With regard to eating disorders, attachment theory makes clear pattern long as it can be difficult to realize otherwise. Often, individuals with eating disorders feel disconnected and set apart from the family, and still yearn for a meaningful relationship with these same family. These people feel confused about these conflicting emotions, with little guidance on how to solve them. Attachment theory helps to describe why and how these relationships can become strained, and provides insight into how these relations can be strengthened and utilized in eating disorder treatment. After a brief discussion of the attachment theory, the use of the father-daughter relationship in eating disorder treatment will be discussed, with a focus on specific actions that could result in treatment on the field.
attachment theory
When children develop the expectations of others, future cognitive, behavioral and emotional responses of the mind. These reactions are bound spiritual perception of itself. Thus, if a child sees himself as able, his reaction to another will reflect a sense of flair. Children who perceived their parents as warm and responsive often will perceive themselves as loved and respected, and they develop the expectation that their needs will be met. However, children come to view themselves as rejected and unloved when they see their parents this way, regardless of good intent of most parents. These children learn to expect little from the world around them, and rather than looking to themselves and relationships that meet the needs, develop other methods to deal with emotional stress these individuals.
It is important to note that these coping strategies are based on perception-not necessarily reality people. And, as many doctors know, there can be hugely different attitude for members of the same family. Certainly, the intention is not to blame parents for unmet needs of children, but to help both parents and daughters be sensitive, and willing to change, how they interact and make good its intention to another.
Often, as people are facing unmet attachment needs they turn to insecure resources that attempt to meet the needs. Insecure coping attempts to both reduce or optimize the expression of man’s attachment needs. Those who rely on minimizing strategies away from emotional instability, resulting in limited access emotional and negative, unrealistic view of emotional availability of parents. These individuals tend to believe that no one can always meet their needs, and may even believe that they are undeserving get their needs met. In contrast, those who rely on maximizing techniques tend to turn their attention to their emotional distress, often resulting in a relationship enmeshment and difficulty assessing threats supply others. Thus, these individuals to be riveted by fear of abandonment and may take extreme measures to try to meet the needs of attachments.
People with eating disorders often use both minimize and maximize methods in their efforts to deal with the received attachment needs, but are usually defined as turning away from all the needs, be they emotional, intellectual, or physical, as a way of disavowing the pain of unmet needs.
Thus eating disorders represent one way of coping with attachment concerns. What comes from studies of attachment and eating disorders is a picture of a young woman turning away from emotional distress through externalizing methods, including trying to control her world through trying to control her eating behavior and body. These individuals divert the attention of their bodies, eating behavior and other external plants because they are unable or unwilling to investigate their own psychological state. This diversion allows individuals with an eating disorder to avoid attachment concerns focusing on the more remote and more “attainable” The changes body.
With the father-daughter relationship in therapy
Although not much is known about father-daughter relationships and eating disorders, recent experiments have tried to describe this relationship. Research Rita need for attention doctors’ father-daughter relationship as part of comprehensive care for eating disorders. In my experience as a physician, I have seen that careful consideration of how fathers can be used in eating disorder treatment leads to greater recovery and long-term recovery.
While much attention is given to the mother daughter relationship in eating disorder treatment – and with good reason – often overlooked are the efforts to understand and explore the father-daughter relationship. This can happen for various reasons, whether it is a number of important issues treatment rooms for a limited time, or doctor hesitation. Regardless of the reason, the study and understanding of the father-daughter relationship can be important for treatment and recovery from an eating disorder, and is an important area of focus that can have lasting effects on the lives of both daughter and father. By using five major survey talks and discuss questions such reactions, the importance of utilizing the father daughter relationship in eating disorder treatment is covered.
How is the customer on the relationship with his father?
Often customers report having a distant relationship with their fathers, whether it is due to physical or emotional absence. Descriptions women of their fathers are, “He was always very busy,” “He travels a lot,” and “he was never really about.” Prominent in the responses of many people are emotionally disconnected from their fathers. While this is a common response, the other answer is one of the most loved or protected by his people. Sometimes fathers to act as buffers between the discordant relationship between mothers and daughters. Often the relationship, even among adults, one up, one down relationship where the father takes the traditional role of protecting or “care” daughter.
