Hi it's Kati again! Thank you so much for checking back.
Now today I have some great informationfor you but the first you may want to grab
a pen and a piece of paper
because unlike some of the other videos where it's just a quick "one thing" to remember,
like "I need to buy a journal"
and take advantage of that.
Today is a little more cumbersome and a little more clinical.
What do I mean by a little more clinical?
Today I'd like to talk to you about whatan eating disorder really is.
I know a lot of you think "I already know what it is, I don't need you to tell me".
But some of us have never heard of it before, they've never really dealt with it.
We hear the terms fly around; mostly in some trashy magazines, stuff that
are guilty pleasures but
it may say "so and so is
anorexic, you know, look how thin
she is" or "so-and-so wentto the bathroom
she's bulimic" right after she ate
you know "an insider" says. We don't really know what an eating disorder
is… we just hear these "terms" being used
and from that decide what an eating disorder is.
But, the way that
psychiatrist as well as therapists just like myself figure out that someone has an eating order
and actually diagnose them
is by referencing our DSM.
The DSM is a book that we use and it's short for
the diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders.
What does the DSM do? Why do we have this huge book taking up all this space?
It's something that we use the same way
a primary care physician would
maybe take some blood work and go through his checklist to make sure you really do in
fact have strep throat and not some other illness.
So when someone comes into my office
and they're presenting with some symptoms,
I want to go through my checklist tomake sure that that it is actually an eating
disorder and it's not actually
something else.
What the DSM has to say about eating disorders is that it's
characterized by a
severe disturbance
in eating behaviors.
Okay, that sounds like it could apply to a lot of us.
What this really means in real life,
is this person has SEVERE disturbances.
I mean,
when we plan events like "YES! Christmas dinner! My grandma is making
that ham… I can't wait!"
Or, "I'm going with my girlfriend and we're going to grab coffee and desserts, delish! I so looking forward to that
flour-less chocolate cake."
They don't have that.
You know, that's NOT how they feel about it.
Those events that surround food,
which, think for a second, that's A LOT of events…
Everything that we do the tends to revolve around food.
It's very
anxiety provoking for them.
It takes up
a lot of their time, their thought-process.
You know when something's really bugging you and you're sitting at your desk maybe at work
all you can think about is that "other thing"?
And you realize you haven't done any work, it'sbeen like forty five minutes? That's how
it feels to them.
When I say an
eating disorder is characterized by severe disturbances
in eating behaviors...
that's what I mean.
these little instances that a lot of people take for granted; no big deal,
great time, good food.
Those aren't very happy times for them. They can be really stressful.
I hope that clarifies a little bit about what an eating disorder is,
so that we can kind of
slough off the rest of what it is not… What the magazines might say it is or isn't.
In future videos what I plan to dois talk about the different types of
eating disorders so there's even more clarification around
what anorexia really is, what bulimia looks like, things like that.
So remember comment below, please give me your feedback, I love your
questions, things you want me to further explain, I'll be happy to do so.
Also subscribe, so that when I
take your comment under consideration and put another video out, you know about it.
Continue this walk with me,thanks for checking in. Let's work harder
towards a healthy mind and healthy body!
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