When your relationship with food and an obsession with thinness interferes significantly with your life, you may be suffering from an eating disorder. The most common of these are anorexia and bulimia. Eating disorders can be life threatening and often have serious physical and psychological consequences. The Eating Disorders Outpatient Program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale provides interdisciplinary treatment and referral for students whose distorted patterns of eating are impairing physical, academic, psychological and personal functioning and who wish to make a commitment to a program of recovery. The psychologists, dietitians, and physicians who work together with each person provide individual and group therapy, nutrition counseling, educational groups, and medical care.
Referral is also available to inpatient programs if needed.
Participation in a recovery program with others can help minimize these feelings and provide support from those with like experiences. Overcoming an eating disorder can be a long and difficult process.