Exploring this question to customers for medical assistance in understanding the General Dynamics family, and the special relationship between a daughter and father. It also helps to describe some of the client’s belief about the role of the father in particular, and men in general. Defining emotional disconnection between father and daughter can pave the way for such a connection and help the client to heal with the support of family. What message received food, eating and body image? This question deals with more specialized issues that can potentially contribute to the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Customers can respond with answers like “dad teased me that I was chubby,” “he criticized often mom for being fat, and she was not,” and “watch what you eat, or no one wants to date you.” One customers indicated that her father agreed to pay it in order to lose weight. Often people get a very important message connect desirable weight and appearance, whether it is through direct channels such as payment for weight loss, or through more indirect means criticize the mother of one or women in general.
Customers report also received mixed messages about weight, food and appearance. For example, one customer reported chided by his father for taking snacks, when her father insisted she cleaned her plate as he prepared dinner for the family. These customers can often lose contact with intuition hunger and satiety cues when such mixed messages are presented in the family. Sometimes fathers can make love and connection reinforcement to food, such as father playing “chef” and require the family to eat everything that was presented to them as a way confirmed his own needs.
Understanding messages about food, weight and appearance helps the doctor take a step into the world of the client, and gain a greater appreciation for the very real fears that exist on food issues. Recognizing that for some customers, their faith, whether they are worthy of love, connection, and nurturing is intimately tied to the issues of food, can help customers to be more sensitive to their experience, thus strengthening commitment to change this relationship. Inherent in these answers is also the idea of acceptance shall be subject to a certain weight or appearance. Many women begin to question whether they are acceptable because they see that their fathers own their mother may not be right in a given weight. This leads to distrust his own experience and confidence of external evidence of ratification or acceptance. Helping customers make this pattern clearly important therapeutic win-win to help the customer focus of its external evaluations to more internal sources.
What are the expectations for the father of a daughter and attitudes towards women? People with eating disorders often indicate that their fathers have high, unrelenting expectations, whether it’s academic, athletic or financial achievement. Fathers often send their own concerns about their daughters through messages such as “you have to be beautiful and marry someone with money.” It may be the case that these fathers pushing their daughters to academic achievement and “catching a rich man” because it may relieve concerns of the Father to give to their children. Further, this traditional view conveys a message that looks daughter is the most important characteristic in determining its success. But the youth of some of these fathers may push their daughters to achieve athletically, as daughters start college, the focus is often replaced to achieve academically.
For many women with eating disorders is a major fear of disappointing others, and this is no truer than in the father-daughter relationship. Often, these women will go to extreme measures in order to get love, warmth and care they want from their fathers, even if it means pushing themselves to the limits in many areas. To help customers understand starved for emotional attention from their fathers, and to help fathers understand this dynamic, can allow customers to more directly meet the needs of their fathers to be present in helping to meet those needs. Help customers and fathers distinction between acceptance and recognition can help each release unrealistic expectations and instead build a relationship based on the recognition and love.
What are the expectations of the daughter of his father in the family? Contrary to what some customers think, expectations and assumptions within the family are not entirely unidirectional. Often daughters expectations of their ancestors to keep them from developing a strong emotional connection. Some of these expectations, “Dad makes sure we have food on the table,” “my dad can not understand feelings”, “My dad is too busy for me” and “my dad is not interested in my life.” These reactions convey faith father’s only provider, emotionally removed, and unable or unwilling to understand the emotions. Often these customers may not even consider his father as an emotional resource to them in their eating disorder. Exploring the customer’s expectations can help her to take responsibility for its role in emotional disconnection and can help her to challenge her beliefs about the role rigidity.
Often fathers desire to help their daughters in any way, but require an invitation to be allowed in the emotional lives of their daughters. Doctors can do a lot to make this message easier to offer and get by providing support to both customers and fathers in this process, and help each other see good intentions. In some cases it can be very therapeutic for customers to work with male doctors, whether it is individual therapy, group therapy or other structured therapeutic settings so that customers can challenge their belief that they can not understand or express feelings. Working with a male doctor is not afraid to express and exploit feelings of treatment can do much to create a corrective experience for customers.
