The Case for Harm Reduction During the Holiday Season

Harm reduction has received a lot of attention lately. This treatment philosophy and approach is rooted in the substance abuse world and recently has been examined as a useful tool in eating disorder work. We might all have our own thoughts and opinions on whether harm reduction is a beneficial long-term strategy for eating disorder recovery AND let’s just talk about the holidays. They are upon us. “The most wonderful time of the year.” Many agree with this sentiment, while many find the holidays to be overwhelming, difficult, and just plain disastrous. If you find yourself in the subgroup of folks who tend to struggle during holiday times- using a harm reduction approach might be exactly what is needed.

First off, what is harm reduction. It has been around as a treatment model in helping folks manage intense and deeply rooted coping strategies. I mentioned the utility in substance abuse treatment – the use of Narcan is the clearest example of using harm reduction in substance abuse. We offer folks something that will help even when the negative coping strategy was already implemented. There is no sense in lecturing someone who might overdose, let’s just take a small step to in this case, save someone’s life.

Using harm reduction is just about taking small steps towards feeling slightly better. The goal is making sure that we are just “doing the next best thing.” Achieving perfection is not even on the agenda. So how does this look in terms of eating disorder treatment? Eating disorders can be categorized as a massive coping strategy. This means that the behaviors developed as a way to manage difficulties in one’s life. Some of these difficulties are in regulating emotions, navigating difficult systems, or dealing with a family that can be challenging. Applying a harm reduction model to eating disorder treatment allows for us to slowly understand what purpose is the ED serving without sending someone into a tailspin in attempt to take away all of their coping strategies.

Helping our clients or ourselves to work towards harm reduction during this holiday season might actually allow for there to be deeper healing in the future. We get rid of expectations and work towards planning ahead for any holiday pitfalls with a mindset that is gentler and kinder and asking the question- what is the next best thing I can do in this situation.