Addiction and Eating Disorders: Co-Occurring Treatment

Addiction and eating disorders are considered co-occurring disorders. In addition, a co-occurring disorder occurs along with the addiction. The co-occurring disorder can appear before, simultaneously, or after the addiction. We often use the term dual diagnosis interchangeably with co-occurring disorders.

If someone is struggling with a diagnosis of both addiction and an eating disorder, they need specialized treatment. Dual diagnosis treatment considers the symptoms, effects, and underlying causes of both conditions at the same time. That’s important for someone to have positive outcomes in their recovery.

Along with eating disorders and substance addictions, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety often co-occur with drug or alcohol abuse.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, an estimated eight million Americans have co-occurring disorders.

Someone diagnosed with a mental health disorder is twice as likely to develop an addiction to substances and vice versa.

Understanding Eating Disorders

Eating disorders aren’t simply about food and body weight. They’re complex mental health disorders that require effective psychological treatment to manage.

The disorders are defined in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, also known as the DSM-5.

In the United States, an estimated 20 million women and 10 million men currently have an eating disorder.
This range of psychological conditions can lead to unhealthy eating habits, often with obsessions over food, weight, body shape, and sometimes excessive exercise.
Severe eating disorders can lead to serious physical health complications or death if untreated.
While anyone can experience an eating disorder, these mental health conditions are common in adolescent girls and young women.

Eating disorders include:

Anorexia nervosa—someone with anorexia may think they’re overweight and have a distorted body image, even if they’re extremely underweight. Anorexia symptoms include calorie restriction, avoiding certain types of food, and constant weight monitoring. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms also frequently occur in people with anorexia nervosa. The mortality rate can be high without appropriate treatment for anorexia nervosa.
Bulimia nervosa—this eating disorder includes recurrent episodes of eating very large amounts of food in a short period of time with a lack of control and then purging to try and get rid of the discomfort and make up for the calories consumed. People with bulimia nervosa might make themselves throw up after a period of binging. Purging is one of the possible compensatory behaviors someone might engage in.
Binge eating disorder—symptoms are similar to bulimia or the anorexia subtype relating to binging. Someone with a binge eating disorder will feel a loss of control and eat large amounts of food in short periods of time. People with binge eating disorder don’t purge following binge episodes.

There are other eating disorders, such as pica, restrictive food intake disorder, and rumination disorder. The three above are most common and are most often associated with substance use disorders. These disorders have a major impact on quality of life and physical health.

Factors that could raise the risk of developing disordered eating include a family history of these disorders or other mental health issues, trauma, or dieting history.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, if you have a personal history of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or anxiety, these co-occurring conditions can increase the risk of an eating disorder.

General signs of an eating disorder can include:

Not being able to stop destructive behavioral symptoms even when trying
Being obsessively preoccupied with food
Not being a healthy weight or able to maintain a normal weight
Compulsive exercise
Dental problems like worn tooth enamel
Changes in menstrual period
Extremely picky eating
Body image dissatisfaction or body image issues
Intense cravings
Strict rituals surrounding dieting or food in daily life
Isolation to hide abnormal eating patterns

The Relationship Between Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse

When someone has a substance abuse disorder, they lose control of their use of drugs or alcohol. A person may develop both an addiction and a physical dependence.

When you’re addicted to a substance, your brain’s rewards centers experience activation when you use it.
Your brain is hardwired to continue seeking things that bring pleasure, which drugs do.
Over time, these effects lead to compulsive substance use that you can no longer control.
You may have cravings and a preoccupation with getting and using more of the substance.
Physical dependence occurs as your body develops a tolerance. You need more and more of whatever the substance is to feel high or get the effects you’re seeking. Your body changes how it makes certain brain chemicals in response to drug or alcohol exposure. If you were to stop using something you depend on, you would experience withdrawal symptoms.

Many factors can increase the risk of becoming addicted to something, and a lot of these factors are similar to the risk factors for eating disorders.

Environment and social factors play a role.
A history of trauma or physical or sexual abuse can raise the risk of eating disorders and addiction.
Mental health is also relevant in both. If you have an untreated mental health disorder, you’re more at risk of conditions like anorexia and addiction.
Using drugs or alcohol can be a coping mechanism or a way to deal with your feelings when you struggle with an eating disorder. Eating disorders are very isolating, and substances can become an escape.

There are other ways the two can be connected as well. Some people develop addictions stemming from the desire to lose weight. If you’re anorexic, you could also use stimulants like cocaine or prescription amphetamines to reduce your appetite and lose weight, which then contributes to addiction.

Eating Disorder Treatment

Like the contributing risk factors are similar for eating disorders and addiction, so are the treatment approaches.

Eating disorders can be managed and treated with psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is a form of talk therapy where you work with a counselor or other mental health professional. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an example of an evidence-backed approach to treating eating disorders. CBT is also very often part of addiction treatment.

When you participate in CBT, you start to understand your distorted thinking patterns driving your emotions and behaviors, so you can then change them.

Medications and medical care may be part of a treatment plan, particularly when someone with an eating disorder also has a mental disorder like depression or anxiety disorders.

Nutrition counseling can help with managing eating disorder symptoms, and it can also help promote recovery from addiction. Nutritional counseling following addiction can help return your body to a sense of balance and restore what was lost in terms of vitamins and nutrients.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment

If you’re seeking help for multiple conditions, one of which is an addiction, dual diagnosis treatment is the best type of program option. An intensive inpatient residential treatment program can be ideal. An inpatient treatment center provides a secure, safe and stable environment which is important in the early days of your recovery.

