Dealing With Eating Disorders, Part Two

As we established last month, eating disorders are not just the problem of the victim but their eating problem becomes a problem for the whole family!  Parents need Holy Spirit wisdom and Biblical counsel in dealing with children with this disorder.  This is not just a physical problem but it reveals a deep spiritual need as well.
I would like to warn parents and young people that there are serious physical and spiritual ramifications of getting into anorexia or bulimia. 

Either of these disorders often first begin because of rebellion in the spirit of the afflicted one.  Perhaps that rebellion is a spirit found in the hearts of an entire family.

In our experience of 38 years in the ministry, we have often seen the correlation of angry, rebellious parents producing angry, rebellious children who take on eating disorders.  Rebellion can become a way of thinking about all of life and the people in your life!  Rebellion is a very serious issue and much too often overlooked or excused in a home.

For kids addicted to anorexia (the refusal to eat), and bulimia (eating and purging), this is their way of having control over their parents or situations in the home or family that are unpleasant or out of their control.

Often times they have a self loathing. Refusing to eat or accept food is a way of hurting themselves or getting back at themselves or their parents for the negative way they perceive themselves to be.  These people need to see this thinking and behavior as rebellion and witchcraft.  It literally turns into a demonic hold on their very lives.  The victim needs to understand that God made them as He wanted them and not to rebel against God.

Psalm 139:13-18 "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee."

Dear Parent…teach your child from a young age that they are not a mistake!  Show them from the Word of God, how God thinks of who and what they are.  I can accept my self and my body when I remember that God makes no mistakes and it was His plan for me to look just like I look!   Just to remember that He actually thought of ME before I was even known by my own family, is an incredible thought!  It's just a shame that parents and family members cannot love and accept each other the way God does for each of us.

The Spiritual Side Affects of Eating Disorders

1. Satan wins by blinding these poor victims to the Truth. 
   
2. They often are sent to rehabilitation homes where they treat the physical side but not the spiritual.  Without the spiritual…there is no lasting victory over rebellious thinking.
   
3. Without the "spiritual" treatment (conversion to Christ), there can be many relapses because Satan capitalizes on the victim's weakness.
   
4. These victims will be very good at lying and covering–up what they are still doing.  It will become compulsive…where they can't stop lying.  This can take over the life.
   
5. They will blame their problem on a poor self image but it is really coming from an obsession with a perfect figure or a control issue.  It really does become "all about them"!
   
6. They will blame their problem on parents who try to exercise too much control over them.  It is really the spirit of rebellion.  All these things can be a part of this overall problem.
   
   Christ is the ONLY answer to fixing this problem!  But He excels in conquering these kinds of problems…when you let Him.
   
   
   

The Physical Side Affects of Eating Disorders

1. Heart failure is very common with these disorders.
   
2. There can be a disruption of hormones with many serious side affects now and later in life.
   
3. A girl can so damage her body that she will not be able to bear children.  This is a very common side affect in young females.
4. Deterioration of hair, bones and teeth is common because of decreased nutrition that affects the overall health of the body.

In almost any case of an eating disorder, there is some kind of demonic involvement.  Parents need to be awake to all the inputs in their family and their children's lives.  We are in a warfare and the souls of our children are at stake.  We must take these things seriously.

Remember:  Hebrews 7:25 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him…"

Are your children worth the effort?