Re-Defining Hope for Clinicians Working with Adults with Eating Disorders

"I could never work with adults struggling with longer-term eating disorders - it's too depressing!"

Let's explore this sentiment.

As we continue to transform the narrative around who experiences eating disorders - beyond prevalent stereotypes in Western society - it's important to understand that many adults face eating disorders - whether these struggles are long-standing or begin in adulthood.

Eating disorders are frequently silo-ed from other mental health services, specialties, and education. We see this in the all-too-familiar phrase in healthcare: "I don't do eating disorders."

While it is critical for clinicians working with persons struggling with eating disorders/disordered eating to have specific education, it is also important that the responsibility of caring for this population is included as a standard, not an exception.

If clinicians can work with multiple complex mental health diagnoses, then they can work with eating disorders too.

Even when clinicians do work in the field of eating disorders, there is often a preference to work with children & youth as this population is seen as more likely to achieve a "full recovery," which often feels more hopeful to clinicians.

While it's important to work in an area that feels sustainable for one's practice, the hopelessness that people ascribe to this population of patients has little to do with the individuals and is much more reflective of the limited ways in which we define "success" for those healing from eating disorders.

Even if a person struggles with an eating disorder their whole life, that doesn't mean they are without hope, aren't motivated to make changes, and cannot be successful in their own healing process.

Our narrowly defined expectations of success for someone else might not be meaningful to that person and instead of labelling people as treatment resistant, we need to be curious and ask why a particular approach isn't working.

More than that, we need to focus on what people feel is meaningful to them and work within whatever bounds we may be restricted to, in order to support them on a path of self-defined hope and healing.

Adults with eating disorders have very different needs than youth; this doesn't make them any less rewarding to work with. These are intelligent, kind, and remarkable individuals who deserve support that honours their own living expertise.