Your Heavy-Set Daughter May Need CBT To Manage Bulimia

Your daughter is beautiful, no matter what she looks like, but many heavier girls have severe self-esteem issues. While many grow to be happy and healthy women, they may turn to bulimia at a young age and end up suffering from severely addictive behaviors. Thankfully, it is possible to avoid this problem with the help of proper treatment methods.

A Teased Child May Turn To Bulimia

The sad reality about heavy-set girls is that most won't feel bad about themselves until they are teased by others. Often, they are teased by peers who are skinnier. However, that isn't always where they get the worst attention. Anti-bullying methods have helped many children understand that they need to avoid these behaviors. However, persistent nagging from parents or family members may destroy her self-esteem.

And when this happens, your daughter may get desperate to lose weight in any way possible. For example, she might start showing bulimia behaviors i.e. eating and vomiting after she is done eating. Sadly, she is likely to lose weight in this way and continue to follow these actions. In this scenario, she is likely to develop an addiction to bulimia and its effects on her body.

An addiction to bulimia is likely to trap your daughter into an abusive cycle. For example, she will continue to behave in bulimic ways in order to lose weight. That feeling of positivity can become addictive, as can the patterns of behavior that trigger bulimia. Thankfully, help is available. 

How Behavioral Control Methods May Help

Addiction to bulimia is often a behavioral disorder that becomes ingrained in your daughter's day-to-day life. She may even understand that it is problematic but have no ability to control her actions. In this situation, you need to get help from an eating disorder specialist who can use techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT.

CBT is a treatment method that assesses the root of your daughter's bulimia and which teachers her how to stop showing these behaviors. For example, it an identify how she uses bulimia to feel better about her weight and teach her how to use other coping mechanisms instead. In this way, she can overcome her eating disorder and be on her way to learning how to accept her weight.

So if your daughter shows signs of bulimic behavior and you are worried she is addicted to them, you need to talk to an eating disorder specialist right away, such as at Center for Change eating disorder treatment center. These professionals will understand the problem affecting your daughter and will use a variety of treatment methods to help her.