Here’s the thing: when you eat regularly and enough, a domino effect happens. Your food obsessions disappear, your physical health improves, and your focus, memory, and mood are back to a “normal” baseline.

The words we use don't just reflect our thoughts; they shape our experiences, both internally and in our relationships with others. We often ask: What's the deeper meaning behind someone's struggle with food? What could be going on beneath the surface? While these questions are important, we should also be thinking of how we can apply this understanding to create positive change.

When we view mental illnesses as medical illnesses, we are going to miss the nuance that is associated with emotions and psychology. There is no official proven line of treatment (I mean meds here) for eating disorders. But typically the individual also has some version of insert mental illness here and meds could be really helpful.

But the question is, why is this a controversial topic? MAID is not a new construct. It has been utilized around the world with different controversies for many years as a way of ethically, compassionately, and humanely allowing people to have a dignified way of dying. In modern-day science or modern psychology, we don’t have a way to alleviate the suffering of someone who is battling a severe mental health condition. While I acknowledge that different medications serve their purposes, the question remains: why is there a difference between “mental illnesses” and “physical illnesses”? Is there even a difference?

I'm sure many of you have experienced this, especially after spending time with family during the holidays. Whether it's a recent struggle or an ongoing issue, the key question is why you don't want to eat. Yes, it might sound cliché, and you probably saw it coming from me, but it's crucial because your answer guides the approach.

Let’s first acknowledge that there is no fixed framework for the therapeutic relationship. We know that each person's experience is unique. How close we get to the edges of this metaphorical frame varies from person to person and might change over time. But ultimately, most sessions follow a set of “rules”.

Today I am talking with Dr. Elizabeth Hamlin. Elizabeth Hamlin, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychoanalytic candidate who has spent her career working intensively with patients with severe eating disorders.

I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again: Eating disorders are a way to communicate.

Eating disorders are really not just about the food. They're a way to regulate and communicate emotions. By understanding what is potentially going on for someone via their eating disorder, we can use it as information to actually get to what's underneath.