How does your father react to eating about? Fathers can reply to eat purposes daughter in many ways, to be relying on efficiency (“just eat”) or complete avoiding the issue. Customer responses to this question from “my father never said a word,” to “Have some broccoli. It’s good for you and it will not make you fat.” It is unclear what the response is more worry-no answer at all, which serves to reduce the experience of a daughter and suffering, or entirely practical response that fails to grasp the complexities of eating disorders. Whether this reaction tends to undermine efforts daughter to get help. They can strengthen their faith in that “nothing is wrong,” or the belief that her worries are not valid and that it is not worthy of concern.
avoid the father of eating concerns may be responding to concerns about the experience of seeing the daughter of a man struggling but do not know how to help. This can be very painful for fathers, and rather than pushing through that pain and fear, they can turn to avoid the issue. Tragically, daughters may interpret the silence of his father as a sign of uncaring rather than a feeling of helplessness and may reject efforts father does. Further, these daughters can call into question whether they are deserving of recovery when they interpret silence father’s indifference.
Sometimes when these fathers feel helpless, they may turn to anger doctors with such statements as “it’s your job to make my daughter better.” Although difficult, doctors have to overcome defensiveness, and instead listen to the underlying message in this, as is often the fear and helplessness. Recognizing fear and helplessness, help the father and daughter speak the same language, and provide a bridge between the daughter and her father.
It can also be difficult for some fathers to understand the underlying emotional complexities of eating concerns, and unfortunately may be some efforts on the part of professionals to help fathers understand, given that doctors themselves are not free of bias for use men’s emotions. Physicians must be willing to examine and challenge their own opinions that prevent them from utilizing the fathers of treatment. Some healing is best facilitated within the father daughter relationship, and doctors will be ready to take advantage of every resource available to them.
Utilizing the family dynamics in treatment
In addition to addressing the major exploratory questions, doctors must meet and take advantage of family dynamics in treatment. Is competition or jealousy within the family system? Unfortunately, sometimes family members can try to sabotage the father daughter relationship in order to meet their own needs people. What is the role of a daughter in the family? What would be the cost of the family daughter were to be successful? Dynamics are complex and must be included.
Understanding the family dynamics can help the therapist explained the role that he or she might enjoy providing corrective emotional experience for customers. For example, a therapist providing the role of foster parent where the customer can learn and test limits, and get attention and approval? Is the therapist vulnerable to becoming enmeshed mother, and how she could disentangle itself? Is therapist backup role dad? How could he be more emotional expression, thus allowing the customer to be the same? Can the therapist been nurturing father feelings are valid, and it can be accepted without unrealistic expectations? Physicians must be thoughtful in mind the role they can take to therapeutic benefits. Of course there are appropriate levels paramount in this work, and doctors will be hyper-aware of their own emotional responses when engaging in such. The doctor examine how the father-daughter relationship might be a source of strength and support in the challenging work of recovery. Two interventions can be powerful is to have both a father and daughter write a letter of love to one another, or to spend time talking to one another on the phone.
One customer receiving disappointing grade, called to inform his father of the situation. This daughter had, in the past, felt considerable pressure from his father to achieve academically, and while it was hard for her to tell her father disappointed class, she also requested their support and encouragement. One of the ongoing questions for this client in treatment was “how I can be independent and still keep in touch with my father?” Customer calls to her father were attempts to navigate the challenges of interdependence between adult children and parents. During the phone conversation, the daughter was able to reach out for support and share her disappointment in her class, and her father was able to change the way he related to his daughter by expressing support and encouragement, rather than reiterate disappointment daughter when found. Then, unexpectedly, the daughter received a letter in the mail from his father a few days later, in which he expressed his love, support and encouragement, and in fact gave her permission to not feel pressure from him anymore. He shared his hope that she was happy and found love from him instead of pressure. This letter, in addition to support calls, did so much to heal this father-daughter relationship. Furthermore, the letter was a transitional object daughter could return to the hard times and remind them of the love and support she needed from her father.
