For Patient
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1.Be Mindful of When You Started to Adopt an Excessive Eating Pattern
Patients should observe whether such eating pattern is happening on a regular basis. Binge eating can become a habit. But you will be aware of it if you pay close attention to your behaviour. Alone at home, after spending some time with friends or after being told off by your boss may lead to binge eating. Patients are advised to keep a record of events, thoughts and feelings they had before they adopt an excessive eating pattern. That way, they may realize that most of their binge eating behaviour is related to their emotional turmoil. Having found out about their behavioural pattern and emotions, eating disorder sufferers can avoid certain circumstances that trigger binge eating or alternatively, even if they do come across those circumstances, they will be more alert or try to divert their attention to something else in order to reduce the tendency to binge eat.
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2.Be Mindful of Your Emotions
Sometimes, we eat not because we want to satisfy our physical needs. For instance, some people eat continuously because they feel empty and lonely. Have you noticed that you would naturally turn to eating when you are stressed, upset, lonely, nervous, bored etc? A research shows many people turn to food, especially deserts, impulsively when they are under pressure. In fact, such desire for sweet food is not merely a psychological response. Itās also because pressure causes the adrenal glands to secrete cortisone. A continuously high level of cortisone will increase oneās appetite. Intake of glucose increases the secretion of serotonin, which relaxes oneās feelings.
Such phenomenon is very prevalent, but this is not abnormal. However, if eating becomes the only way to cope with problems, one may suffer from eating disorder. Sufferers often lose their confidence because they have lost control over their lives. They wrongly switch their focus to easier tasks, which donāt involve other people, such as weight and body figure control etc. By controlling their weights successfully, they regain confidence and satisfaction. Nevertheless, drawing a link between confidence and weight may result in one being controlled by his weight. Then, he loses himself again. Therefore, patients should notice whether eating and losing weight is a common response to avoid troubles and to shift their attention away from problems.
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3.Abandon Pessimism and Negative Thinking
Many people suffering from eating disorders have a reflexively negative mind, i.e. if they fail to lose weight, they are useless; hence it is hard to find a job and they are destined to fail. Patients must undertake cognitive behaviour therapy to demand evidence to support their thoughts. In this way, they will realize that a lot of their assumptions are ill-founded and ridiculous. On the other hand, many patients are very demanding of themselves. For instance, if his boss doesnāt praise him for his work, he thinks his boss is dissatisfied. Such ways of thinking and strict self-demands will continuously dampen their confidence. It is particularly easy to trigger binge eating when one constantly lives under tension and stress. Patients should try to keep an eye on themselves and undergo repeated verification processes to find out whether they are thinking negatively and if so, take actions to turn it into a positive one.
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4.Abandon the Wrong Weight-losing Habits and Maintain a Normal Diet
According to the statistics taken from HEDA's hotline, about 90% of eating disorder sufferers have been adopting a wrong method to lose weight before they are diagnosed with eating disorder. For example, daily intake of food with extremely low calories absorption, use of weight loss products, excessive exercising and self-induced vomiting etc. Unhealthy weight-losing habits do not have a lasting effect. In addition, it damages oneās health and may lead to eating disorder if left untreated. Some patients eat little for breakfast and lunch, but eat excessively for dinner. We strongly advise patients to adopt a normal eating pattern ā three balanced meals. This is to prevent them from over-eating at night.
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5.Learn to Accept Your Body Figure
People suffering from eating disorders are often dissatisfied with their body figure. They mistakenly think āslimā is considered the standard. So they push themselves to lose weight. Apart from post-natal factors, innate body structure like bone structure, metabolism, DNA etc also greatly affect our body figure. However, all those are out of our control. When your body figure is standard, it is unnecessary or even impossible to slim down a particular part of your body (such claims that you can slim down a particular part of your body have not been scientifically proved). Therefore, we should recognize that everyone has a different body figure, just like how people of different races have different skin colours and cultures. Do not over-emphasize on appearance and overlook whatās inside. We shouldnāt use appearance and body figure to measure oneās confidence. Learn to accept your body. Do not randomly criticise other peopleās body figures because everyone is unique. Unfortunately, losing weight has become a trend, which attempts to give everyone a moulded body shape. Such phenomenon is a reflection of their lack of confidence.
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6.Weight and Body Figure Are Not the Right Scales to Measure Yourself
Eating disorder sufferers often use the content and quantity of food to determine whether they are successful or not. For instance, they blame themselves for failing to resist the temptation of deserts and think they are useless. If they manage to lose weight, they feel successful and confident. In fact, eating has nothing to do with oneās self-value, because our worth does not lie in our ability to control our weights. Instead, it lies in our achievements of meaningful matters.
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7.Increase Our Ability to Analyse the Media Message and Advertisements
The mediaās message and advertisement on weight-losing programmes are very attractive indeed. But think about this: if you can lose weight without the need to go on a diet, to exercise or to take medication, then there will be no more fat people on earth. As wise consumers, we should read these media messages with scepticism. Do not blindly believe in them and become their guinea pigs. In fact, the so-called advertisements only aim at increasing the audiencesā or consumersā desire to purchase, in order to raise the sales of their products and services. As a result, many advertisements are exaggerated and superficial, and they often hide their shortcomings. You must recognize and remember that there is not free lunch in this world.
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8.Look for Professional Assistance at the Appropriate Time
Most people suffering from eating disorder hope to improve their conditions by self-motivation. We encourage patients to experiment with a variety of methods. Nevertheless, the patients, as the persons involved, may not necessarily notice their problems since they are used to it. Help from outsiders may result in higher efficiency and have better effects. In addition, some patients refuse to get help and miss the best time for treatment. This has a profound impact upon the therapy. Therefore, if eating disorder sufferers have tried persistently but the conditions failed to improve and are getting worse, they should seek help from professionals as soon as possible so that the treatment will not be delayed.
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From Fellow Patients
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