WEIGHT LOSS: HELP DURING EATING DISORDER
If you have an eating disorder, or know someone who does, the time to get help is now. Don’t wait. The longer the disorder persists, the harder it is to eradicate.
By reading this crucial step: You’re educating yourself about the disorder. You know the dangers, you know the warning signs. You are also learning about treatment options. You know, too, that the end point of self-starvation or dietary chaos is chronic disability-or even death.
If your child has an eating disorder, you may feel you are helpless. Not true! You have more power than you realize. No matter how chaotic your family life, you are very important to your daughter. Use that importance, to assist your daughter in getting help. The same holds if you are the husband or roommate of the person with the disorder.
Sometimes, disturbed eating can actually be a cry for help. Does your daughter parade her skeletal form in front of you? Does she leave the table often during a meal to visit the bathroom, or does she “forget” to clean up after she vomits? She is sending a signal: Help me!
Children need limits. They trust parents to set limits, to reassure them that the world is a safe and loving place. Sometimes a girl is just waiting for her mother or father to confront her about her disorder, to ask what’s wrong and to insist on treatment. She can’t bring up the subject herself; she’s too consumed with guilt or shame.
That’s why you need to act. Sometimes just showing that you care enough to intervene can have a powerful therapeutic effect.
It won’t be easy. There may be denial, bitterness, angry confrontations. Expect these reactions. It’s natural that a threat to your daughter’s very identity should provoke resistance. But stay focused.
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