Radical Truth
Re-posted from Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders (CCED) blog archives. CCED and The Emily Program partnered in 2014. Contributions by Sarah Emerman.
One of the saddest and complicated components of an eating disorder is how it encourages secrets. Behaviors, negative thoughts, feelings of shame, and the pain one carries often happen in secret. By the time someone presents for treatment they are so familiar and so used to keeping secrets that it can be very difficult to tell the truth.
Keeping secrets is not a failure, a betrayal, or an attempt by a patient to trick or fool a therapist or loved one. Keeping secrets is part of the illness. In treatment, we need to work on revealing secrets, becoming more honest, and finding ways to speak truths, even though those truths may feel that they expose us. They may expose how ill we really are, the sadness we carry, the obsessions of our minds, our fears that we will never recover, or past events that we wish were not true. The pain of holding secrets is too great and holding them only makes us sicker and less likely to receive the help we need. Like radical acceptance, treatment requires radical honesty for patients, therapists, and loved ones. Speaking our truths and being honest both in treatment and with oneself is truly a key to recovery.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Warren, MD
Dr. Mark Warren (he/him) is the Chief Medical Officer of Accanto Health, the parent company of The Emily Program and Gather Behavioral Health. His primary focus enhancing patient safety and providing comprehensive treatment that addresses both the physical and psychological aspects of eating disorders. Working alongside our executive team and our medical staff, Dr. Warren is dedicated to helping all of our patients embark on a path toward a meaningful and joyful life.
Dr. Warren is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders, where he co-founded the special interest group (SIG) for Professionals and Recovery and the SIG for Males and Eating Disorders. He is a two-time recipient of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and a winner of the Woodruff Award. He has published and spoken extensively on males and eating disorders, professionals and recovery, and DBT and FBT in the treatment of eating disorders.
Dr. Warren is a founding member and former co-chair of the Academy of Eating Disorders Medical Care Standards Committee and serves on the FEAST Medical Advisory Board and The Visiting Committee of the Case Western Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing.
Having personally experienced an eating disorder as a young man, Mark feels privileged to be working in the field of eating disorders for over two decades.