Are you struggling with an eating disorder? We can help.
Led by one of the nation’s most prominent clinicians in treating eating disorders, Kimberly Dennis, MD, SunCloud Health is a leader in eating disorder treatment for people with anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders.
A priceless definition of abstinence, by a former patient (shared with permission). All of us at SCH strive for this each and every day.
“Abstinence means waking up every day and dedicating myself to recovery.
Taking care of my body, mind and soul.
For my body, abstinence is avoiding toxic substances and eating nutritious foods to feel my body in a healthy way.
For my mind, abstinence means actively censoring my thoughts and effectively using my coping skills to manage stress and relieve anxiety.
For my soul, abstinence means truly being happy means that I make decisions that are consistent with my morals and values and take full responsibility for my choices.
That’s a very abundant definition of abstinence and not a definition I would in any way, shape or form associate with deprivation.”
VIDEO: TREATING UNDERLYING TRAUMA IS CRITICAL WHEN TREATING SELF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIORS
Dr. Kim Dennis, Medical Director, CEO and Co-Founder, discusses the key to effective trauma treatment.
VIDEO: IT’S HARD TO IGNORE THE LINK BETWEEN TRAUMA, PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS AND EATING BEHAVIORS.
Eleanor Annan, MD, on the link between trauma and eating disorder behaviors.
“We often debate in the eating disorders field what’s the right way to treat people with eating disorders, as if we are all treating the same disease in every patient. I believe we are evolving to a place where we can tailor approaches specifically with food/eating recommendations and medication to individual patients based on what the underlying pathophysiology is (and what other illnesses they may have at the same time). In my experience, not everyone with BED has the same disease at a brain level. Same for BN and AN. In medicine, if someone has a bacterial infection causing a pneumonia with symptomatic cough, we treat them with a different medicine than a person with a viral illness causing pneumonia with a symptomatic cough.”
What works vis a vis food/meal plan for person A with BED might be very damaging to person B who meets the same diagnostic criteria but has different underlying etiology rooted in their neurobiology.
At the same time, there are more universal influences on ED development (media/ societal and medical sickness around weight and size) which are effectively addressed with HAES approach for all patients (and subclinical populations as well). I do think there is room for clinical sophistication tailored to the individuals we see underneath this overarching philosophy.
Dr. Kim Dennis