Family support for Eating Disorders

When someone you love has an eating disorder, it can be scary, confusing, exhausting, and frustrating - and, it affects everyone in the family. In order to best help your loved one, you need support too. I believe that this is a critical piece of eating disorder treatment that is often overlooked. My treatment philosophy includes attention to the needs of parents and partners.

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Consultation/Family coaching

If you have a family member with a suspected eating disorder, what then?  Do you feel at a loss about what to do? How do you talk to someone you love about it?  How do you convince them to get help?  There is a very well founded fear that you will say the wrong thing and make things worse.

It often helps to talk with someone like me about the symptoms you are noticing to validate your concerns.  I can also help you plan the best approach for talking with your loved one about getting help.

Concern about weight is common as is the occasional binge, however extreme behaviors with food could be an indication of a more serious problem.  If you suspect that someone you love might be struggling with an eating disorder, even at an early stage, please get help now rather than waiting until the situation becomes more serious. The best outcomes occur when disordered eating patterns are identified early and treatment begins before it progresses to a full eating disorder. 

I would like to help.  For an appointment please call 425-233-2439

Eating disorders CAN be successfully treated, however, it takes  patience, commitment and courage.

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Family Based Treatment (Maudsley)

With adolescents suffering from anorexia, I recommend Family Based Treatment (also known as Maudsley) whenever possible.  This is an approach that uses the family in a loving, compassionate way as an active part of treatment.  With Family Based Treatment, we are not concerned with "why" the eating disorder developed.  The focus of treatment is eliminating the eating disorder behaviors as quickly as possible and returning the adolescent to health.  Issues such as emotions, self esteem, perfectionism and even body image are not addressed during treatment.  Family issues are also not addressed other than in relation to helping the youth recover from the eating disorder.

This method has been very well researched and found to be effective and efficient for many.  Treatment generally lasts for 20 sessions over 10 monthes and carries a significant success rate.   

Documented success rates show that patients with anorexia nervosa require no more than 20 sessions over 6 – 12 months and that 80% of patients are fully weight restored following treatment.  While originally developed for treatment of anorexia, Family Based Treatment has also been documented to show some success in treatment of bulimia.

I am happy to discuss this with you in more detail to see if it makes sense for your family.

Early Warning Signs

The road to an eating disorder can be long and there are frequently warning signs before the behavior is completely out of control.

• Excessive concern with weight loss, dieting and/or control of food. Frequently on and off various diets
• Fear of gaining weight.  Claiming to feel fat when normal or thin
• Strange or extreme behaviors about food
• Unusually restrictive diets
• Frequent overeating, especially when distressed.
• Sudden decision to become vegetarian
• Up late at night, raiding the fridge; large amounts of food missing
• Leaving for the bathroom after meals or other indications of purging, laxative use or diuretics to control weight
• Excessive exercise
• Frequent weighing
• Denial of normal hunger
• Preoccupation with food, calories, fat grams, nutrition, cooking
• Extreme body dissatisfaction
• Refusing to eat with family or friends
• Does not allow others to prepare foods and refuses to eat non diet food