Recovery: The Gift of Hope and Healing
@ Diane Monteleone, Program Director Focus Healthcare of Tennessee
The most recent statistics regarding current status and facts regarding eating disorders in America today is staggering. According to ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders), eating disorders have reached epidemic levels affecting approximately seven to ten million women and one million men. It is a well known fact that eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other types of disordered eating) are widespread and destructive, crossing over all socioeconomic levels impacting the rich and poor, all ethnicities, the young and the old. Eating disorders have serious physical repercussions, treatment is expensive and it is estimated that six percent of serious cases die.
However, there is good news in that last sentence. The good news is that there is treatment. Just as we have treatment options for other serious diseases such as cancer, we have individualized treatment for individuals with eating disorders. The gift of treatment is the gift of recovery, and for some, it is a gift of life, a journey back to the beauty of living life on life’s terms. It is a commitment to rigorous honesty, open-mindedness and surrender. Treatment demands assertiveness and other life skills that invites people into healthier relationships, with self and with others. Treatment can be the greatest gift one can offer to a suffering family member or loved one. It is the gift of hope that over time also promises healing to all those who submit to the recovery process. Recovery is a beautiful passage to watch, like watching the blooming of the first flowers of spring after a cold, dark winter. Recovery and the gifts of hope and healing are available to all who seek after it. My encouragement is to NEVER stop seeking………your best life is waiting to be lived.
Diane Monteleone
Program Director
Focus Healthcare of Tennessee
05-20-2011
FocusTreatmentCenter.com FocusCenterForEatingDisorders.com
MoonpointeAFocusCenterForEatingDisorders.com
Read More about Center for Eating Disorders at Focus Healthcare of Tennessee in the Eating Disorder Specialis Library.
