How Long Does It Take To Recover from a Severe Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders come in many shapes. None of them is good news. In a worst-case scenario, a person can have a severe eating disorder, and that’s a condition that affects the quality of life of a person to a huge extent. You do not want to go through it, but it can happen to anyone.

When it happens it’s vital that you follow the doctor’s guidelines, and work on your full recovery. Not being able to eat what you like, when you want, and to have a normal diet is like going through hell. Anyone who has experienced it knows this.

The worst part is, there’s no easy way out. This disorder disrupts an individual, and while recovery is possible, and quite often is the result, it is not an easy path. Everyone who’s faced this condition had only one question – when will it end? This is also a tough question to answer.

Does it ever end? This is not a romantic tale, unfortunately. When you face an eating disorder, the thing is that you can beat it, but the struggle of not having it again remains. So, this begs the question how long does it take to recover from a severe eating disorder? While we’ll jump to answering this question as soon as possible, let’s first talk about, what’s a severe eating disorder.

What is a Severe Eating Disorder?

This is a serious matter. While you’d believe that an eating disorder is a physical condition, you’d be wrong about it. It is, in fact, an mental illness. It is the only one that is followed by severe physical complications, that if not treated properly, and one time, can have adverse effects on our well-being and even lead to death.

For one, if you check out this dentist in Decatur, they’ll tell you that eating disorders can actually cause dental and oral health problems such as cavities and periodontal diseases.

Our bodies are nearly perfect organisms, but when you have both the mind and the organs pitted against it; it will crumble. Eating disorders can happen to anyone, and it’s usually the consequence of malnutrition, overexercising, lack of diet, and even starvation. If you enter the late stages of a severe eating disorder the consequences can be deadly, and this is not an exaggeration.

While this sounds dreadful, it’s not the end of the world. There are ways to treat it, successful ways, but you need to start working on it as soon as possible. Of course, you need to be aware that this is not an issue you can tackle o  your own. No, when you see even the first signs of an ED, on yourself or a loved one, medical assistance is needed straight away.

There are even outlets such as rosewoodranch.com that can help you while you handle this issue. When facing an eating disorder, both our body and mind need healing, and you can’t be sure on your own where to start. So, seeking professional help is the best route to take. Let us repeat once again. This is not a condition you or anyone should take lightly. The reasons are simple. The more time you leave it unattended, the longer your treatment will last, which will also lead to a prolonged recovery.

What About The Recovery?

When it comes to ED, this is the primary question. Why? Well, people want to get well. They want it now, but that’s not how things work in life and sickness. It all depends on how and when you approach this issue, and how hard you are working on resolving it. Also, there are a few different programs, and not everyone goes through the same path. That’s right.

We aren’t saying much with this sentence, but we’re speaking the truth. Some people bounce back quickly. Also, some fight this battle for a prolonged period.  For some, it’s like a one-day war expedition that results in surrender and no bullets fired. For others, it’s like the Battle of Passchendaele combined with the Battle of Thermopylae.

Telling it like this is frustrating, we know. But that’s just how things are. Unfortunately, it is as we said – when it comes to ED both your mind and your body suffer. This is why a complete recovery is needed for the process to be deemed a success. This is why we split the recovery part into two sections – medical and psychological.

 

When you want to get it over with ED you need medical attention. This doesn’t have to be extreme but you’ll require stabilization, and you need it as s on as possible. This is not an exact science, and while we’re talking about medicine, the recovery and treatment will depend on your case.

While not all cases are the same the general medical recovery includes working on the restoration of your previous weight or maintaining it healthy, improving heart rate and dealing with high or low blood pressure and normalizing it,  working on your overall behavior towards the disorder, and regulating body functions on all levels.

When you achieve stable levels in these departments the time is right to move towards helping yourself mentally. Both steps are important, but your body needs to be the first one to experience steps being made forward.

Psychical Recovery

While you need to end to your body first, one could argue that you got the easier part done. Let us be clear, both are hard. But, when your medical stabilization is over, and your body is in the right place, it’s time to move your mind in that direction too. When it comes to mind it’s all about challenging it the right way. Eating disorder happens when the mind is not prepared to tend to the needs of the body.

Because of this, while your body might recover quickly your mind might continue to suffer for a while. After months or years of staving off food or eating too much, losing weight or gaining it, and being preoccupied with other things and not your well-being it’s hard to go back to normal. Being able to stay away from a Big mac or eating through it with ease is one hell of a struggle. Being there is hard, but overcoming it, is a massive win. One you need to achieve.