Society, environment, home and school settings can play a huge role in a person’s propensity towards developing an eating disorder. When your life is dominated by physical appearance being the most important quality, you may tend to have a higher risk of acquiring an eating disorder. While it is good to want to eat the right things and be physically fit at all times, we all come in different shapes and sizes. As with personality, each person’s body type is different, so even when a person is physically fit, they can often heavier or lighter than someone else. The peer pressures that teens face daily have not fundamentally changed over years. A teenager who carries around few extra pounds, or appears larger than their peers, is a target for teasing and is often left out of by their classmates. If the teenager does not feel secure about their body, they will often, in a secrecy associated with shame, do something to change it. Image is everything to them and the average teenager, especially girls, want to be accepted. This will often be the cause of future bouts with bulimia and anorexia. It is dangerous for a young person to start down this road. Because most teens become obsessive in their ventures, they very rarely know when to stop losing weight and often go too far.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Anorexia is an eating disorder that can develop due to a person’s negative or poor self-image. When a person sees himself as less than perfect and their mirrored reflection is not acceptable, they take drastic steps to improve their appearance. Obsessed with their desire to achieve this perfection they begin down a road of no return. Innocently enough, they take steps to lose weight. A person suffering from this disorder will start slowly by reducing their intake and avoiding junk foods. It isn’t long though before the person suffering from disordered eating rapidly increases their measures for immediate weight reduction with full blown anorexia. Then skipping meals, the anorexic begins the plunge into unsafe waters. Eventually they are hardly eating, and the starvation of self had set in. It is now that they are noticeably frail and weak. Barley able to function the anorexic turns to the mirror once again and still cannot see himself as thin. This disorder has now consumed this person and controls their life. Recovering from this disorder is difficult because the person who suffers from it cannot see himself as others do, but rather they view themselves as always fat, no matter what the true weight. Someone in recovery from anorexia can relapse, just like an alcoholic can take a drink. Treatment for the eating disorder can prevent this. Through family support and much therapy to reverse their low self-esteem and opinion of self, a person can recover from an eating disorder such as anorexia just as an alcoholic can recovery from their addiction.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Obesity is really developing into a nationwide epidemic. America has been cited as the heaviest country in the world because of our national weight average. Children who suffer from obesity usually have parents who suffer from obesity as well. Even though the parents may not have healthy eating habits, they do not try to change. Therefore, these habits are passed on down to the children who, in turn, suffer from obesity themselves.

The problem with obesity is that it can lead to major medical complications, including heart problems and diabetes. Children are also under pressure at school and from media influences, all who say that being overweight is taboo. It is only natural, then, that children will try to find ways to lose that weight and be accepted. Unfortunately, diets and exercise may take too long, so they turn to drastic measures: eating disorders. Not fully understanding the consequences of these disorders, children will start starving themselves or binging and purging as a way to avoid more weight gain and as a way to lose weight now. The problem can be even deadlier if the child is diabetic and discovers that withholding insulin can prompt weight loss. Because a child’s mind is short sighted, the fact never registers that their actions may result in their deaths.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

It can be hard for up and coming stars in the country to adjust to the pressures placed on them. One such pressure is that of maintaining your weight and staying thin so that you will be desired. If you so much as gain a pound, the paparazzi and media are claiming that you have gotten fat and you must have serious underlying issues.

The real fact of the matter is that these publications do not care about the people that they hurt. The job is simply a high-end paycheck, a means to live. Photographing celebrities in their lowest moments is not exactly fair. We all have our low moments and I know that I do not want mine plastered all over the internet in the shape of doctored photos. However, body image issues tend to plague younger celebrities who are fighting with seasoned veterans of the industry. In order to stay thin, they eat very little and when they do eat, it is not healthy food. Because average girls and boys growing up look to the media to define sexy, these celebrities are not doing anybody a favor. They are promoting poor nutritional habits that will result

in a lifetime of problems.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Because alcoholics often have families who have learned to enable their alcoholism and struggle to change family dynamic, the question arises – can you break the cycle of alcohol addiction in families? Fortunately, the answer seems to be yes.

The key becomes addressing the family unit as it surrounds the alcoholic, and educating the family member on how the family dynamic needs to change to support the sobriety of the family member with alcohol addiction. It is often called a family disease because alcoholism affects every member of the family, to some degree. In many cases, all the other family members become enablers because it’s easier than confronting the drinker with the consequences of the drinking, no matter how severe or how spread across the family those consequences may be. But with the denial that there is a problem within the family, all those family members become complicit in permitting the destructive behavior to continue.

