👌More videos can be found on this topic at ua-cam.com/play/PLcB3trehXswhnaFtmTFL1gFWrD-HMU_CS.html&si=zftgYUzDTnXbusK- ❤️Self help activities and worksheets and concierge coaching with Dr. Snipes can be accessed at DocSnipes.com 👍Online Courses for Continuing Education (CEU, OPD, CPD) and Substance Abuse Counselor Certification
This is sooo helpful! Realizing I already have a lot of these tools/interventions under my belt, but helped with specifically how and when to apply them to EDs.
This was super helpful! I started working with some ED clients and I had not had any experience with EDs, so this video helped me to feel more confident when working with them. Thanks for the insight :)
Oh the slogan! 😅 That was what I meant to talk about in my previous post 🤦♀️ It was actually an acronym/ mnemonic: H. O. W. Honesty, openness and willingness. I think that has to go both ways in a good therapeutic alliance. Thanks as always for your great content Doc. 👏 Apologies for my long-windedness! 🤭.
I don’t have an eating disorder, but I have a severe problem with addiction - primarily alcohol and nicotine. I”m definitely a donkey, the more a therapist threatens to terminate therapy or tries to push me faster or harder than I can handle, I either push back or quit working with them. I was in a clinic which had two departments - but they weren’t entirely separate - so I saw and heard from the (mostly anorexic) patients what was going on. It was all about forcing them and their methods seem to discourage any kind of honesty. They even humiliated one patient (who fell into both camps as she was anorexic and a severe alcoholic). They announced in group therapy that she’d lost weight that week (one pound I think). and asked the rest of us, who were all alcoholics and not experts on eating disorders, to comment. I didn’t feel qualified to comment and that it was wrong to do this, so I didn’t comment. One of the guys who was least self-aware and probably least qualified to comment (except he’d had an addiction to working out at one point but nothing to do with losing weight, but couldn’t relate that to her problem) decided to tell her that she should be really worried and that she must be “cheating” in some way. She told him that he knew nothing about eating disorders, so she wasn’t interested in his opinion. I was in total agreement with her. I was quite friendly with her and I think I may have asked her in private whether she’d been doing something to avoid gaining weight, but she just said it was a minor variation and there was no particular reason. I don’t think she trusted me enough to tell me. I wouldn’t have broken her confidence, I was just interested in what she had or had not done . I’ve always been fascinated by how people’s minds work and my degree was in Psychology, so I was interested in both the ways that anorexics “cheat” and I cared about her as a friend, so I wanted to understand. The other anorexics had to eat in a separate dining room, with a glass table, so the nurses could keep an eye on their hands under the table. They weren’t allowed any napkins because it would be too easy to spit the food out into the napkin, but usually at least 2 of them were crying (I only know this because of what they told me) and there was a woman there who was in the worst possible state. She had severe anorexia,, having once been overweight, she’d suffered horrific child abuse, also had severe OCD (I have bad OCD and hers was probably slightly worse) plus she was an alcoholic and smoker also. She was starting to go yellow with jaundice and she needed an operation to save her life, but they couldn’t operate until she reached a certain weight. One particular day they’d given her something which she found particularly difficult to eat - she said it was because she didn’t like that food option and if they didn’t eat, they would have to drink a high calorie drink. She’d eaten the bits which she liked (probably the vegetables) and after being pressured to eat the rest she started to cry and it was snotty crying, but they wouldn’t let her have a napkin to clean up the snot, so she was sat there crying tears and snot into her food. Eventually they gave up and gave her the drink instead and allowed her to clean herself up. All the bathroom doors were locked even in the rooms of the other patients who were being treated for alcoholism etc. and visitors toilets. They were kept locked for an hour after the anorexics had finished eating. If the rest of us needed the toilet, we could ask for our bathroom to be unlocked temporarily. If the anorexics needed to go, they had to have a nurse present to make sure they weren’t making themselves vomit. They’d all fall asleep after eating as they had a separate lounge but we could look in the window. Every one of them was asleep about 5-10 minutes after lunch, all leaning on one another on the sofa (it was kind of funny to see them all passed out, but I felt for them because they’d probably only eaten half of what I had, but their poor bodies were reacting like they’d just eaten a 3 course Christmas Day meal. It takes energy to digest food of course. It broke my heart to see how they were treated at times. Most of them had some trauma in their past or current lives and I’m almost certain that poor lady who had multiple disorders and was in her 50s is probably dead by now, or continuing to live with the constant torture of both the illnesses and the treatments . The chances weren’t good for my friend either - also in her 50s. I’m not too sure about what you meant by giving someone with this disorder “too much attention”. I noticed the tendency to manipulate parents in particular, mostly in the younger patients, but also one seemed to enjoy talking about her life circumstances and fights with her parents as well as other ways in which she self-harmed. She was a reasonable weight, although slim and only came in occasionally as an outpatient, so she must have completed the inpatient stay and came in for after care. Some of her stories sounded like they were rather embellished and she was much more open about her “previous” condition as a bulimic. I didn’t feel at all convinced that she had resolved her condition and as she was in her late teens it might have been a way to feel she was part of a particular peer group, having perhaps found it difficult to “fit in” with her more normal peers.May their was some element of BPD ? Is there any correlation?
