Stopping proves difficult, especially when healthier coping skills havent been established.
As the term implies, these techniques strive to reduce harm where possible.
One of the great things about harm reduction is that you might get really creative.
Harris shares that these potential interventions can include waiting 15 minutes if someone wants to purge.
Taking these steps may sound easy, but they arent effortless (or purposeless).
Sometimes harm reduction practices sound simple, but their long-term effects can be profound, Morreale adds.
Gabrielle Morreale, MA, LPC, DBT-C, is the owner and clinical director of Recovered and Restored Eating Disorder Therapy Center in SimplePractice’s network of practitioners.
For someone who is suffering, they are far from simplethey are brave.
Shouldnt we get them to stop completely, especially whentheyre so dangerous?
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Treating people with dignity, empathy, and respect is crucial and can be a helpful pathway toward recovery.
A strong therapeutic alliance is full of compassion and accountability, she says.
She gave this example: I already binged, so I might as well keep eating.
The harm reduction model helps people avoid that mentality more easily.
Harm reduction also reduces shame, and is an approach many people find easier than abstinence.
It meets people where they are
Many people in ED recovery dont want to get better.
Gabrielle Morreale, MA, LPC, DBT-C, is the owner and clinical director of Recovered and Restored Eating Disorder Therapy Center in SimplePractice’s network of practitioners.
Harm reduction is basically a way to compromise and make progress.
These wins translate into resilience and grit, both of which are key in eating disorder recovery.
All in all, Morreale sees this model as an integral part of recovery.
Harm reduction, from my perspectiveas both a therapist and eating disorder survivorjust makes sense.
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