Eating Disorders from a Christian Counseling Perspective Part 2: Internal Causes

 

Part 2 of a 3-Part Eating Disorder — Christian Counseling Perspective Series

In Eating Disorders from a Christian Counseling Perspective (Part 1 of 3), I began to unpack the internal causes of eating disorders—things within us that we permit to distort our eating habits. I discussed how our sinful nature, free will, and lack of self-control cause us to make poor personal decisions that can cause us to develop eating disorders. In this article, I will examine the final two internal causes of eating disorders:

Cause #4: An Undisciplined Thought Life

People with eating disorders not only lack discipline over their food-related thoughts, but they also allow many other thoughts to rage out of control. Untruthful, ungodly, and otherwise destructive statements and ideas repeat again and again in their thoughts, forming negative and repetitive “recordings” that continually play in their minds. This forms faulty belief systems that influence both our emotions and actions.

Disordered people spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about themselves and about their problem. They may appear to be people pleasers, but their constant giving is often a control mechanism. They hope that if they are nice enough, good enough, or helpful enough, they can manipulate others into a desired response. They hope to establish a sense of security through the approval, respect, and loyalty “due” them by others. When someone with an ED knows that others disapprove of them, it heightens their fears of rejection and abandonment. They also see this disapproval as “proof” that they really are bad, worthless, defective, stupid, and undeserving of love.

People with eating disorders generally lack healthy self-understanding. They are typically self-loathing, self-condemning, self-punishing, and utterly self-absorbed. They may hide behind a convincing facade of confidence, competence, and higher-than-average achievement, but they do not know their intrinsic worth.

Finally, the inability to forgive, which keeps people mired in their past, is fed and kept alive through thoughts. Harboring grudges against others or oneself can be an incentive to drown painful feelings with eating (and/or other pleasures) or to overly control the body through methods such as starvation, purging, and excessively exercising as a peculiar response to uncontrolled emotional pain. To be unwilling to forgive obstructs the healing process.

Cause #5: Our Spiritual Deficiencies

Those engaged in an eating disorder are always hurting spiritually.
Very often, a person with an ED either does not pray at all or else prays inconsistently. Just as in marriage, family, friendship, or any other important relationship, your intimacy with God is dependent on quality, regular communication.

The author of 2nd Peter writes that Christ has given us everything we need to live a godly life. His sacrifice on the cross and his gift of the Holy Spirit empower us to escape the corruption of ungodly and earthly desires. The Spirit teaches us as he speaks in our lives and as we spend time reading and meditating on the Bible. Christians who do not guide themselves by the wisdom of the Spirit may find that they are more vulnerable to forming eating disorders.

People may also fail to recognize their eating disorder as sin. A Christian may be spiritually healthy overall, but he, or she, may harden his, or her, heart when it comes to eating habits. The compulsive overeater will rationalize binges by saying, “God made food to be enjoyed!” Likewise, the anorexic extols the “virtue” of self-control and a “fasted life.”

Persons who backslide in their faith, who have a shallow relationship with the Lord, or who do not know God at all, are equally prone to eating disorders. They walk most of the time – if not all of it – in the flesh rather than in the Spirit. They try to overcome their disorder through their own power. Failure is the trademark of this spiritual depravity.

None of us will be perfected until we are face-to-face with God. We can only “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14). Yet very often we lose sight of this goal when we begin to follow our own desires—and this can be very true for people with eating disorders. Seeking the advice and discernment of a qualified Christian mental health counselor can help you discern God’s will for you and empower you to take control of your choices. If you recognize any of these internal roots of disordered eating in your own life, we at Seattle Christian Counseling encourage you to seek professional help to guide you back to health and wellbeing in the promises of God.

You can read the first article in this series here: Eating Disorders from a Christian Counseling Perspective (Part 1 of 3)

 

Images cc: freedigitalphotos.net – “Girl Eating Pizza” by Naito8