Symptoms are not people

          People with eating disorders often don't know the difference between their

symptoms and who they authentically are.  Our culture doesn''t help.  Women and

men are often applauded  for some symptoms and criticized for others because our

culture doesn't recognize the difference between a symptom and a healthy human

being.



           Long before I became a psychotherapist I read the book, Captain Newman,

M.D.  The  book made a powerful impact on my developing sense of being human

with other human beings.  One scene in particular, stayed with me then and

remains a  vivid image today.



          Captain Newman, M.D. was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck, Angie

Dickinson and Bobbie Darrin. I wondered hopefully if my favorite scene would

make the editor's cut.  It did.



         Peck, in the title role, was a psychiatrist in the army in charge of a ward full

of PTSD soldiers.



          At one point Peck is with a seriously disturbed patient, played by Darrin. 

Darrin is wildly upset and Peck is shouting.



          Later the nurse, Dickinson, expresses her disappointment and horror with

Peck saying, "How could you shout at your patient like that?"    

       
        Peck responds, "I wasn't shouting at my patient.  I was shouting at his symptoms."      

             
            I can still remember the flood of new awareness and compassion that filled

me at that moment in the story.



            Author, Leo Calvin Rosten, gave me an early lesson in how to perceive as a

psychotherapist.  Symptoms are not people.



            This theme will come up often in my blogs.  A powerful and profound

aspect of eating disorder recovery occurs when a person with an eating disorder

discovers that she is a valuable human being with untapped riches that are blocked,

not by her character or basic nature, but by symptoms.



              When a person even gets a hint of this fact, she feels a surge of hope and

renewed dedication to  getting well.

            

Joanna Poppink, MFT, psychotherapist eating disorder specialist, Los Angeles, CA

bulimia, anorexia, compulsive overeating recovery:  www.poppink.com