Struggling with an eating disorder? Recovery is possible. | Oscar Rx | hioscar Blog | Oscar
Struggling with an eating disorder? Recovery is possible.
An eating disorder can be a serious medical condition, but how do you know when it's time to seek medical attention?
General Health Oscar Health Insurance
5 min read
KRKate Rosenblatt
Share article
An eating disorder can be a serious medical condition, but how do you know when it's time to seek medical attention? What kind of care is out there for you? For answers we turned to Kate Rosenblatt, Clinical Director at BALANCE, an eating disorder treatment center in NYC.
How did you first get into this line of work?
With an endocrinologist for a father and a nurse for a mother, preventive wellness was practically in my DNA. I grew up in the beautiful Connecticut suburbs, where we would make dinner picked fresh from our backyard garden, and discuss diabetes around the dinner table. It wasn't until college that I first learned about eating disorders. I will never forget this one student who I would constantly see at the gym and power walking around campus; she looked painfully thin. Then I didn’t see her at the gym or on campus for months. When she reemerged, she looked so much healthier. I learned that she had anorexia, went to treatment, and returned to college looking healthier. “What is this?” I wondered. I dove into studying eating disorders, went to grad school to study them in more depth, and then started working in the field. But I felt perpetually frustrated. Eating disorders are extremely complex and costly to treat. The National Eating Disorders Association reports there are an estimated 30 million Americans diagnosed with an eating disorder at some point in his/her life. That is almost 1/10 of our population! Why can’t we focus more on prevention?
Can you tell us a little about what BALANCE is and how it works?
One of the most stigmatizing things about eating disorders is that people perceive the eating behavior as more within the control of the person suffering than it actually is. Eating disorders are actually biochemistry gone awry, and with proper treatment, a full recovery is possible. At BALANCE (opens in new tab), we focus on both prevention and intervention. On the prevention side, we love creating workshops and lectures for organizations that want to foster healthier, happier communities. We just collaborated with a local school and created a healthy nutrition and a body image workshop for their students. Did you know 8th grade girls are dieting for spring break? And that in some schools it’s not considered cool to eat lunch? We’ve got to do something about this, so we are. On the intervention side, we offer day, evening, and weekend programs for people struggling with an eating disorder, along with additional services like an emotional eating support group, individual meal support, and nutrition counseling so you can get support and knowledge about how healthy eating contributes to your optimal health.
If you're struggling with disordered eating, when is it time to seek help?
First, we recommend knowing the signs and symptoms of eating disorders. BALANCE’s educational resources (opens in new tab) are a great place to start. Overall, if you notice that your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors about food and body image are having a negative impact on multiple areas of your life (relational, educational, financial, vocational, to name a few), then it's time to call a therapist or a dietician. People often turn to eating disorder behaviors as an unhealthy coping mechanism to deal with stressful experiences. For example, let's say you just got fired. You're going to need some serious comfort. Everyone needs comfort from time to time, but a healthy person might call a friend for support after being fired, while someone with an eating disorder might binge eat to try and tolerate the distress.
What options are there for treatment?
A good first step is to get in touch with a metal health professional who specializes in eating disorders. At BALANCE, we start with a two-hour in-person intake assessment (opens in new tab). You'll meet with a therapist and a dietitian, and discuss how you're doing with everything from your mood to your food. Then we'll talk recommendations and next steps. Something you can do right now is to mindfully and lovingly check in with yourself, and invite yourself to answer the following questions: What are you hungry for? Will food help or hurt? What else can I do? Often if we’re hungry for comfort, but we’re reaching to food to comfort us and we’re suffering as a result, then it’s time to connect with someone who can help."
How can Oscar members utilize our resources in the treatment process?
Since there are multiple psychological and physiological influences on eating disorder behavior, it's important for the recovery process to work with a multidisciplinary team of professionals. Oscar covers care with all kinds of therapists, primary care doctors, and specialists. Members can lean on their Oscar concierge team for help finding doctors in the Oscar network and coordinating their care. Oscar is amazing because they cover preventive wellness visits and gives members so much support for getting care. They even offer primary care visits at the new Oscar Center (opens in new tab) in Brooklyn. Use these resources to reduce your health risk behaviors! It’s like Concierge care meets healthcare.
A note for Oscar members: BALANCE is a self-pay program, which means they do not accept insurance to cover the cost of their services. Your Oscar plan covers mental health services, including care related to an eating disorder, but you must see a provider in our network for your care to be covered. If you need help finding a doctor or have questions about what's covered, call your Oscar Concierge team at 855-672-2755, and we'd be happy to help!
