Featured Intern: Eating Disorder Rotation

I am in my second week of an eating disorder rotation with a private practice dietitian. Everyday I sit in on hour-long counseling sessions with patients. It can be emotional and overwhelming if the patient is just coming to the realization that they have an eating disorder. I don’t see how I could be the dietitian in this position. In addition, the moms are hard to deal with. They come in with their daughters, and most of them try to speak for their daughter. The young girl just sits there with a flat affect and answers ‘yes’ or ‘no’ only while the mom explains in detail. The poor girl is controlled by her domineering mother. This is the most common scenario with eating disorders that I have seen so far: the controlling mother with the perfectionist submissive daughter. I just don’t think I am cut out for this kind of work. I always thought I wanted to go into the field of weight management, and well, I still do think this. But, I am not so sure I want to work with eating disorders on a daily basis (I probably would need a lot more education and training for the field).

Another thing I want to discuss is observation of eating disorder patients eating dinner. I sat in on a supported dinner group for those with eating disorders, and the level of tension in the room was at a nine or ten the whole meal. First, I don’t think it helped that I was sitting there with them eating my dinner with normal foods and normal eating habits (and with a normal appearance/weight). Knowing that I am an intern, the patients probably assumed I was scrutinizing their eating habits. They were out of their normal comfort zone because they knew they were going to be strongly encouraged to eat all of their food. The whole room could feel the tension of 10 nervous breakdowns on the brink. The stress alone would be enough to stop someone from eating their meal. I came away from this experience understanding why it can be so difficult to heal an eating disorder. This week when I go back, I will try my best to be more comfortable and to set a good example by bringing in foods with higher fat for my dinner.