Eating Disorders
Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry & Perinatal Specialist located in Cherry Hill , NJ
Eating disorders can develop in anyone, but most affect adolescent and young adult women. If you or your child are struggling with a condition like anorexia or bulimia nervosa, talk to Dr. Amy Carnall, DNP, APN, PMHNP-BC, and Christina Sertway, APN, PMHNP-BC, at Clarity Psychiatry Care in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. They use their considerable expertise to help people of all ages overcome eating disorders. Call Clarity Psychiatry Care or schedule a consultation via the online form today to receive effective help with your eating disorders.
Eating disorders develop when you have an unhealthy relationship with food. These disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that cause more mental health-related deaths in the United States each year than any other psychiatric disorder.
The obsession with appearance and diet that eating disorders cause often devastates people’s lives. No one brings an eating disorder on themselves — they have a life-changing disease that requires specialized treatment.
Women are more likely to have eating disorders than men, with the most common time to develop a disorder being adolescence or early adulthood. However, eating disorders can affect people of any gender and age.
Eating disorders that the child psychiatry experts at Clarity Psychiatry Care treat most often include:
People with anorexia view themselves as overweight even when they’re little more than skin and bones. Anorexia causes malnutrition and even starvation because patients refuse food, sure they’re too heavy because of their distorted view of themselves. As malnutrition worsens, you or your child may develop symptoms such as:
Untreated anorexia can lead to organ failure and death. Some patients become so despairing they attempt suicide.
People with bulimia binge eat, consuming large amounts of food in a short period. Binging is compulsive and uncontrollable, but afterward, they feel ashamed and filled with self-loathing. To undo the damage, they purge, making themselves vomit and/or using diuretics and laxatives to hasten the food’s passage through their gastrointestinal tracts.
Bulimia symptoms include:
After binging and purging, they might resolve to eat less and exercise more often, but sooner or later, a new episode of binging and purging occurs. Binge-eating disorder also involves overeating sessions, but without the purging afterward.
After a thorough assessment, the Clarity Psychiatry Care team prepares a personalized eating disorder treatment plan for you. Your plan might include:
Some eating disorder patients require psychiatric medication in addition to therapy. If you or your child has a severe eating disorder, you’ll need to see an internal medicine specialist in addition to receiving psychiatric care.
Clarity Psychiatry Care also runs the Together Youth Mentoring program. This pairs young people with eating disorders and conditions such as depression and anxiety with mentors of their own age who have been through similar challenges.
Contact Clarity Psychiatry Care today to learn more about eating disorders or book an appointment online.