A new trend sweeping the eating disorder sector of medicinal studies is art therapy. Art therapy is being used to allow the patients of various eating disorders to express their feelings and emotions, observe their reactions to different triggers, and help with the mental side of eating disorders, including and not limited to bulimia nervosa and anorexia. It is this therapy that is rescuing many fallen victims of various eating disorders from the glum world of disease, bringing families back together and victims back to life as they once knew it.
Bulimia nervosa is perhaps the ugliest of the eating disorder attack force. Characterized by frequent binging and purging, including but not limited to self induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, and fasting, bulimia nervosa can strike and leave detrimental permanent damage on its victims. Unlike other eating disorders, bulimia nervosa often leaves its victims with chronic gastric reflux after eating (taking away the need for self induced vomiting, for the digestive system no longer accepts food), ulcers (holes in the lining of the stomach), and oral trauma (to the lining of the mouth due to frequent vomitting). Also, bulimia nervosa has the ability to send its victims into severe dehydration, possibly ending in extended hospitalization. Therefore, from the selection of attackers on the eating disorder front, bulimia nervosa proves to be one of the most damaging attacker, and also one of the hardest to cure the effects of.
Art therapy is a chance to escape into a new world for the victims of eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa. By drawing and viewing different pictures, therapists can begin to examine eating disorders’ victims’ reactions to different triggers. This allows them to dive deep into the psyche of the patients, observing the damage done by diseases like bulimia nervosa and begin to brainstrorm possible routes to heal the wounds left by the disease On the flip side, when these victims are asked to draw, they are able to express feelings they would not have otherwise. By examining colors, shape and compositions, therapists are able interpret the voice of eating disorders through the hands of its victims.
Many clinics that treat eating disorders have created outpatient resources to make art therapy accessible to a wider range of patients. Bulimia nervosa patients, however, require more attention from physicians and therapists, and thus have more options available for treatment.
All in all, it is the patients of eating disorders that prove to be some of the most challenging patients to therapists. Because eating disorders lay deep in the subconcious mind of patients, it is hard enough for the patient himself to reach, let alone other sources of help. Therefore, through the use of art therapy, doctors are able to reach patients of bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders more readily. This opens a new avenue of help to victims of eating disorders. Therefore, it is very important to support and develop these new methods by supporting the reserach and development of these tactics.