Abstract
Eating disorders are some of the most severe and destructive of all psychological conditions. They are associated with restricted capacities in cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual development. This paper provides an examination of the practical application of Christian spirituality as a force for recovery from an eating disorder. Specifically, it expounds the transformative potential in the spiritual qualities of hope, trust, acceptance, surrender, and courage underpinning engagement with evidence-based therapeutic models of care in eating disorder recovery.
Highlights
They are associated with restricted capacities in cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual development
Eating disorders (EDs) are clinically diagnosed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED), and Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED) (Ekeroth et al 2013)
In the context of ED recovery, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) aims to transform negative mindsets related to body image, weight, shape, and eating patterns into more balanced frameworks surrounding the sense of self-worth (Chithambo and Huey 2017; Wade et al 2017; Matusek 2007; Bowlby 1988)
Summary
Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food? (1 Kings, 21:5, English Standard Version). Given the dangerously covert nature of the illness, it is common amongst sufferers to deny or conceal its very existence and so not seek help (Smink et al 2012; Matusek 2007; Hill et al 2010; Wade et al 2017; Ali et al 2017) This suggests that a percentage of ED patients remain unaccounted for in statistical evidence. EDs are clinically diagnosed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED), and Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED) (Ekeroth et al 2013) It is within this last category that the majority of those diagnosed with an ED are categorised (Rosen 2010; Isomaa and Isomaa 2014; Fairburn et al 2009). Underpinning this theory is the notion that life events and environmental exposures, such as damaging emotional states, stress, or nutritional deprivation, can alter the behaviour of DNA, thereby affecting the quality of life (Van der Kolk 2014; Weinhold and Weinhold 2011; Costin 2007)
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