Treating Eating Disorders

Individual counseling is just one way of treating Eating Disorders, but may be used as part of a blended approach in a treatment center.  Individual counseling sessions can focus exactly on your individual issues and so can be a powerful source of change.  They can also identify your root issues and help you to discover new sources of strength.  Part of learning recovery from an eating disorder is to become more confident, learn to be assertive and how to communicate effectively, find ways to validate and process your emotions, gain self-respect, and discover ways to deal with anger, stress, and sadness without relying on your Eating Disorder.

There are several different approaches to counseling.  Most often a therapist will blend together methods from these approaches to best suit the client.  This more flexible approach is one of the hallmarks of a successful counseling intervention.  By employing the methods and understanding from the various schools of thought a therapist can provide a more customized treatment plan for the client.

It is often very difficult to deal with a drug addict. People who are in the grip of drug addiction are seldom rational and can be very hard to talk to. Drug addicts are often very dishonest and manipulative people. It is difficult to decide how to proceed in a friendship or relationship with somebody who is addicted to drugs.

People entering drug rehab centers in South Africa often show signs of being depressed. It is sometimes difficult in the early stages to tell the difference between depression as a result of the losses of addiction and depression that is caused by a seperate mental disorder.

The area of the brain that is associated with the emotional content of memories is the amygdala which is part of the limbic system. It constantly receives information as the person experiences the world, translates and stores them into emotional memories. For people who abuse substances the "high" (intense euphoria) of using becomes strongly associated with the action of using. In a sense the brain takes a photograph of the moment and remembers this as the acme of happiness. Any future pleasure is compared to the chemically induced euphoria. Many people arrive in drug rehab or alcohol rehab centers in South Africa not knowing how to experience pleasure in normal ways. They feel lost without chemicals and don't know how to have fun without being drunk or high.

Alcoholics are more susceptible to developing mental illness than the rest of the population. People who abuse alcohol are also at a much higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than anyone else. A small percentage of alcoholics who arrive in an alcohol treatment center (or drug rehab) show the signs of a brain disorder known as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.