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I’m Triggered By My Dietitian: Is This Normal?
At all times during eating disorder recovery, you should be surrounding yourself with people that are body and food positive, whether that be your friends, family, or recovery team.
Feeling triggered by any of those people presents a threat to your well-being and freedom from your eating disorder.
Dietitians are an essential part of the recovery team. So important, in fact, that the American Psychological Association’s guidelines “advise that care for eating disorders should include (a combination of) nutritional rehabilitation, counseling, and medical monitoring [1].”
As one article details, dietitians and nutritionists work in collaboration with mental health providers on “two primary aspects of the eating disorder: underlying psychological issues and the patient’s relationship with food [1].”
Without these two areas being addressed, it is difficult to obtain well-rounded freedom from disordered eating.
With dietitians playing such a crucial role, it is critical to ensure that they are a positive force on your road to recovery. They are absolutely there to challenge you and to ask you the difficult questions that will help you process your disorder and develop a more positive relationship to food.
However, at no time should their behavior act as a trigger for your disordered eating. Your recovery team acts like a machine, if one part is ineffective, the entire system cannot function properly.
Triggered by Your Dietitian
Should you find yourself in a circumstance where your dietitian is triggering you and acting as a barrier to your recovery, there are a few ways to address it.
First, process what about their behavior or their practice is triggering to you. Dietitians are supposed to have advanced training including counseling techniques when they work with clients struggling with eating disorders and weight management [2].
Unfortunately, this may not always be the case. Perhaps your dietitian is not adequately trained to work with you on this issue. It may also merely be a case of personalities colliding. Find out what it is about your dietitian that triggers you so that you can discuss it with your treatment team.
It is also essential you address this problem head-on. Your dietitian may have had terrific success with numerous ED clients before. However, recovery is not one-size-fits-all. What worked for others may not work for you, and that is okay.
If your dietitian is not a positive force in your recovery, it isn’t personal, but it is dangerous and should be addressed immediately. Plan to discuss it with your entire treatment team to determine the extent of the problem and what steps need to be taken. You do not need to be negative or hurtful to be assertive about what you need to recover.
Maintain this assertive stance moving forward. If you decide to find a new nutritionist, ask them their views on food, health, body-image, and recovery from the beginning and make sure those expectations align with your own and that of your treatment team.
You have to be your most prominent advocate for your recovery. This includes trusting your gut when you feel that anyone in your support system may be a barrier to your recovery instead of an asset. It is always okay for you to fight for what is best for your recovery.
About the Author: Margot Rittenhouse is a therapist who is passionate about providing mental health support to all in need and has worked with clients with substance abuse issues, eating disorders, domestic violence victims and offenders, and severely mentally ill youth.
As a freelance writer for Eating Disorder and Addiction Hope and a mentor with MentorConnect, Margot is a passionate eating disorder advocate, committed to de-stigmatizing these illnesses while showing support for those struggling through mentoring, writing, and volunteering. Margot has a Master’s of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Johns Hopkins University.
References:
[1] Dejesse, L. D., Zelman, D. C. (2013). Promoting optimal collaboration between mental health providers and nutritionists in the treatment of eating disorders. Eating Disorders, 21, 185-205.[2] Trammell, E. L., Reed, D., Boylan, M. (2016). Education and practice gaps of registered dietitian nutritionists working with clients with eating disorders. Topics in Clinical Nutrition, 31:1, 73-85.
The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.
We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.
Published on December 15, 2017.
Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on December 15, 2017.
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com
The EatingDisorderHope.com editorial team comprises experienced writers, editors, and medical reviewers specializing in eating disorders, treatment, and mental and behavioral health.
