Warning Signs: What to Watch For
- "Food Rules" - sudden changes in diet such as becoming a vegetarian, placing limits on when and how much they can eat.
- Reluctance to eat around others - excuses such as "stomach aches," food "allergies" or claims of just not being hungry.
- Frequently disappearing to the bathroom during and after meals. The frequent use of perfume or fresheners in the bathroom, signaling vomiting.
- Denial - refusal to admit to restricted diet, covering up weight loss.
- Increased interest in food - cooking for others but not eating, searching the internet for recipes, supermarket shelf gazing, label reading.
- New exercise routine - strict, rigid and grueling.
- Families (in particular mothers) are to blame for their daughter/son developing an eating disorder.
- People with eating disorders choose to have their illness.
- People with eating disorders are trying to punish their parents or get attention.
- Eating disorders are all about vanity and wanting to look like a model.
- Eating disorders are about food.
- Don't wait - talk to your child. Waiting can be incredibly harmful.
- Prepare yourself for a difficult, possibly hostile, conversation.
- Be sensitive, compassionate and avoid accusations.
- Schedule a medical exam and psychological evaluation with an expert in eating disorders.
- The causes of eating disorders are complex and doctors aren't sure exactly why eating disorders occur. Genetics, personality and environmental factors can all play a role.
- Self esteem has a strong link with eating disorders. Poor self esteem often accompanies an eating disorder.
- Boys and men also suffer; it's not just girls and women.
- Educate. Help your teen, especially if you have a daughter, understand that weight gain and a changing body are normal as you grow up and become a woman.
- Model. Make sure that your family is emphasizing healthy food choices and exercise, rather than dieting and weight. Don't criticize your own body and avoid making negative comments about others.
- Empower. Engage your daughter in age-appropriate decisions that give her control and confidence. Being in control of these decisions will help her to develop feelings of competence and her self esteem will follow.
- Emotional problems, including depression, anxiety and even suicide
- Injury due to weakened body
- Death
- Treatment should consist of psychotherapy in combination with close medical monitoring with a treatment team that has experience with eating disorders. You can find a therapist in your area using the free service TherapistFinder.com.
- Eating disorders are estimated to affect 5-10 million females and 1 million males in the United States.
- 40% of 9- and 10-year-old girls are already trying to lose weight.
- 80% of all children have been on a diet by the time that they have reached the fourth grade (Time magazine)
- 90% of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25.
Dr. Starr Kelton-Locke is a Bay Area-based Psychologist and Marriage and Family Therapist with 21 years of experience working with families dealing with eating disorders.
