Author: frivvy89
What do you do when your child has an eating disorder and won’t talk about food and eating? It can feel impossible for parents who desperately want to help but can’t break through this barrier. Today I’ll respond to a parent whose son has an eating disorder and refuses to talk about food and eating. This is a really common challenge that parents face during eating disorder recovery, particularly when they have older teens and young adults. So I’ll share some thoughts about why this happens and how parents can respond in a way that supports recovery. The letterDear Ginny,Our 20-year-old son has…
Maintaining eating disorder recovery is no easy feat. Eating disorders are chronic, progressive conditions that affect every aspect of your wellbeing. Your recovery depends on your ability to continue working on yourself even after learning to manage your most pressing symptoms. Eating disorders are often thought of as physical disorders. Food is a necessary part of your physical condition and developing an unhealthy relationship with it can cause serious problems. Eating disorders have a significant impact on your physical health and leave you at risk of developing serious, long-term complications. At the same time, eating disorders are much more than…
Some warning signs of an eating disorder may include preoccupation with meals, excessive calorie counting and being overly controlling of what is eaten. (stock photo) Some Milwaukee health leaders say they are seeing a surge in eating disorders that they link to challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Keisha Adams, associate program director for the adolescent medicine fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, said there is a backlog in services. New patients may have to wait until September to be seen, she said. “Things are getting better on the in-patient side, but like most mental health issues, there aren’t…
A summary of participant self-reported demographic characteristics is presented in Table 2. Among the 29 participants, the majority were female (59%) and the majority were between 18 and 64 years of age. Approximately 55% were Black/African American, 41% White, and 3% American Indian/Alaska Native. Nearly 45% had a high school degree or less. Half of the participants (52%) were employed full-time. Table 2 Participant Demographics among Customers of Stores in the North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (N = 29)Through coding, six main themes emerged from the interviews based on frequency of the code and depth of discussion. These themes included the following,…
Your Best is No One Else’s BestI was at a Yoga class the other day when the teacher made this off-hand comment: “Don’t worry about what other people in the class is doing, everyone is doing their best, just like you…” I thought it was a brilliant comment. I often see people afraid to start something because they base their goals on what other people are doing. For instance, “I can’t go to that yoga class because I won’t be as strong or as flexible or as fit or as thin as everyone else,” and then you sabotage yourself. You…
STOP SHAMING PEOPLE FOR GAINING WEIGHT DURING COVID This past weekend, one of my girlfriends, whom I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, came over to my house with her husband and kids. When I went to hug her, instead of reaching out to hug me, she pulled up her shirt and grabbed two handfuls of her tattoo clad belly and said, “look at this!” “It’s beautiful!” I responded, “You’re beautiful and perfect.” But she was not happy and wanted to show me that she had put on weight since the pandemic. (Side note- she’s a nurse. A nurse during…
Today we’re going to talk about a child who has returned from being in treatment for an eating disorder and is now unmotivated for recovery. I’ll talk through what this parent can do to help her child stay on the road to recovery and discuss an important technique to help with emotional metabolism, which I think is key to full recovery from an eating disorder.The letterDear Ginny,My daughter is 17. She came home from treatment three months ago. At first, she was really motivated and following her meal plan. But now she refuses to go to therapy, and she often goes…
“You feel tired? That’s because you’ve been eating too many sweets.” “You have a headache? Must be from the soda you drank earlier.” “You have acne? Of course, that’s because you had potato chips yesterday.” “Your pants are feeling a bit tighter than usual? Well, that’s what happens when you eat white flour.” If you have an eating disorder, these thoughts might sound familiar. You believe that everything you eat will immediately impact how you look and feel. Feel good? Then you must be eating well. Feel bad? Then eat better. Your eating disorder will jump at every chance it…
Today we’re going to hear from a parent whose child is facing food fear during eating disorder recovery. She is afraid of food and her list of safe foods is getting smaller and smaller. I’ll talk through what food fear feels like and provide some advice for the parent so that she can help her child in recovery.The letterDear Ginny,My child is in recovery from an eating disorder, and she is deathly afraid of food.Her therapist says food fear is part of the eating disorder and not to worry. She says to just keep doing what I’m doing, but the…
Researchers have found that eating disorder behaviors, such as binge-eating, alter the brain’s reward response process and food intake control circuitry, which can reinforce these behaviors. Understanding how eating disorder behaviors and neurobiology interact can shed light on why these disorders often become chronic and could aid in the future development of treatments. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, was supported by the National Institutes of Health. “This work is significant because it links biological and behavioral factors that interact to adversely impact eating behaviors,” said Janani Prabhakar, Ph.D., of the Division of Translational Research at the National Institute of…