A dual diagnosis inpatient care plan will work to untangle the complex relationships between your disorders.

Often, dual diagnosis treatment is also trauma-informed since it’s such a common element of the background of many people with co-occurring disorders.

There are different levels of care available, depending on the symptoms you experience and your needs regarding both addiction and identifying eating disorder solutions. Family therapy might also be part of a treatment plan because of the role environmental factors can play in eating disorder behaviors and addiction.

If you’d like to learn about dual diagnosis treatment options, the Silicon Valley Recovery team can answer questions if you call us at 408-547-4089. We can speak confidentially and in a way that you’re comfortable with, wherever you are in your journey or road to recovery.

Overcoming Addiction With A Holistic Approach

Some people might be worried about how to overcome addiction. Addiction is a complex illness with many causes. When overcoming addiction, it’s critical to determine the optimal treatment strategy and approach for individuals suffering from any form of addiction.

All facets of addiction are addressed in a thorough treatment method to lower the likelihood of relapse in the future. This is why addiction is often best treated using a holistic approach. Those who enroll in a holistic addiction treatment program can gain emotional, mental, and physical well-being while removing many forms of addictions from their lives.

What is a Holistic Addiction Treatment

In addition to the person’s physical state, holistic addiction therapy considers the individual’s emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. People frequently confuse holistic care with non-medical care, which isn’t supposed to be so. Non-medical practices are generally included in holistic care, and however, clinical care is also available. At the same time, some ways of holistic care work to help individuals overcome substance abuse without using prescription medicines, while some other methods work without using prescription medical products.

You can use a variety of therapy modalities in holistic care, such as individual talk therapy, mindfulness meditation training, or massage therapy. A holistic approach to treating addiction from all perspectives aims to address the complexity of each patient. A full recovery is more possible when a holistic approach to addiction therapy is used.

Holistic means considering every aspect of the individual’s health. This means that lifestyle, interests, environment, and everything that has to do with that person are used in the healing process. While physical symptoms of addiction aren’t ignored, they aren’t the focus of treatment. Patients have a better chance of achieving long-term recovery if they are treated as a whole rather than just certain parts of their health.

Advantages of Holistic Treatments in Overcoming Addiction

There are many benefits to using a holistic approach to treat addiction and many other health problems. When you use a holistic approach, it helps uncover the reason for the addiction, and this, in turn, provides the knowledge and means to handle the problem correctly. This proves that when there is a problem in a single area of a person’s life, it affects other areas immensely. A good example is developing an opiate addiction after experiencing emotional trauma or physical pain. They usually develop a habit of not taking of themselves, eating unhealthy meals, and much more. This, in turn, leads to depression, making the process of overcoming addiction harder.

Thanks to a holistic approach to treating addictions, these habits can be curbed and help the individual maintain a healthy and stable lifestyle. It does not matter if it is for an individual or a group of people at once. The medical teams usually provide the physical activities needed to release the necessary endorphins necessary by the body. They also provide healthy meals or meal plans for the energy and nutrition needed for a speedy recovery. These strategies help the individual with sobriety and balance in life, especially by developing new and healthy habits.

Common Holistic Treatments

The holistic treatment used by the medical professional depends on the individual and the intensity of the addiction. However, a few of them are commonly used in the healing process.

Recreational Therapy: this is when a certified recreation therapist uses recreation activities to affect the individual’s health positively. These positive effects are usually reflected in the individual’s emotions, spirituality, and physical condition. In truth, it enables the individuals to recreate/reinvent themselves by carrying out activities in a safe and supportive environment. What this process also does, in simple terms, is that it enables the patients to create time for leisure activities.

These activities boost the patient’s mood and also increase their competence and autonomy. Once done correctly, the process improves the overall quality of life of the patient. Besides, it will usually develop into a new hobby that the patient can continue using even outside treatment. With time, they might even meet some new friends along the way!

Dual Diagnosis Treatment: Mental health is a big part of the healing process, and the therapy it requires is quite essential. A dual diagnosis is also called a co-occurring disorder, and it is when someone has an addiction and mental illness simultaneously. This is why treating the underlying mental illness would help the person stay sober. Cooccurring disorders are often visibly seen as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

In this scenario, the patient should get medical attention and counseling sessions from a psychiatrist, addictionologist, and medical staff. The medical professional will inform the family members on recognizing and handling triggering issues before they happen. These medical professionals design programs to break the addiction cycle, and they also help the patient stabilize their moods and teach them how to cope with the problems accordingly.

Sensory Integration Therapy: when sensory stimulations are used to treat a person, it is called sensory therapy. This process uses sensory rooms and makes them more aware of the body and how they feel about themselves. Usually, when patients feel depressed or stressed, they try to consume their substances to cope with it. The sensory rooms teach the patient the different ways to handle these feelings the right way. There are usually comfortable seats, cushions, numerous LED lights, calming imagery, music, and sounds in these rooms to impact most senses in the body.

These help the patient be calm and properly explore their feelings spurred by addiction. In this environment, the patient is encouraged to engage in activities that make them feel good and focus on their strengths, personal care, and interests. This way, the patient can recognize distress and anxiety due to the addiction and teach them how to handle it properly.

Holistic Addiction Treatment in the San Francisco Bay Area

Holistic treatments are not a one-size-fits-all type of treatment. For those worried about overcoming addiction with holistic treatment, there are several methods that the medical expert will recommend to you. These recommendations will be based on your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being and the severity of the addiction.

Silicon Valley Recovery makes sure to provide nothing but the best treatment plan for every patient under our care. Give us a call directly to our office at 408-547-4089 to schedule a consultation and begin your journey to full recovery!