The importance of the acceptance process in avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder
Andrea Valente, Andrea Gragnani
This paper aims to offer evidence for the use of clinical strategies, techniques and procedures used in the treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias for avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder. We consider the case study of an underweight woman with amenorrhea, a hyperfocus on nutrition, strict meal control and over-attention to bodily sensations, all aimed at preventing the risk of vomiting, which represents a complete and definitive loss of self-control. The specificity of the vomit phobia together with the concept of impending threat directed us towards a treatment that increases tolerability to the feared event, reducing its catastrophicity and favouring the acceptance of a partial and transitory loss of self-control. Our experimental findings and goals were achieved by following a standard anxiety and phobia treatment, where the exposure to the event is part of the acceptance process, coupled with techniques that aim at changing the perception of dysfunctional beliefs.
Keywords
Cognitive behavioural therapy, Avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder, Emetophobia, Acceptance, Exposure.
