Anorexia is an eating disorder that is characterized by food restriction usually due to an intense fear of gaining weight or the desire to lose weight.  It affects all races, gender identities, and body types.  

While anorexia can affect people of all ages, it can be quite  prevalent among teenagers.  As a parent, helping your teen suffering from anorexia can undoubtedly feel overwhelming and confusing, especially, given the complexities of the disorder.  The purpose of this article is to provide you with tips to support your teen throughout recovery from anorexia.

Educate Yourself About Anorexia

Anorexia is not merely about food restriction and body image issues.  It is important to recognize that anorexia is a mental disease and not a choice. Therefore, it is not a question of a lack of willpower to eat more. It is extremely difficult for your teen to do so given that anorexia goes beyond food restriction and body image issues. 

For instance, the root causes can go much deeper and may include: 

• lack of self-esteem
• using restriction as a coping mechanism to deal with anxiet
• perfectionism
• identity crisis, among many other possibilities. 

It is also important to note that weight is not a diagnostic criterion for anorexia. Your teen could be considered to be in the “normal” range for weight and still have some warning signs and symptoms of the eating disorder. To learn more about the signs and symptoms of anorexia, you can head over to this article.

Approach Your Teen with Compassion

If you discover that your teen has been restricting their food intake, the last thing you should do is blame them. Or, pressure them into eating.  It can be incredibly easy for the concerns and worries you have to translate poorly.  Instead, take a small step back to gather your thoughts and emotions.

Begin by trying to step into their shoes and look at the issue from their perspective.  It is far from easy for someone to share such personal and intimate information with another person.  This is especially true for teenagers who may not yet know how to process their emotions.  

Reacting in a healthy and non-judgemental manner can provide your teen with a boost of hope. At this time, express your concerns while making a point to use “I” statements.  For example, “I am worried as I see you struggling with food”, instead of “You are not eating enough and you should force yourself to eat more.” 

It is important to acknowledge your feelings while showing your support and understanding.  This will help to keep the lines of communication open, which, is an important part of treatment.

Seek Professional Help

Eating disorders like anorexia are considered both mental health disorders and medical illnesses. Thus, treatment should involve both medical and mental health professionals.  These professionals should have experience specializing in treating eating disorders. 

It is also recommended that an eating disorder nutritionist be involved.  With the help of such professionals, your teen can become educated on how to eat better to meet their needs, decrease any fear associated with eating certain foods, understand the impacts of various nutrients on their body and address body image issues. 

Through individual counseling, the eating disorder nutritionist can cover:

• Thorough nutrition evaluation to assess your teen’s needs, eating habits and behaviours and triggers that maintain the eating disorder
• Teaching about nutrition’s role in their health and body
• Teaching how anorexia causes nutrition, mental, social and physical issues
• Correcting/treating possible health problems created by poor nutrition
• Setting regular eating patterns and the steps needed to avoid restricting
• Meal planning and working towards weight restoration if needed
• Follow-up sessions to go over any questions or concerns 

Create a Supportive and Safe Environment at Home

Creating a recovery-positive home is one of the best ways to remain supportive.  This can be done in many ways, including:

• Encouraging your teen to speak openly about their body image and food struggles
• Remaining flexible and compassionate 
• Avoiding conversations revolving around weight, appearance, size, physical activity, and dieting.   
• Complimenting non-physical/non-appearance-related qualities (i.e., kindness, humor, etc.)
• Avoiding labeling foods as “good” or “bad”, “healthy” or “junk”  
• Creating a consistent meal schedule with the help of professionals to ensure the meals aren’t triggering or anxiety-inducing
• Creating a positive space at mealtime by eating together without pressure or interrogations; striving for a positive family interaction
• Being mindful of how you speak about yourself.  Teens pick up on certain behaviors and beliefs.  If you criticize your own body or eating habits, those thoughts and behaviours could be picked up by your teen. 

Be Patient and Consistent

Recovery can be quite long and non-linear.  This is why it’s important to normalize and accept the hurdles that come your way.   A technique usually applied during meal support (but good to keep in mind at all times), is the 4 C’s.

• • Calm: Your teen will pick up on your anxiety or other emotions.  While this shows that you are also human, there is a time and place to fully release these emotions.  Rather than make your teen feel more anxious, try your best to remain calm. Be sure to take some breaks if you feel you are at a breaking point.
  • Consistent: “Consistency is key”.  Once healthy changes have been made and rules are set to keep them in place, try to stick to them.  
  • Confident:  Even when you may not feel the most confident, make sure your teen sees that you will not falter.  Your confidence will provide your child the reassurance they need to continue fighting for themselves.
  • Compassionate: Acknowledge that what your teen is going through is far from easy. As scared as you may feel, it is most likely an even scarier experience for them.  

Take Care of Yourself Too

Experiencing caregiver burnout as the parent of a teen with anorexia is more than a fleeting emotion.  It takes a toll on you mentally and physically. Combatting this burnout often requires significant changes in behavior, along with implementing self-care practices, and leaning on your support systems.  

Support Systems

There are a few non-profit organizations which offer support and guidance for the loved ones of individuals suffering from an eating disorder. For instance, ANEB has offered support to those suffering from eating disorders and their families across Quebec for over 30 years.  This includes support groups for families, online chat/text services, and many other free resources.   

