Eating Disorder Help for Parents

Eating Disorders Help for Parents Can Improve Treatment Outcomes

Mothers Against Eating Disorders (MAED) a Facebook support group for mothers of eating disorder patients recently published an article on their web page: What We Wish Eating Disorder Treatment Centers Knew. The article opens with the words “Dear Treatment Center” and begins by thanking eating disorder treatment staff for all their efforts in trying to save their beloved children. It goes on to enumerate a few problems and to offer helpful suggestions to promote understanding and communication between staff and parents of patients in treatment.

Parents looking for quality treatment can learn from MAED and their experiences. With 3500 members, they provide wisdom any family can use when finding care for their loved-one.Jon Ciampi

How Eating Disorders Affect Relationships with Family and Other Loved Ones

Eating disorders are traumatic for everybody involved. Often, not considered is the affect on parents and siblings who live with the patient and who recognize that their beloved family member is in grave danger. Living with somebody who has an eating disorder can make family members mentally, emotionally and even physically sick too.

In many cases, in order to help the ED patient, the family needs help too. They need to learn skills like

• Coping with fear and shame
• Setting boundaries
• Taking care of oneself amid chaos
• How to talk to someone who has an eating disorder
• Learning when to let go of control with love

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Eating With Family is a Good Opportunity to Assess a Patient’s Recovery Progress

A big problem that distinguishes eating disorders from other disorders is that people need food to live. One cannot just stay away from food but must find a way to interact with food in a healthy way that nourishes the body and mind. Because the patient usually lives with family, the family is in a unique position to assess ongoing recovery during and after treatment and relapsing into old behaviors with food. Family eating occasions are very good times to observe whether the patient is making progress.

However, if the patient is having difficulty with food the parents and other family may become terrified that their loved one is going backwards into danger. There should be support and advice for family to know how to help in these situations without pushing the patient further into the illness and harming his/her chances for recovery. It might be best if the family does not say anything to the patient about what they’re doing, but instead talks to the treatment therapist about what’s happening. If there were a line of communication open between family and treatment staff this could allow both parties to coordinate efforts and offer more effective help.

A Crucial Area That Can Improve Treatment Outcomes is Family Therapy for Eating Disorders

The MAED mothers who participated in a recent video interview are asking treatment staff to offer support to concerned family members who do not know how to help their loved one to recover from an eating disorder and survive. These mothers admit that by the time they bring the patient in, sometimes after years of living in fear and trying to help their child on their own with little professional support and no real understanding, they are “not at their best.”

When a child is suffering from an eating disorder, parents are usually terrified and ashamed. A parent often feels responsible for the suffering and peril their child is enduring. What would be most helpful is to work with family members who desperately want and need to know how to help someone with an eating disorder.

Offering a Family Support Group as an integral part of treatment is a great way to facilitate communication and healing between family and the patient. The family’s concerns and needs could be addressed during these sessions. There could be training in how to best help the patient when they are at home and, just as important, how to take care of oneself and avoid becoming enmeshed totally in the patient’s sickness. Family members, especially parents, need help and support to cope with fear, guilt, and their desperate need to help.

MAED Requests Treatment Centers to Communicate with Family and Coordinate Treatment

One crucial action that will improve treatment outcomes is communication between family and treatment staff. Recognize that sometimes the patient is desperate for control and could be telling the therapist fictional stories about family, about food, and many other issues. The parent knows their child well enough to offer valuable insights about things like what kind of food the patient enjoyed prior to developing an eating disorder, family history, and other crucial information. Likewise the patient could make up stories about treatment to tell the family in an effort to control the situation or even to leave treatment. Communication between therapists and parents could allow both parties to understand what is happening and offer more effective help.

Bright Heart Health Integrates Family Therapy Into Eating Disorder Treatment

At Bright Heart Health our dedicated staff has long recognized the benefits of working with the family in a holistic approach to healing and recovery. We offer family therapy once a month and communicate with parents about the patient’s progress and any issues that come up. We believe that eating disorders can and do affect the entire family and that the family needs to undergo therapy and recovery too, in order to ensure the best possible outcome.
We are the first recovery program completely available through video conferencing using telemedicine. Patients can attend group, meet with therapists, dieticians and physicians all from the convenience and privacy of home or anywhere else there’s an internet connection using their smartphone, tablet or computer. For more information about our program call (844) 884-4744 to speak to one of our dedicated and compassionate care coordinators. We accept most major insurance, including BCBS, Cigna, and Aetna.