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Hope for Concerned Parents of Eating Disorder Sufferers
Having a child that is struggling with an eating disorder can be concerning — it’s difficult to witness the impact an eating disorder has on your child’s well-being. The worry over your child’s mental, emotional, and physical health can feel overwhelming, but there is hope.
Here are five hopeful messages for concerned parents of eating disorder sufferers:
1. Being involved in your child’s treatment is the best thing you can do. Research consistently finds that parental involvement in a child’s eating disorder treatment can increase chances of recovery. Parent involvement may vary based upon your child’s age and developmental needs.
Some forms of treatment, like Family-Based Treatment (FBT), which is also referred to as the “Maudsley Method,” requires high parental involvement. In FBT, parents are to temporarily take control of the child’s eating and monitor for disordered eating behaviors until a healthy weight and regular eating patterns are established.
Other approaches include family therapy, in order for the family system to receive support, and multifamily psychoeducational groups, which help family members understand eating disorders and learn about valuable coping skills. There are many ways for you to be involved in your child’s treatment, but the evidence is clear — family involvement supports recovery.
2. Your child’s eating disorder is not your fault. Eating disorders are complex and develop due to a myriad of overlapping reasons including environmental (like our cultural preference for thin bodies), social (like childhood teasing and bullying due to weight), psychological (like having perfectionistic tendencies), and biological factors (for example, having biological predispositions that make one more vulnerable to disordered eating).
Eating disorders develop differently for each person who’s affected. While there are things that parents can do to support their children, there is nothing that parents can do that guarantee prevention of an eating disorder.
3. Express compassion and understanding — for your child and for yourself. Eating disorder recovery is a complicated process — not only for the child who is struggling with an eating disorder, but also for siblings, other close family members, and especially for parents. Eating disorders can be downright scary for many valid reasons.
Parents and family members can see how the eating disorder negatively impacts the struggling child’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Recognizing and acknowledging these challenges for all those who are affected can go a long way.
This includes validating others’ emotions — expressing, out loud, an understanding of the other person’s experience. It’s equally important to hold compassion for yourself as a parent, too.
4. Stay the course. As a parent, it can be helpful to maintain perspective on the big picture — keep your child’s long-term health and well-being in mind.
This may look like insisting on a medical check-up and evaluation by an eating disorder expert, even if your child doesn’t think it’s necessary, and communicating with your child’s treatment team.
This may also be reminding your child that life will be there once they are stable in their recovery — summer camps, vacations, extracurricular activities, sports, school, and life will not only be there but will likely be more rewarding, once they are stable.
When making treatment decisions, remember that recovery comes first. Everything else can wait.
5. Full recovery is possible. Research and clinical experience repeatedly show that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. Recovery outcomes improve significantly with early intervention. Seeking treatment within the first 1-3 years of onset of illness can significantly impact prognosis and chances for recovery.
One study, conducted by Reas and colleagues (2010), followed individuals struggling with bulimia nervosa and found that those who received treatment within the first 5 years of their illness had a recovery rate of 80%. The patients who waited more than 15 years after their symptoms began to get treatment, experienced recovery rates closer to 20%.
It is without a doubt that having a child who is suffering from an eating disorder is concerning. For most people struggling with an eating disorder, recovery goes through several stages and is characterized by steps forward and steps back. It is important to remember, however, that full recovery is possible.
Sources:
- National Eating Disorders Association. Parent Toolkit. Retrieved from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/sites/default/files/Toolkits/ParentToolkit.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2019.
- Reas, D. L., Williamson, D. A., Martin, C. K. and Zucker, N. L. (2000), Duration of illness predicts outcome for bulimia nervosa: A long‐term follow‐up study. Int. J. Eat. Disord., 27: 428-434. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-108X(200005)27:4<428::AID-EAT7>3.0.CO;2-Y
- National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK). (2014). Eating Disorders: Core Interventions in the Treatment and Management of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders. NICE Clinical Guidelines, No. 9. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK49318/.
About the Author:
Chelsea Fielder-Jenks, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor in private practice in Austin, Texas. Chelsea works with individuals, families, and groups primarily from a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) framework.
She has extensive experience working with adolescents, families, and adults who struggle with eating, substance use, and various co-occurring mental health disorders. You can learn more about Chelsea and her private practice at ThriveCounselingAustin.com.
The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective on eating disorders. These are not necessarily the views of Eating Disorder Hope, but an effort to offer a discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.
We at Eating Disorder Hope understand that eating disorders result from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. If you or a loved one are suffering from an eating disorder, please know that there is hope for you, and seek immediate professional help.
Published on May 20, 2019.
Reviewed & Approved on May 20, 2019, by Jacquelyn Ekern MS, LPC
Published on EatingDisorderHope.com
The EatingDisorderHope.com editorial team comprises experienced writers, editors, and medical reviewers specializing in eating disorders, treatment, and mental and behavioral health.
