ABSTRACT
Chapter Sixteen, thinking about eating, addresses the inevitable challenges an individual uncovering an eating disorder faces in navigating the practical issues surrounding food and eating. Working with a patient frustrated by her bulimia, the author explores how thinking about her unique needs, desires, choices, and options—including what, when, how, and with whom she ate—could help this patient’s mind slow down, the eating disorder ‘directives’ in her mind be differentiated from true thinking, and distance and perspective gained in the face of unexpected or dysregulating situations. Perseverant eating disorder are compared and contrasted with what the author calls “restrictor” disorders, including anorexia nervosa, chronic starvation dieting, and chronic obesity. Finally, the decision to stop purging is considered as a first step toward physical “un-covery”—often more manageable for perseverant individuals who binge and purge—as opposed to the attempt at not bingeing, which has served as their primary mode of processing and regulating emotions.
