ANTI-SPYWARE OR AVOIDING THOSE WEBSITES ALTOGETHER?
If you own a computer, you more than likely have an anti-spyware or anti-malware program to combat intruders that like to invade and disrupt your hard drive. But if you avoided going to those precarious websites to begin with, you may not need to be constantly troubleshooting those malicious intruders.
Our partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs are predominately insurance-based. If you are able to access your insurance for treatment in our Reconnect with Food programs at Inner Door Center, you will be monitored regularly by case managers...the gatekeepers. These gatekeepers decide when you are ready to move on and out from your treatment, whether you are ready or not. The majority of the gatekeepers take their orders from the master...the medical director (s) although some case managers have stepped out of the box and work in the best interest of the patient vs. the insurance company.
The majority of our patients have been fortunate, for the most part, as their insurance company has assigned them case managers that understand that eating disorders are a symptoms of depression and anxiety along with a whole host of psychological issues, including mental health conditions resulting in trauma vs. a lifestyle choice. Personality disorders are consistently found in individuals with eating disorders along with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The small minority of our patients have had the unfortunate experience of case managers, overseen by medical directors who lack significant training in modern eating disorder treatment. The latter looks at our job - Reconnect with Food at Inner Door Center - as to simply weight restore our patients, and that focusing on the emotional/behavioral components of the eating disorder are meaningless. Patients who make the choice to enter our treatment programs take a huge and commendable step in making the decision to want to recover. However, their disease is often the obstacle to their recovery. Their readiness to make changes and their progression towards goals are a slow and methodical healing process vs. the speed of light that gatekeepers wish.
Given the above, can you see how simply weight restoring an individual is like running an anti-spyware/anti-malware program vs. simply re-routing the journey to malicious websites? If weight restoring an individual was that simplistic in erradicating an eating disorder, our job at Inner Door Center might as well consist of feeding our patients pickles and salt to appease our insurance company case managers/medical directors. Any credible clinician knows that weight restoration or achievement is short lasting without addressing underlying emotions and other psychological issues.
Recently, a medical director of an insurance company insisted that one of our patients count her calories daily and change her career aspiration to something that was more in line with his dreams and aspirations vs. hers. Let's see...counting calories--another trauma added on to an existing trauma along with creating a new eating disorder. And to top it off, forget what is in line with the patient's soul purpose and spiritual calling, while adding more angst to the patient's life. Do not all jobs/careers bring their own challenges? Or do we teach our patients to simply run from all challenges vs. facing them head on with a yoga mind.
So before you rely on running your anti-spyware and anti-malware, approach those underlying behaviors head-on. Just like a 90 year old patient in a nursing home that develops a stage IV pressure ulcer, your eating disorder and co-occurring issues takes time and persistance in the healing process...an eating disorder is not cured in a limited amount of pre-prescribed days. We will continue to educate your case managers and medical directors....one day they may surprise you and attend a 21st century continuing education program lead by experts in the eating disorder field. Until then, this is our career challenge that we take one breath at a time!