In addition to phone calls and letter-writing, doctors are encouraged to enlist the support of fathers by offering them a therapy session, whether it is physical attendance family meetings or phone. At a family meeting the father who said he would pay his daughter to lose weight apologized to his daughter for these hurt. He acknowledged the pain he caused his daughter and he asked how he could support it. These efforts to join the father in the treatment and recovery can provide a healing balm to families. Throughout the subsequent treatment of the client, she relied on the experience with his father as a sign of his love and good intent toward her.
Another effort that can have lasting impact on improving family relationships is to encourage the father to his daughter. While mothers and daughters can often find common ground for communication, this can be challenging for fathers and daughters. It can help to have a certain function or focus on the time together, such as the presence of a sporting event, participating in hobbies, or playing board games. One daughter described Friday as she and her father attended a professional hockey game. Describing this event, she reported, “this was the first time my dad and I have really talked. We talked for three hours straight just two of us.” Such interactions allow fathers and daughters a chance to really get to know one another. This can be especially useful for daughters who have strict expectations of the role of fathers. For example, it may be informative for the daughter to learn that her father has interests and role outside of being “hand.”
cultivate father daughter relationship can buoy daughter during treatment and recovery. So many of these people hard with a sense of worth, and still receive messages from their fathers asserting their value and the value can have lasting effects. One daughter spoke about her father sit her down and tell her that he loved her, that she had value beyond measure, and that it did not matter what her accomplishments or failures were. Direct messages like this are often required for these clients and their feelings of self-loathing can be strong and all-encompassing. This daughter, after one such conversation with his father, reported “my father loves me, so maybe I’m okay.” This love and acceptance, send a loving father, worked as a bridge this daughter to achieve a greater sense of their own value. As she received the love and approval of her father, she was able to strengthen their faith in its value. This message of love is most powerful when it comes from loved ones with a common history.
There are caveats to deal with his father daughter relationship in eating disorder treatment. First, it is important to know how this customer can be unique. Physicians must strive to understand the complexities of the relationship. Utilization father daughter relationship may not always be right, so that if the father has competition program, if the father is not ready to address your concerns, if there is high rigidity in the family system, or if there is a history of incest or abuse committed by the father . Physicians must mobilize all their clinical skills and do well to consult and monitoring to determine whether undertaken father in treatment would be therapeutic. And if in the course of this work, it becomes clear that the father can not be used as a source of support, the physician must be willing to re-direct efforts, and will help customers recognize that the father can not be a source of support. While many customers have not taken fathers for support, it can still be incredibly difficult to come to terms with the fact that the father can not be obtained. This is a loss that will be grieved by the customer. While doing this work, the physician must be sensitive to the developmental needs of the client. In exploring development needs, doctors do well to ask: “Where is that customers stuck?” The developmental age is this client? What are her needs at this point, and how could stimulant father help to meet these needs? For example, is the daughter of development entity 13 years where she has a company structure with space to develop their own individuality her? Or is it mature 11 years old who feel overwhelmed by the thought of growing up and security needs love from his father? Exploring these developmental questions can guide physicians to the most valuable areas of treatment foci.
In addition, the sensitivity of developmental client has a clear understanding of the client’s readiness for change. Physicians must be cautious about moving into this work too quickly without having a clear picture of the family system. Moving too fast can overwhelm the client, family and doctor. Many customers are not ready at the beginning, to take advantage of their fathers in the treatment, and this must be broached with patience and care. Pacemaker is the first in this work, which is to provide a clear path of work so that fathers and daughters alike will know what to expect. Exploring client hesitations will help your doctor assess accurately the safety of this work and help the doctor know when it is safe to push forward and when it is important to slow down.
Conclusion
Attachment theory is well suited for conceptualizing complex family ties often present in eating disorder treatment. Father-daughter relationship is one potentially important effects, and careful evaluation and appropriate use of this relationship can be the key to successful treatment and long-term recovery.
Some clinical judgment
1. Clarify whether the use of the father daughter relationship is right
2. Sensitivity development needs of the client
3. Sensitivity customer readiness for change
4. Pacing as important to safety for both customers and fathers
5. Provide a clear path while father daughter work
6. father-daughter Interventions
7. Encourage direct message daughter father as a source of support
8. Calls and letters of love and encouragement between the father-daughter
9. Participation father treated, either by phone or in person
10. Encourage father daughter leisure activities
11. Encourage direct message of the Father and the support