Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder by James Lock

Author:James Lock [Daniel Le Grange and James Lock]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462518760
Publisher: Guilford Publications

Mike’s father went into a tirade whenever he found evidence that his son was still throwing up. When Mike’s dad got angry, he became critical and hostile and Mike felt as though he were being attacked. This led to Mike’s increased efforts to hide the fact that he still hadn’t completely stopped purging. This made it hard for his family to see the progress he was making or to see just where he was having continued difficulties. This meant they couldn’t help him as effectively.

Anger can throw you off and make it harder for you to know that the illness is the problem and not your child. When helping your child eat, anger will definitely interfere with your success.

Another way you can separate the illness from the child is to keep in mind that your child does not really choose to be ill, even if it appears that way. The child with anorexia nervosa may have little motivation to recover, but it’s the illness that is so recalcitrant, rather than your child. Certainly, purging is frustrating because it appears to many people as wasteful and dirty. However, most children who purge their food feel trapped into doing so by their worries and anxieties about weight and have become caught in a chronic cycle that they don’t know how to break out of. Keeping these facts in mind may help you contain your anger. It may also help if you try to remember that it’s hard for your child to perceive that your anger is directed at the illness and not at her for being willful, ungrateful, difficult, and frustrating.

Still, your anger about having to take on this problem is understandable. You certainly don’t deserve this—and neither does your child. To keep your anger from either overwhelming you or being vented on your child, it’s important to recognize the signs that this may be happening. You may notice that your patience is short, that you’re jittery, that your tone of voice is tinged with sarcasm, or that you’re irritated by things that you usually would let pass. When you find this is so, take a break. Find someone to talk to. Get away. Otherwise, your anger can undo much of the good work you’ve done.

As we’ve pointed out, there’s not much evidence that you’re to blame for your child’s eating disorder. However, there is growing evidence that you can be part of the solution, regardless of the cause of the eating disorder, but only if you aren’t feeling guilty and powerless. Feeling guilty is especially problematic when you’re trying to get started. Blaming yourself leads to a lot of second guessing and hesitation on your part, which gives the eating disorder room to maneuver and slip through.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.