Eating disorders are a serious, but often hidden difficulty that can have a serious impact upon someone’s life. Although someone can have a diagnosis of one of the eating disorders (e.g. Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating), people rarely fit into one box neatly. There are over 725,000 people in the UK who have lives affected by having an eating disorder.
If left untreated, they can become increasing more serious and, ultimately, one’s life can be threatened. However, it is important to point out that although eating disorders are a serious problem, they are treatable and recovery is possible. The key is to get help as quickly as possible, as sooner as someone engages in treatment the better the chance of a full recovery.
Although we are still unclear about what are the causes of an eating disorder, psychological treatments are the main approach in working with an eating disorder (see NICE guidelines, 2004). As detailed above, we have worked with a high number of people with eating disorders and we have developed a significant amount of expertise in this field. Not only have the team developed these skills in our clinical work, but John has undertaken internationally renowned research in the area of eating disorders. He published over 45 papers, edited one book and presented at a number of international conferences (leading ones in the field). He has also developed some new ways of working, including more emotion focused approaches in the treatment of eating disorders. We are undertaking some research studies on these new ways of working and we are hopeful that this will open up a new avenue of psychological treatments of eating disorders.
Although these are exciting avenues of research, most of our work uses either CAT or CBT and we work very closely with GPs. Given the health risks attached to having an eating disorders, it is our professional opinion that it is imperative to have a close working relationship with your GP to ensure that your care and treatment is safe, as well as effective. Given our level of experience of working with people with eating disorders, we do fully understand that living with an eating disorder can be a living torment and how often other people struggle to understand why ‘someone just doesn’t eat’/ ‘can’t stop eating’. We are very patient and are fully committed to working with people with eating disorders and, if appropriate, family, partners and other carers.
