Eating Disorders, Addiction, and OCD: Know the Cycles that Keep you Stuck
When suffering with mental health diagnosis, it is not only the condition itself that causes distress, but also feeling afraid and confused about why you feel the way you do and how to find relief. One of the benefits of therapy is having someone who can help you answer those questions and guide you towards both alleviating your suffering and establishing realistic tools that maintain your progress.
I have years of experience supporting clients struggling with eating disorders, OCD, and healing from trauma. I believe that the more you know, the more empowered you are to take meaningful action. My hope is that as you learn about the cycles that perpetuate mental health disorders you will feel less alone. Regardless of what “diagnosis” you might suffer from you are connected to others through common humanity and you are not alone. These cycles perpetuate themselves; it is not your fault. It is only once you’re aware that you can become curious about doing something different with the support of your treatment team. Look over the two diagrams below and consider your own experience, if any, with these vicious cycles.
The Eating Disorder Cycle works in a similar way:
Distress/Mental Obsession with weight, shape, appearance, food which leads to Anxiety, Shame, Percieved lack of control which leads to Compulsive Eating Disorder Behavior (Bingeing, Purging, Restricting, Exercising, Counting, Body Checking, Weighting, Measuring, Purging, Over-Exercise, Looking at old Pictures, Pinching Stomach) which Leads to Temporary Relief/Sense of Control + Victory which leads to Return of Internal Distress/Mental Obsession (but this time, you have even more distress because of the affects of compulsive behavior) and the cycle continues…
As you might have noticed, all of the cycles begin with either internal distress, anxiety, or obsessive thoughts. All of the cycles include a behavior or compulsive thought/action that provided temporary releif. All the cycles include the return of internal distress/obsessive thoughts.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a popular treatment intervention for OCD, Eating Disorders, and Addiction. The premise of Cogntive Behavioral Therapy is identifying and re-examime unhelpful thinking patterns. The goals include adjusting thinking patterns so that the new patterns lead to more helpful emotions and behaviors. For example, if the thought is
“If I don’t work out right now I will gain five pounds and have to cancel my date on Friday night”
The therapist would guide you to find a more rational thought
“It is not logical that I can gain five pounds from one piece of pizza. If I choose to believe that, It will keep me from enjoying the date I have been looking forward to.”
The hope is that, by practicing new rational thoughts, the person would calm down in their emotional response and thus the compulsion to exercise would be reduced and the cycle would be interrupted.
I think that examining our thoughts with curiosity and choosing new helpful thoughts is a powerful tool and it holds merit in changing our emotional state and behaviors.
However….
I want to offer an additional insight into these cycles. If you notice, the compulsive behaviors (eating disorder behaviors, OCD rituals, substance use) are actually “effective” mechanisms that soothe and regulate real experiences of high arousal and physical anxiety. In some cases, the obsession and anxiety can lead a person to enter into a state of panic. If I am experiencing an intrusive thought/obsession…
“If I do not lock my front door seven times, I will get robbed”
that thought can cause a fight-or-flight response in my body that requires I do something to calm down. If I try and think my way out of it, I might not have access to the rational part of my brain because I am being flooded with chemicals that make my body feel unsafe thus reinforcing the percieved validity of the intrusive thought.
The goal is to engage with new behaviors that, if practiced consistently, could give you relief that LASTS versus the temporary relief you got from your OCD, eating disorder, or substance use compulsions. This is not just replacement therapy, where you replace the disordered behavior with a positive one. It is not about ending “bad” behaviors, it is about giving your brain and body the gift of trusting you to take care of it, to soothe it, and to regain access to your emotions and bodily sensations without the harmful compulsions that did not work long term.
Additionally, it could be part of the “cure” as to why you have the internal distress or obsessions in the first place. Maybe growing up, you did not have caregivers that were attuned to your needs or were not the best at soothing you or teaching you to acess the wisdom of your body and emotions. Maybe you have relational trauma that caused you to not fee safe in your body. The point is, learning how to be aware of your emotional and bodily state and learning how to regulate and soothe said state is a profoundly powerful skill set.
There are many ways you can learn to self-soothe, regain access to your bodily and emotional sensations, and regulate yourself.
Here are some websites that provide ideas for learning some basic skills:
https://positivepsychology.com/self-soothing/
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/biology-of-calm-how-downregulation-promotes-well-being-1027164
https://www.mindmypeelings.com/blog/window-of-tolerance
This is a lot to learn, and each person is different. There are a myriad of factors that impact each persons ability to understand and execute these new skills. You don’t have to walk this road alone, or do it perfectly! If you want support in breaking these cycles and empowering yourself to heal, please consider seeking the guidance and support of a caring therapist.
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