Survivors of eating disorders : their help-seeking experience and their assessment of it

Abstract

Palmer (2001) states that a persons suffering from an eating disorder who seeks professional help for the first time faces unique problems because she ''will not have had prior experience of which professional, or even perhaps which type of professional, is most appropriate for her needs" (pg 235). The focus of this study is to understand the main issues that are related to the help seeking experience of the survivors of eating disorders. The healing process starts at the moment they consider seeking help to the time of their recovery. The study focuses on the help seeking experience of the survivors from the 1990s to 2002. However, the experience of one of the survivors who sought professional help before the stated time period, was used to compare her help seeking experience with that of he remaining five survivors. A semi-structured interview was carried out with six survivors to understand their help seeking experience. The results show that the survivors have all received some kind of help to overcome their disorder, whether it was professional help or support that was offered by the family, relatives, and friends. Almost all survivors stated that they met some difficulties when they were on their process of recovery but having the right support and self-determination helped them to overcome these difficult moments. Now, they are working hard to maintain their recovery. The results also showed that there are other persons or factors that are helping these survivors to maintain their recovery. When comparing the help seeking experience of the five participants with that of the other person who sought professional help before the stated time period, we noticed that there was a clear evidence that services for treatment that are offered to persons suffering from an eating disorder have improved or increased. The results also showed that receiving the adequate type of professional help and getting the right support are very important for a person to succeed in the healing process. Obstacles and difficulties can only harm the healing process but help from others is needed in order to move on and help the person to survive.