Mental Health Care for Anorexia Force Feeding

When individuals choose not to eat for a prolonged period (a mental disorder known as anorexia nervosa whose physical symptoms mimic starvation), they take major risks physically, mentally and emotionally. When a doctor has to force-feed these patients to make them better, additional treatment is necessary, particularly in terms of mental-health care.

Anorexia

• Some of us are just unhappy in our own skin, and that is where eating disorders like anorexia start. Anorexia is a starving disorder whereby victims choose not to eat because they believe they do not look the way they should or the way they imagine they would be satisfied with. It is a deadly disease that can affect a person in many different ways physically, mentally and emotionally--eventually ending life if the victim does not receive help.

Force-Feeding

• Choosing not to eat implies losing control of the right to feed oneself. It is equivalent to attempting to commit suicide. Force-feeding means inserting a feeding tube through the nose or mouth into a person's esophagus to give them nutrients and, generally against their will at first (hence "force"), prevent starvation and enable them to regain lost weight.

Why Is Force-Feeding Necessary?

• Force-feeding is necessary in anorexia patients because they are threatening their own life with a slow form of suicide. After going without food for so long, the body begins literally to consume itself in its search for nutrients. To prevent long-term injury or death, it is time for someone to step in and help.

  An article from the Scotsman describes the Mental Welfare Commission's rules on when anorexics need force-feeding (see Resources).

Anorexia and Mental Health

• Emotional and psychological issues help answer why a person has this disorder in the first place. Anorexia reflects a person's self-esteem, and it is considered a mental illness. When victims have to be force-fed, emotional and mental stress like depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts compound the condition. The reason patients go through these feelings is that they feel they are being forced to "become fat" again. Self-esteem is a powerful thing, and when individuals believe that they are fat or unattractive, making them change their behavior is quite a blow to their mental health.

  A person wanting or needing help has a number of options:

  1. Counseling/Therapy
  2. Hospitalization
  3. Group Meetings
  4. Family Support

  For more information on treatments, see HelpGuide.org in Resources.

Role of Mental Health Therapy

• Mental health therapy plays a significant role in healing a patient that has been force-fed and being anorexic. Therapy will help the patient get through force-feeding and overcoming the disease in the long run, but it is not an easy road to travel. Epigee.com states that more than 60 percent of people who suffer from anorexia can fully recover with treatment, and 20 percent of those people will get better--but they still struggle. That is why therapy is so significant for someone who is being force-fed. Therapy can make these patients get through the storm and be one of the 60 percent who succeed.