Benzo, withdrawal and psychiatric drug withdrawal gave me an eating disorder because I react to food I get blood blisters on my tongue histamine intolerant. Now I only have five safe foods. I noticed that the whole community of benzo withdrawal people have developed severe food, intolerances and histamine intolerance psych Meds cause so much damage and inflammation. It also causes autoimmune disorder.
That’s awful and I am sorry it happened to you. What does your doctor say? Do they recommend anything? I know there are some DAO enzyme supplements available but your Doctor is the one who has to recommend them.
When I was first indoctrinated in AA (at the same clinic as the one with the eating disorders department), I learnt some useful slogans and ideas, but in the end it started to become more or of a liability than an asset as it had nothing to offer regarding my mental health problems (OCD, Social phobia, dysphoria, cross-addictions to anything that had a tranquillizing effect or temporarily boosted dopamine - such as eating breakfast cereal which usually aggravated my IBS 😂. Then there was all the childhood baggage - some trauma, abuse and my biggest triggers:- feeling emotionally abandoned or rejected by someone or some group. I’ve also felt increasingly traumatized by my many visits to Rehab clinics in a foreign country where the spoken language is almost completely different from the language which they us to read and write as well as in class at school. It’s Swiss German that is spoken and there are 3 noticeably different forms depending on which Kanton (county or district) the person is from. High German is the spoken and written language, which I’ve learnt reasonably well, but they hate speaking in High German so they’d rather speak English if they know it (many do), but as soon as they are in a group conversation everyone reverts to their local Swiss German dialect. Some patients were kind enough to speak to me one on one in High German or English if there was no one else about and they would occasionally explain what the joke was when everyone in the group started laughing and I didn’t know what that was because it was in Swiss German. Mostly I was left out of those group conversations and would just have to entertain myself with watching videos etc. I couldn’t connect with most German therapists as they seem to be a bit keen on giving orders and poor in empathy. Swiss German therapists are often much better, more empathic, but still lack some flexibility, I’ve had better experiences with a couple of Austrians, but a lot of British therapists, psychologists and Psychiatrists are terrible at forming a therapeutic bond and even give incorrect treatments for addiction. It’s very hard for a non- addict, non-anorexic to be understanding and it’s also hard to find professionals who really have a lot of experience with these “illogical” but actually in many ways “logical” disorders. Makes it hard for them to be truly empathic. I like Swiss people very much so it may be a cross-cultural problem with finding experienced empathic specialists in these difficult to treat disorders and dual / multiple diagnoses. I now have a wonderful alcohol counselor who is Swiss, fluent in English, incredibly empathic and originally trained as a social worker.
"Brief Therapy and Eating Disorders: A Practical Guide to Solution-Focused Work with Clients" You can get it used. Here is the Amazon link. www.amazon.com/Brief-Therapy-Eating-Disorders-Solution-Focused/dp/0787900532 At thrift books, it is much more affordable. It is also available at many libraries.
