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Early treatment makes sense for people with eating disorders

The Athens News, USA
Mar. 7, 2005
athensnews.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Monday March 7, 2005

Statistics are on the side of those with eating disorders if they seek early treatment, according to a press release from Crossroads Christian Counseling in Albany.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), if treated in the first five years, bulimia’s recovery rate is 80 percent. In one study, anorexics were only slightly less successful if appropriate treatment was promptly sought. However, of the estimated 15 million in this country with an eating disorder, only 10 percent will ever seek treatment, and of those who do not reach out for help, a staggering 300,000 could die, the release said.

Several things stand between eating-disorder sufferers and appropriate treatment, Jeff Bryson, licensed marriage and family therapist with Crossroads Christian Counseling, said in the release. For one, he said, there is the unfounded fear that the treatment team wants to “fatten them up.” (CCC is a community outreach of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center near Albany.)

According to the release, Bryson is an eating-disorders specialist who practiced at the world-renowned Remuda Ranch eating-disorders treatment center before moving to southeast Ohio. He is currently working with his wife, also a therapist, on a self-help book for husbands of women with eating disorders.

The release cited statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) confirming that fatalities from eating disorders are 12 times higher than the annual death rate of all other causes of death combined among females ages 15-24. NIH also concurs with NEDA that early treatment greatly increases treatment success rates.

In the release, Bryson said treatment has improved markedly in the past 30 years, and recovery rates are continuing to climb. He said he believes this trend can serve as encouragement to face this potentially fatal disease and allay the fear of failure, something that often stops treatment before it can start.

“Really, the only requirement for treatment to be successful is an openness to developing a therapeutic bond with the therapist and therapy processes,” he said in the press release. “I’m always honest that treatment is difficult and challenging, but dropping out of treatment is usually the biggest reason for treatment failure. Those who stick with it have a very good chance for successful outcome.”

A self-test for eating disorders is available online at www.wellspringretreat.org/edtest.html. For more information about the eating disorders treatment program headed by Bryson at Crossroads Christian Counseling, located on Woodyard Road in Albany, call 698-0000.

Although the work of the Christian counseling center is rooted in Christian principles, the release said, clients do not have to embrace the Christian faith to benefit from the treatment, and there is no proselytizing.