What is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for eating disorders?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an active type of counseling. Sessions usually are held once a week for as long as you need to master new skills. Individual sessions last 1 hour, and group sessions may be longer.

During cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders, you learn:

• About your illness, its symptoms and how to predict when symptoms will most likely recur.
• To keep a diary of eating episodes, binge eating, purging and the events that may have triggered these episodes.
• To eat more regularly, with meals or snacks spaced no more than 3 or 4 hours apart.
• How to change the way you think about your symptoms. This reduces the power the symptoms have over you.
• How to change self-defeating thought patterns into patterns that are more helpful. This improves mood and your sense of mastery over your life. This helps you avoid future episodes.
• Ways to handle daily problems differently.