Revisiting CBT-E
Funny story.
So, I was talking with a previous therapist today and inquiring about maybe working with her again. She told me that she was now using a new kind of therapy — CBT-E. It sounded familiar to me, but all I could recall off the top of my head was that it was one of those time-limited therapist… where you had 20 sessions or something. I would have googled it right then, but I was in the car and couldn’t.
Anyway, she explained to me that it was THE new treatment in eating disorders… and it was more successful than any treatment ever has been in the past, with over a 70% success rate. The number of sessions you get is determined by your BMI. If you are EDNOS, then you have 20 sessions, but if you are a “more complex case and meet anorexia criteria,” then you get 40.
Let’s pause right here to look at that last comment, which equates case complexity with weight. There has been so much research as of late that indicates that many individuals with EDNOS are just as sick as those with an anorexia / bulimia / binge eating diagnosis.
This makes me angry for a few reasons:
- Case complexity really has nothing to do with weight. Maybe there’s some correlation, but that’s it.
- It invalidates the legitimacy (and seriousness) of EDNOS… and there’s already enough drama surrounding that diagnosis.
- How much more clearly could you communicate that you only deserve help when your weight is really low?
I feel like everyone I know struggles with at least one of these issues, and they all lead into the “I’m not sick enough” mindset:
- “My case isn’t serious enough to warrant treatment.”
- “Only real anorexics deserve help.”
- “Other people have real reasons to have eating disorders… I’m just making mine up.”
- “Once I cross over that 85%, I don’t have an eating disorder anymore.”
- “Anorexia is taken more seriously than other eating disorders.”
All of these misconceptions keep so many people from getting help, and it just makes me angry that my old therapist would change therapeutic orientations to something that supports this.
Anyway, I digress… because this is actually a semi-funny story. So, as she talked about it, I became more and more skeptical of the entire approach, and agreed to go home and google it before making any decisions.
And I did. I googled “CBT-E.” And, do you know what was the 6th result? My own Grey Thinking post – Things I would hate about CBT-E.
I stopped researching there… which may have been ignorant of me (I probably should have read up on the approach before writing this post, in fact), but I’m pretty sure that if I researched it 2 years ago and felt strongly enough to blog about it, that it’s probably not for me.
