Anorexia is a Progressive Disorder- Considering Treatment?

It's not too late-

Anorexia is a progressive disease and will worsen over time if gone untreated.

Here is a list of physical damage and issues you may face if you continue your eating disorder. I don’t mean to scare you. I am only telling you the truth so you can make an informed choice to live or to slowly end your life. I hope you choose life because you deserve a long and happy one. You need to separate yourself from the damaging past and toxic people so you can become who you were meant to be. If not, here’s what you will face.

1. Loss of menstrual periods

2. Loss of bone density

3. Liver damage or failure

4. Fertility problems

5. Heartbeat irregularities

6. Heart muscle damage

7. Low blood pressure

8. Convulsions/Seizures

9. Kidney damage & failure

Once your body reaches any of these states it may be too late for you to have your happy life.

Maybe you should consider treatment or at least sitting down to talk with a therapist about your eating disorder. Want to speak with someone right now? 

(The list, courtesy ED for Dummies)

The Difference Between Thoughts and Feelings- Eating Disorder Discussion

Written by Ilissa Banhazl, MFT-

Is this thought rational?

In order to understand yourself better you need to understand the difference between thoughts and feelings. We feel what we think so developing a strong awareness of any automatic negative or anxious thoughts is key. It’s the first step to figuring out what’s going on with you. If you have awareness you can choose to make changes.

For example, I feel fat is not a feeling; it’s a judgment (thought). I feel disappointed is a feeling.

Here is a link to a list of feeling words that you might want to print out to use to help you match with your rational thoughts.

http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/assess/feelings.html

When you have awareness of your thoughts you can look for evidence to support your thought. If it’s false, correct the thought, which will change the feeling. The feeling may change to something more positive and you’ll begin to feel better.

Want to learn more about understanding the difference between thoughts and feelings?

Counseling is available for La Verne, Upland, Claremont and other surrounding cities. Feel free to call for more information. 626-335-0903

Therapy for Eating Disorders and Anticipatory Anxiety

Spend time with your pet to ease anxiety-

By Ilissa Banhazl, MFT-

Many individuals who have an eating disorder may have something we call a dual diagnosis. This means they have some other issue along side the eating disorder. This is very common. It could be anxiety, depression or a numerous array of disorders that can relate to Ed (Eating Disorder). Today I’d like to address teens, young women and mid age women, men of course about the accompanying anxiety. It can be extremely draining all day long everyday. Anxiety can begin in childhood and often continues through adulthood. Many eating disorder patients experience OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder, thoughts and behaviors.

Let me normalize this for you if you are concerned that you my have several of these disorders or tendencies because these conditions inter-relate. Don’t let this overwhelm you. Work with a professional to change certain behaviors and many of the other issues may either disappear or lessen to a tolerable degree.

Anxiety comes from living in a somewhat chaotic or dysfunctional home environment; a recent/past/present traumatic even, being predisposed to anxiety through genetics, and other explainable connections. This applies to teenagers, adults, males and females living in La Verne and Upland and pretty much every city in the United States. This has been proven over and over again through trials with patients.

Today I’d like to explain to you what anticipatory anxiety is and what you can do wit it. Anticipatory anxiety is when you fear and/or worry about an upcoming event. It doesn’t have to be a party; it can be a meeting with a friend, a job interview or telling someone how you feel about something.

Here’s some free advice! You can’t control the future or the past, so why waste your energy worrying and obsessing about something that has or may not even happen?

If you can tell yourself that no matter what happens you will be able to handle it; you may find that you stop thinking about it. Take some time to think through possible scenarios incase things don’t live up to your expectations. What might you feel a say or do? How might you comfort or distract yourself in a healthy way until you’re ready to feel your feelings.

Use that freed up time from worry to experience how you feel and what others say and do in the moment. You can’t get that moment or day back and our days or limited.

Oh sure Ilissa, you make it seem easy to do. No it’s not. Anything worth having is worth working for. I suggest you take a little risk and try and let the worry thoughts go. 

Ilissa’s Eating Disorder Tip #12 – Do You Know What Maternal Narcissism Is?

It's Not About You-

Maternal narcissism is when your mom is self-absorbed and lacks empathy. Moms like this don’t have a strong ego and feel like they are not good enough. They then project their feelings about themselves onto their daughters at a very young age. This helps them to deal with their uncomfortable feelings about themselves. The daughter being so young thinks this is normal and takes on these negative beliefs about herself. She’ll spend the rest of her life trying to figure out why she’s not good enough.

If this sounds like you, adult daughter, teen daughter or mother, why not consider mother-daughter counseling. Narcissistic moms will be difficult to bring into counseling because they tend not to own their stuff. However, narcissism is on a spectrum and you may get lucky. If not, come for individual counseling so we can separate you from your mom mentally and we can find out who you are really meant to be.

You are good enough and so much more!

Want to talk about your realtionship with your mother?

ABC News Sponsored Twitter Chat Welcomes Ilissa Banhazl, Marriage and Family Psychotherapist in Glendora

Please join ABC’s Dr. Besser and myself along with 4 other  eating disorder experts as we chat about males and females with eating disorders. This is a topic that has been long ignored.

This will be an ABC News sponsored Twitter chat, with our Chief Health and Medical Editor, Dr. Richard Besser.

It will be on Tuesday February 28th from  10 am- 11am Pacific Time and 1- 2 PM EST

Go to  www.tweetchat.com To enter the chat type in-  hashtag abcdrbchat

Need to talk about your body image or distorted eating?

ABC News Sponsored Twitter Chat Welcomes Ilissa Banhazl, Marriage and Family Psychotherapist in Glendora

Please join ABC’s Dr. Besser and myself along with 4 other  eating disorder experts as we chat about males with eating disorders. This is a topic that has been long ignored.

This will be an ABC News sponsored Twitter chat, with our Chief Health and Medical Editor, Dr. Richard Besser.

It will be on Tuesday February 28th from  10 am- 11am Pacific Time and 1- 2 PM EST

Go to  www.tweetchat.com To enter the chat type in-  hashtag abcdrbchat

Are you  a male who needs to talk with someone about your body image or disordered eating?

Ilissa’s Eating Disorder & Body Image Tip #11 Eating Disorder Awareness Week

This Monday begins Eating Disorder Awareness. No better time then the present to focus on your health or the health of someone you care about. What can you do to make Eating Disorder Awareness meaningful?

Please leave a comment telling us what you are doing. It may inspire someone else.

Want to find out what you can do for yourself or your loved one? Just asking is helpful. Start now!