👌More videos can be found on this topic at
ua-cam.com/play/PLcB3trehXswhnaFtmTFL1gFWrD-HMU_CS.html&si=zftgYUzDTnXbusK-
❤️Self help activities and worksheets and concierge coaching with Dr. Snipes can be accessed at DocSnipes.com
👍Online Courses for Continuing Education (CEU, OPD, CPD) and Substance Abuse Counselor Certification
I am working as a therapist at a residential eating disorder clinic and this is so helpful! Thank you 😊
Wonderful. :) Thanks for watching. Feel free to share the videos.
This is sooo helpful! Realizing I already have a lot of these tools/interventions under my belt, but helped with specifically how and when to apply them to EDs.
This was super helpful! I started working with some ED clients and I had not had any experience with EDs, so this video helped me to feel more confident when working with them. Thanks for the insight :)
Glad it was helpful!
Oh the slogan! 😅 That was what I meant to talk about in my previous post 🤦♀️ It was actually an acronym/ mnemonic: H. O. W. Honesty, openness and willingness.
I think that has to go both ways in a good therapeutic alliance. Thanks as always for your great content Doc. 👏 Apologies for my long-windedness! 🤭.
Thanks for watching.
I don’t have an eating disorder, but I have a severe problem with addiction - primarily alcohol and nicotine. I”m definitely a donkey, the more a therapist threatens to terminate therapy or tries to push me faster or harder than I can handle, I either push back or quit working with them.
I was in a clinic which had two departments - but they weren’t entirely separate - so I saw and heard from the (mostly anorexic) patients what was going on. It was all about forcing them and their methods seem to discourage any kind of honesty.
They even humiliated one patient (who fell into both camps as she was anorexic and a severe alcoholic). They announced in group therapy that she’d lost weight that week (one pound I think). and asked the rest of us, who were all alcoholics and not experts on eating disorders, to comment. I didn’t feel qualified to comment and that it was wrong to do this, so I didn’t comment. One of the guys who was least self-aware and probably least qualified to comment (except he’d had an addiction to working out at one point but nothing to do with losing weight, but couldn’t relate that to her problem) decided to tell her that she should be really worried and that she must be “cheating” in some way. She told him that he knew nothing about eating disorders, so she wasn’t interested in his opinion. I was in total agreement with her. I was quite friendly with her and I think I may have asked her in private whether she’d been doing something to avoid gaining weight, but she just said it was a minor variation and there was no particular reason. I don’t think she trusted me enough to tell me.
I wouldn’t have broken her confidence, I was just interested in what she had or had not done . I’ve always been fascinated by how people’s minds work and my degree was in Psychology, so I was interested in both the ways that anorexics “cheat” and I cared about her as a friend, so I wanted to understand.
The other anorexics had to eat in a separate dining room, with a glass table, so the nurses could keep an eye on their hands under the table. They weren’t allowed any napkins because it would be too easy to spit the food out into the napkin, but usually at least 2 of them were crying (I only know this because of what they told me) and there was a woman there who was in the worst possible state. She had severe anorexia,, having once been overweight, she’d suffered horrific child abuse, also had severe OCD (I have bad OCD and hers was probably slightly worse) plus she was an alcoholic and smoker also.
She was starting to go yellow with jaundice and she needed an operation to save her life, but they couldn’t operate until she reached a certain weight. One particular day they’d given her something which she found particularly difficult to eat - she said it was because she didn’t like that food option and if they didn’t eat, they would have to drink a high calorie drink. She’d eaten the bits which she liked (probably the vegetables) and after being pressured to eat the rest she started to cry and it was snotty crying, but they wouldn’t let her have a napkin to clean up the snot, so she was sat there crying tears and snot into her food. Eventually they gave up and gave her the drink instead and allowed her to clean herself up.
All the bathroom doors were locked even in the rooms of the other patients who were being treated for alcoholism etc. and visitors toilets. They were kept locked for an hour after the anorexics had finished eating. If the rest of us needed the toilet, we could ask for our bathroom to be unlocked temporarily. If the anorexics needed to go, they had to have a nurse present to make sure they weren’t making themselves vomit. They’d all fall asleep after eating as they had a separate lounge but we could look in the window. Every one of them was asleep about 5-10 minutes after lunch, all leaning on one another on the sofa (it was kind of funny to see them all passed out, but I felt for them because they’d probably only eaten half of what I had, but their poor bodies were reacting like they’d just eaten a 3 course Christmas Day meal. It takes energy to digest food of course. It broke my heart to see how they were treated at times. Most of them had some trauma in their past or current lives and I’m almost certain that poor lady who had multiple disorders and was in her 50s is probably dead by now, or continuing to live with the constant torture of both the illnesses and the treatments . The chances weren’t good for my friend either - also in her 50s.
