Troubled Teens
Just read this fascinating article on teen anorexia from last weekend’s Times Magazine: “That summer, Kitty was 14. She was 4-foot-11 and weighed 71 pounds. I could see the angles and curves of each bone under her skin. Her hair, once shiny, was lank and falling out in clumps. Her breath carried the odor of ketosis, the sour smell of the starving body digesting itself…Kitty's anorexia was diagnosed a few weeks before, at the end of that June…Anorexia is one of the deadliest psychiatric diseases; it's estimated that up to 15 percent of anorexics die, from suicide or complications related to starvation. About a third may make some improvement but are still dominated by their obsession with food.”
This mother describes anorexia as being like a demon who takes over her daughter: “Meanwhile, the demon sat at our table and spewed venom: ‘I'm a lazy pig. You're trying to make me fat.’ And, one night, terrifyingly: ‘I just want to go to sleep and never wake up.’” Yipes. As if surviving junior high isn't hard enough! Hello, The Exorcist.
As cl-jlsjjsmom writes in our new Teen Eating Disorders board, “There is nothing more terrifying than to watch your child starve themselves - as a mother our basic instinct is to feed our children.”
Lots of people are joining the discussions on this new board – whether they are people who’ve battled with eating disorders themselves, or parents of teens who have eating disorders.
“My now 24.5 yo daughter has had eating ‘issues’ since middle school, but it never really blossomed into a full blown ED until earlier this year.”
“My 13 yr. old daughter is anorexic. I'm so sad. She is a beautiful girl with a great personality,and its so hard to see her destroy her body. We are in therapy, but I'm so scared.!!! She is 5'2&1/2 and 105pds. She maybe consumes 500 cal. a day. No period for 2 mths. Stays so cold all the time.”
“Jason had blood work done in early July and it came back 'OK'. By the 2nd week of August his liver and kidneys were starting to shut down.”
Check in with the board to join other parents for support and advice on how to spot the warning signs, what you can do to protect your child and where to find help for recovery.
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It all started when my best friend and i decided to start an 'innocent' diet. but very soon it became a sickly obsessive competition.Within a year we'd lost way too much weight and with that we also lost our friends,families trust and normal values.Our ED's took over our lives.Everything else, including our friendship came second to this obsession with food.My friend was admitted to rehab in February this year,lucky for me i came right when i started to realise the damage i was doing to the people i loved. My friend was apparently discharged 3 weeks ago but unfortunately iv lost a once very special friendship because my ED got in the way. IT's not worth it .
My MIL lives with us and she has Alzheimers Disease. I recently discovered her (on Thanksgiving) making herself throw up. She has lost so much weight and been hospitalized 4 times in the last year and a half for "gastroenteritis." I have just put it all together, she is not anorexic but she is becoming bulemic. I call her doctor and he says because she has AD there is nothing that can be done. Just to keep an eye on her and report any "acute changes" As a mother of one teenager, one toddler and a 4 mo old girl I find it VERY disturbing that they could hear grandma in the bathroom making herself throw up after meals. Also my friend for years quit coming by after my second child. I saw her the other day at the Christmas parade and she is skin and bones. She had a problem when we were roomies in college with bulemia and I'm guessing she is having a problem again. EDs are closer than we think. And I just don't know how to deal with all of this- it is overwhelming.
my boyfriend and I watched Lauren Greenfield's amazing documentary on eating disorders which premiered last month. I highly reccomend it:
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/thin/synopsis.html
here is some footage:
http://www.actualreality.tv/production.html?production=thin
there is so many things going on with teenagers these days so differant from what every parent went for i hate to admite it but every generation keeps getting worse. And somthing needs to be done
Its need a private place to get information about teens health, growth, and emotions. Where I can get doctor-approved info I need to understand? WBR LeoP
We are concerned that my teen sister has an eating disorder. She seems to diet and then binge like crazy. We're not really sure what to do, though we found a program for troubled teens with eating disorders at http://www.eprogramsearch.com/ . Maybe it's not as serious as we think, but it is definitely enough to have me very concerned.
This site provides lots prominent information related to troubled teens. They suggest about various struggling teens schools which really work for the beneficial for those teenagers. The school offer many effective learning programs for them.
http://www.teenageproblems.net/