This is the cycle of alcohol addiction within a family: there is an alcoholic, there are the all the supporters of the alcoholic’s drinking behavior, and then there is no one who wants to upset the status quo. Sadly, that status quo is often unhealthy and unpleasant for all the members of the family. It is only when one or more family members are willing to change the way things have always been that you can break the cycle of alcohol addiction in families.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Eating disorders have been known about for many years now. Anorexia and bulimia are probably the most recognized of the bunch. Just the fact that a person would rather starve themselves, vomit and take laxatives in order to lose weight, is startling. But the fact is that many Americans partake in these practices every day. In order to end the cycle you first have to address the root of the problem. When a person develops these disorders they are usually insecure with themselves. They don’t like the way they look and will do anything to look as they feel they should. The problem is that in their efforts they go too far — wanting the weight off immediately. Once a person has admitted that they do have a problem, the long process of recovery begins. It has not been proven that eating disorders are 100% treatable, in that many people go through the rest of their lives fighting each day to overcome their disorder. If a person has admitted it early on in their disease, the chances are far greater for recovery. The problem is that most of us don’t notice that anything is wrong until the physical signs are so prominent we can’t help but notice.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Co occurring disorders are a mystery to some people. What defines a co occurring disorder is when two conditions exist at the same time. The perfect example is found in my younger sister. She is diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and also suffers from a drug addiction. The drug addiction, I believe, is a result of the bipolar disorder. My sister says that the drugs help her to stop fighting within her loud mind. This is the case with millions of people worldwide and it is a lot more common than you may think. Drugs are often what a person will turn to when the noise in their heads gets too loud.

Treating co occurring disorders is possible. First the active addiction must be eliminated. This can be done through rehabilitation – either inpatient or out patient. Once the detoxification is complete, the underlying cause – in my sister’s case bipolar disorder – needs to be diagnosed and treated. Therapy is the best option for diagnosing an illness such as bipolar disorder. However, while the co occurring disorders can be treated, they must first be diagnosed. Some doctors will spot the drug addiction without the underlying cause. If someone like my sister is sent to rehab to battle her drug addiction but not her bipolar disorder, she is far more likely to relapse than someone who does not have an underlying medical illness or condition.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

When an individual becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol the entire family suffers. Dealing with the stress and anxiety of their loved ones addiction can become overwhelming to say the least. For family families they live in shame. Hiding behind closed doors they try their best to function and carry on as a normal family does. Since an addict is only concerned about their next fix little or no attention is paid to his children. Living a lie a child can often retreat from society and shut down. Other children with a stronger personality may simply become uncontrollable. Either way the children suffer. This behavior unfortunately carries over to school. Unable to get the support they need at home they often fall behind in their studies. Their bottled up feelings can overwhelm them to the point of aggressive behavior and begin picking fights at school causing them more grief. When a child is forced to be the responsible party for the parent he grows up too fast, often missing out on his childhood. Counseling at school may offer little or no comfort to the child because he is not about to let out his secret behind closed doors.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

It seems like every day you hear of a celebrity going into rehab. Lindsey Lohan, Jason Wahler and David Arquette are just a few celebrities who have recently checked into rehab in an attempt to become sober. A person has to wonder, though, with pictures surfacing of stars meandering about while in rehab, just how serious are celebrities taking their rehab stints?

A prime example of a celebrity in trouble is Lindsay Lohan. Lohan has been in and out of drug rehab several times over the last few years. Each time she goes through treatment, she has turned back to drugs and continued on as if nothing had happened. However, her stints in rehab were not of her own will. As punishment for crimes she committed while under the influence, judges have sentenced her to both detox and subsequent stays in a facility. As pictures surfaced of her hanging around her rehab clinic, smoking and talking on her cell phone, it became apparent that she was not taking rehabilitation efforts seriously.

When celebrities do not take rehab seriously and make multiple visits in a year because of a judge’s order, they are portraying a completely different experience than that of the average drug addict going through treatment. Such portrayals can be seriously misleading and when drug addicts who are expecting the same treatment enroll in the facilities, they are in for a reality check.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery

Once a loved one has been diagnosed with an eating disorder, such as bulimia, it can be a long road ahead. The first step for the individual is to admit that they have the disorder. Once they recognize this, they can move on to the first stages of recovery. Recovery will involve extensive therapy, and they will have to look at issues of self-esteem and self-loathing. Depending on the severity of the case and the individuals needs, therapy can either be individual or in a group setting. But what about the families involved?

It is recommended that all family members get educated on the disorder. There are family support groups that offer just that, support for the family while the patient is going through recovery. The family will learn through the experiences of others, literature and films of how this can happen, and hear from individuals recovering from an eating disorder. They learn the signs and what to look out for, while also learning how to best help the patients during their recovery. One of the most important things a family takes away from therapy and support groups is the knowledge that they are not alone and that the disorder can be reversed. The family needs to heal, and support groups offer a sanctuary where they can feel free to discuss their feelings about their loved one, their fears and hopes.

Originally Published on: Ocean Recovery