I’m not too sure about what you meant by giving someone with this disorder “too much attention”. I noticed the tendency to manipulate parents in particular, mostly in the younger patients, but also one seemed to enjoy talking about her life circumstances and fights with her parents as well as other ways in which she self-harmed. She was a reasonable weight, although slim and only came in occasionally as an outpatient, so she must have completed the inpatient stay and came in for after care. Some of her stories sounded like they were rather embellished and she was much more open about her “previous” condition as a bulimic. I didn’t feel at all convinced that she had resolved her condition and as she was in her late teens it might have been a way to feel she was part of a particular peer group, having perhaps found it difficult to “fit in” with her more normal peers.May their was some element of BPD ? Is there any correlation?
This is super super helpful.. thanks a lot for sharing:)
You’re so welcome. Thank you for watching the video. What did you find most helpful from it?
Benzo, withdrawal and psychiatric drug withdrawal gave me an eating disorder because I react to food I get blood blisters on my tongue histamine intolerant. Now I only have five safe foods. I noticed that the whole community of benzo withdrawal people have developed severe food, intolerances and histamine intolerance psych Meds cause so much damage and inflammation. It also causes autoimmune disorder.
That’s awful and I am sorry it happened to you. What does your doctor say? Do they recommend anything? I know there are some DAO enzyme supplements available but your Doctor is the one who has to recommend them.
When I was first indoctrinated in AA (at the same clinic as the one with the eating disorders department), I learnt some useful slogans and ideas, but in the end it started to become more or of a liability than an asset as it had nothing to offer regarding my mental health problems (OCD, Social phobia, dysphoria, cross-addictions to anything that had a tranquillizing effect or temporarily boosted dopamine - such as eating breakfast cereal which usually aggravated my IBS 😂. Then there was all the childhood baggage - some trauma, abuse and my biggest triggers:- feeling emotionally abandoned or rejected by someone or some group. I’ve also felt increasingly traumatized by my many visits to Rehab clinics in a foreign country where the spoken language is almost completely different from the language which they us to read and write as well as in class at school. It’s Swiss German that is spoken and there are 3 noticeably different forms depending on which Kanton (county or district) the person is from. High German is the spoken and written language, which I’ve learnt reasonably well, but they hate speaking in High German so they’d rather speak English if they know it (many do), but as soon as they are in a group conversation everyone reverts to their local Swiss German dialect. Some patients were kind enough to speak to me one on one in High German or English if there was no one else about and they would occasionally explain what the joke was when everyone in the group started laughing and I didn’t know what that was because it was in Swiss German.
Mostly I was left out of those group conversations and would just have to entertain myself with watching videos etc. I couldn’t connect with most German therapists as they seem to be a bit keen on giving orders and poor in empathy. Swiss German therapists are often much better, more empathic, but still lack some flexibility, I’ve had better experiences with a couple of Austrians, but a lot of British therapists, psychologists and Psychiatrists are terrible at forming a therapeutic bond and even give incorrect treatments for addiction. It’s very hard for a non- addict, non-anorexic to be understanding and it’s also hard to find professionals who really have a lot of experience with these “illogical” but actually in many ways “logical” disorders. Makes it hard for them to be truly empathic. I like Swiss people very much so it may be a cross-cultural problem with finding experienced empathic specialists in these difficult to treat disorders and dual / multiple diagnoses. I now have a wonderful alcohol counselor who is Swiss, fluent in English, incredibly empathic and originally trained as a social worker.
Great. Glad you found a good counselor. Thanks for watching. Wishing you peace, health, and happiness.
Hi, you mention at around 5mins in, a book by Barbara Mcfarlane, which book is that? thank you
"Brief Therapy and Eating Disorders: A Practical Guide to Solution-Focused Work with Clients" You can get it used. Here is the Amazon link. www.amazon.com/Brief-Therapy-Eating-Disorders-Solution-Focused/dp/0787900532 At thrift books, it is much more affordable. It is also available at many libraries.