For more information, you may contact ANEB directly here.  Or, feel free to book an appointment with one of our NutriVie Santé eating disorder dietitians to learn more about ways we can help you. 

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses that could have several detrimental impacts on an individual’s physical, mental and social well-being. In fact, if left untreated, they could be fatal in some cases. For instance, anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders with approximately 5% of sufferers dying within 4 years of diagnosis. Therefore, prompt action is needed to diagnose individuals when warning signs and symptoms start to appear. 

However, some common myths about eating disorders make it hard for sufferers to seek help or for their loved ones to recognize the red flags. Hence the importance of debunking those myths. 

Myth: Eating disorders are just about body image and food 

An intense fear of gaining weight leading to the need to exert excessive control on food can definitely be a trigger for eating disorders. However, at the core, eating disorders go beyond food and body image. They are complex disorders triggered by multiple factors: psychological, genetic and environmental. 

For instance, if someone experiences a lot of anxiety, the eating disorder could be used as a coping mechanism to give them a sense of control or reassurance to deal with their emotions. In other cases, the individual could also suffer from low self-esteem and use food to control their body weight and shape in an attempt to increase their self-worth and value. 

Therefore, for the treatment process, it is important to dig deeper to get to the root causes of the eating disorder and address the underlying issues. It certainly is not as simple as the individuals having to force themselves to eat in the case of restrictive eating  behaviours or have more willpower to snap out of binge eating episodes. 

Myth: Eating disorders affect only women

Eating disorders certainly do not discriminate according to gender. In fact, research has shown that about 25% of people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia are male. 

Men are also subject to the societal pressure of conforming to a specific body image standard, namely that of being lean and muscular and could develop eating disorders in an attempt to reach those standards. However, due to the stigma that an eating disorder is a “female” medical condition, boys and men may find it hard to seek help as there is a fear of being perceived as too weak or vulnerable or because they just do meet the diagnostic criteria.

The most common eating disorders among men include: bigorexia (the obsession of gaining muscle mass through excessive exercise, obsessive and restrictive eating behaviours and use of supplements), anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorder. 

Myth: You have to be underweight to suffer from an eating disorder

While weight could be a common symptom observed in people suffering from eating disorders, it is important to note that it cannot be used as a diagnostic tool as outlined in the DSM-V which is the reference book on mental health and brain-related conditions written by the American Psychiatric Association’s professional. 

For instance, some individuals suffering from anorexia could experience weight loss but still be within the “normal” range for BMI. Also, for people suffering from bulimia, they may also appear to be at a “healthy” weight due to compensatory methods. Because of the diverse manifestations of eating disorders surrounding weight, it is important not to focus on the latter as it may lead to under-reporting or misdiagnoses. 

Instead, there are other more accurate physical, psychological and behavioural signs and symptoms to watch out for. Here are some examples: fatigue, dizziness, irregular periods or loss of menses, decrease in vital signs (heart rate and blood pressure), anxiety and guilt around food, obsessive thoughts about body image, increased isolation, etc. 

Myth: The onset of eating disorders only occurs during adolescence

Although eating disorders often develop during adolescence because it is a vulnerable period riddled with physical, emotional and social changes, people of all ages (children and adults included) can start suffering from an eating disorder at any period of their life. For instance, ARFID  commonly develops in childhood. 

Also, children as young as 5- or 6-year-old could suffer from anorexia or bulimia. In fact, research has shown that children could become conscious of different body types as young as 3-year-old. Hence, it is strongly advised to be careful when talking about food and body image even when children are young. 

On the other hand, the onset of eating disorders could also happen later in life in adults. For instance, life events resulting in body changes such as pregnancy and postpartum or menopause could lead to an unhealthy relationship with food and body. 

Myth: Recovery from eating disorders is not possible

Even if the road to recovery can be long and full of challenges, it is definitely possible to recover! To maximize chances of recovery, a multidisciplinary team is recommended. The healthcare professionals on that team should consist of a doctor to monitor vital signs and weight, an eating disorder nutritionist to help the individual meet their nutritional needs and overcome their fear of eating certain foods as well as a psychologist to address underlying issues such as body image, anxiety, low self-esteem, etc. 

Early detection and prevention are key. That is why it is important to break all the stigmas about eating disorders and to remember that they can affect individuals of all ages, gender and weight. It is also worthy to keep in mind that eating disorders are not just about food and that you CAN recover! 

If you recognize some warning signs and symptoms in yourself or a love one but don’t know where to start to seek help, you can call the NEDIC helpline or the ANEB helpline. These are non-profit organizations providing a free and confidential phone line to offer support and address your struggles with food. 

And of course, you can reach out to one of our eating disorder dietitians. In our one-on-one consultations, you can share your struggles related to food and your body in a safe and non-judgemental space. We will provide you with individualized recommendations to help you heal your relationship with food using a step-by-step approach as we are aware that it can be quite anxiety-provoking to let go of the control on food. And if you want to reach out for a discovery call before booking an appointment, feel free to do so and we will gladly take some time with you to discuss your needs, explain our approach and make sure our eating disorder therapists is the right fit for you. We are here to help, so don’t hesitate to contact us!