The Fire Alarm Is Not the Fire

Fire Alarm Symptoms

Symptoms such as binge eating, anxiety issues and eating disorder behaviors are alarms. Stopping the anxiety or binge eating alarm without addressing what’s causing the alarm to sound off accomplishes little or nothing.

It also can be dangerous because the metaphoric fire continues to burn and may increase in ferocity. When a fire alarm goes off the problem is not the sound of the alarm. The problem is the fire. The deeper problem is the cause of the fire.

Mirror Mirror is running an excellent factual article describing weight loss surgery: Weight Loss Surgery and Eating Disorders. In my experience as an eating disorder recovery psychotherapist, I've seen tragic outcomes from weight loss surgery. Yes, I grant that it's possible, for a person without an eating disorder, to reap medical benefits from the surgery. Weight loss does occur and can be helpful in health management.

Romantic, colorful, joyous uplifting sight - balloons rising into a beautiful sky. This is pleasure, even elation, in the moment. But, living to keep an ephemeral bit of loveliness as a permanent state of being can be disastrous. Can you enjoy a moment and stay in the reality of cause and effect?

Reality

Balloons pop. Balloons deflate. Their pieces fall to the ground or lodge in trees and bushes. Colors fade. The balloon's physicality is fragile. The balloon is designed for a short lifespan and succumbs to the forces of nature, collapsing.

Your body is not a balloon. It can be strong and healthy and survive many harsh experiences. It can be lovely, and uplifting and provide you with joy - the joy and exuberance of health.

"What to Look For in an Eating Disorder Treatment Center" is an article in the New York Times. I wish it had gone a little beyond its content.

“Unless you can change the behavior, no amount of insight-oriented therapy is helpful,” said Dr. Angela Guarda, the director of the Eating Disorders Center at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Yes, I agree that behavior needs to be addressed first. But at least a little insight is required so people can gradually move beyond the eating disorder behaviors into the psychological work needed. What made an eating disorder the best option for self-care needs to be addressed so the person is really free from leaning toward or falling into an eating disorder again.

Unfortunately, too many treatment situations and insurance criteria measure recovery in terms of behavior. The behaviors are symptoms. Slowing down and stopping the eating disorder behaviors are what's needed for the real recovery work to begin.

Please address at least one of the questions below in the comments. Your response can help many others.

You've been in a conversation that speeds into brief, passionate discourse and hurtles on to furious speech, familiar emotional agony, indignation and hurtful stalemate. Right? You've been in several or maybe many. Here's what may be happening. * info re picture below.

Suppose you see or know or suspect that an employee has an eating disorder. What should you do? Here's a guest article by Joy Nollenberg, director of The Joy Project addressing this issue. She wants readers to know that legal issues abound in this realm and that her words are not legal advice. In other words, check out your legal position before embarking on a workplace confrontation.

There may be times when someone in the workplace appears to be very ill with an eating disorder. This can be a difficult situation with many potential pitfalls. It's important to keep these points in mind.

"Sleep that knits the raveled sleeve of care." William Shakespeare

A person with an eating disorder often misinterprets body signals. You may tend to avoid sleep when you are tired. When feelings of tiredness turn into food cravings, rather than getting the rest you need, trouble is brewing.

When you suffer from an eating disorder, you've made an unconscious contract that involves your mind, spirit and body. Your contract states that any thoughts or feelings that are painful or disruptive must be blocked. Your body must process its energy so you can remain unaware of your authentic responses.

So you eat or starve or binge and purge or compulsively or mindlessly eat to block your feelings and thoughts. Over time, the contract gets refined so you can feel almost anything and register the feeling as hunger.

When you feel tired, you may experience fatigue as a trigger to eat. This situation develops into a pattern where you may avoid sleep by eating instead of sleeping.

                                              Courage to think and know who you are often begins in depth psychotherapy

Courage Now: Psychotherapy as an Act of Courage and Resistance

By Joanna Poppink, MFT

Private Depth Psychotherapy for Women in Midlife and Beyond

Courage Now: Summary

Psychotherapy as an Act of Courage and Resistance explores how depth psychotherapy can serve as a powerful response to personal pain and collective injustice. Drawing on the author’s experience with renowned psychoanalyst Hedda Bolgar—who resisted Nazi oppression—the piece argues that therapy is not just self-care but moral action.

In a world where truth is censored and vulnerability punished, therapy helps individuals cultivate emotional resilience, inner authority, and the capacity to act from conscience. Featuring quotes from Carl Jung, Viktor Frankl, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and others, the article positions psychotherapy as a space for liberation, truth-telling, and courageous self-examination.