from the past I thought my inner child was so far gone that she would not be reachable. Boy was I wrong and I'm glad I was wrong!
By allowing my inner child to resurface and be part of my journey to recover, and not just recover from having an eating disorder, but allowing oneself to heal my body, my mind and my soul. To allow the three of them to be one.
This was a huge step for Sydne and one that she needed for healing to take place. More on Sydne's inner child in our next post. Until then, best wishes for a healthy and peaceful new year.
Ruthan Brodsky
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