About once a month, we take patients in our adolescent and young adult partial hospitalization program on supervised meal outings. This allows them to have real life exposures to eating in restaurants and process the experience with the support of our staff members.

A recent outing revealed the need for strong support in an environment that is meant to be enjoyable and relaxing.

Our treatment team had selected a chain restaurant with large food portions to help patients work through their anxiety about food and with learning appropriate portions.

When our waitress introduced herself and the restaurant she boldly proclaimed that each entrée contained “A pound and a half of pasta!” You can imagine the anxious and guilt-driven thoughts that ensued in our already apprehensive group.

Next, one of our patients asked if the restaurant had low-fat dressing for her house salad that she was going to have prior to her entrée. (We do encourage patients to order regular dressings to challenge the diet mentality, but ultimately patients make these decisions on their own).

Our waitress had no idea where we were from or that our group included several people with eating disorders.

The waitress’s response was, “Oh no, honey. There is nothing low fat in this place!” Her comment demonstrates the challenges our patients routinely face and why it’s necessary for us to provide them with these supported activities.

This encounter reinforced precisely why we value the effectiveness and importance of these meal outings to help our patients with the recovery process and learn how to manage the effects of an off-hand comment.

And, that night, that’s exactly what we did. Our group was able to process these experiences and successfully get through the meal, including dessert.