How to Improve Your Chances of Getting Eating Disorder Help

You can up the odds of getting eating disorder help. Under the best of circumstances, fighting that illness is tough. But you don't have to do it alone and you certainly can find a treatment that is effective and affordable.

Explore Alternatives

Eating disorders like binge eating and bulimia are created and sustained, at least in part, by mistaken beliefs. The first step is to overcome the mistaken belief that you are stuck, that you have no alternatives. You do.

Not convinced? Look around and you'll see. There are many who have suffered the same problem. They're better now.

Look online, in the Yellow Pages, and ask friends and you'll soon see where they got the help. Free university research programs exist in many cities with colleges. Clinics are common. Online programs are available.

You can explore alternatives in another way. Ask yourself whether you can make different choices. You may say, "Yes," but that affirmative may exist in a fantasy land. That is, you recognize it's true in theory, but don't really feel it as an immediate option for you.

You can choose differently in reality today, right now. Sure, you won't overcome your overeating disorder in an instant by an act of will. That's a large, long-term goal. That larger result has to be achieved in small steps.

You can, for example, research healthy eating programs right now. It requires only that you search, click, and read. Right this minute, you can choose to wait five minutes to eat, in order to seek some eating disorder help. Tomorrow, it will be easier to wait six minutes, then ten, then an hour.

Change Your Emotions

Anytime we have felt some way for a long time, maybe a lifetime, it can be hard to see how we could feel differently. Our emotions just seem to be "there" like a tree in the yard that's always been there.

The truth is more complex. Emotions have causes. Some part of them may be genetically programmed, some part are no doubt influenced by society. But there is a core personal part, too. That part is in your control, at least in the long run.

Binge eating, bulimia and other eating disorders are caused in part by negative emotions. Mistaken evaluations that lead to shame, guilt, anxiety, etc. can be examined and altered.

It's not easy. It often requires professional guidance. But it is possible. The thousands of boys and girls, men and women who have gotten better are proof of that. They once thought and felt as you do. They changed.

Prepare to Act

Finding the affordable, effective treatment options in your area is a good step. Recognizing that emotions caused by past events, past thinking can be changed is essential. But in the end, to change you must act.

That's the hardest part, for sure. Everything up to that is preparation, exploration, and understanding. To change means to choose differently, to act differently.

It means to eat healthy food in the right amounts. It means to have a different relationship to peers, friends, family, and people in general. It means to act in ways other than we have in the past.

Doing so will not only improve your chances of getting eating disorder help. It will up your odds of becoming healthy... to 100%.