Sometimes, you have to face fear head on — even if your fear is pizza.
For adolescents suffering from an eating disorder, the tendency to avoid “fear foods,” like candy bars or ice cream, can snowball into extensive disordered eating.
Now, a new study from Penn State says the key to finding a new balance may be in moderate exposure therapy. The idea: Exposure to feared objects or situations in a safe environment helps patients overcome their fear.
Participants included teens with a median age of 14 years who were in an outpatient hospitalization program for eating disorders, five days a week for about eight weeks.
Each day, participants were exposed to a fear food. For example, participants received a full-sized candy bar on Mondays, a baked good such as a cookie on Tuesdays, pizza on Wednesdays, a dessert on Thursdays and a breakfast item such as pancakes on Fridays.
To evaluate how successful the therapy was, participants reported their distress ratings from zero (no distress) to 10 (extreme distress) before and after they were exposed to the fear food. They took a second test designed to measure their fear and anxiety around eating and were encouraged to discuss their anxieties.
Although participants still displayed some anxiety in each exposure session, study authors noted that distress ratings between exposure sessions trended downward, meaning participants became increasingly less anxious about their fear foods.
As is typical, more research is needed, but take some comfort in the fact that facing your fears is good across the board — even when your foe is fried.