Anorexia Survival For Parents Desperate For Help

Recovery for anorexia is possible although the journey is full of frustrations and anguish that may go on for years and years. Understanding the disease is helpful in anorexia survival.

The parent suffers greatly as their childs' health declines. Parents watch in dismay as their once healthy baby grows into a sad and desperately unhappy teen with an eating disorder hell bent on harming themselves. Many parents are exasperated and completely helpless and suffer in anguish as nobody seems to be able to help their child in the battle of anorexia survival.

The early symptoms develop in puberty as the teenager starts to obsess about their body. The child may ask you if they look fat and you may see them examining themselves closely in the mirror. The fashion magazines are glamourous with the portrayal of waif-like models as "normal" and the teenagers start to obsess about their own bodies in comparison to what the fashion industry describes as "perfect". Initially they are just like every other teenager that obsesses about their appearance and their insecurities.

Fragile teenage minds often develop obsessive behaviours as a consequence of the fashion pages of popular mass media. The fashion industry portrays the image of stick thin models as healthy, hip and modern. The catwalk models portray the image of "thin is in" but this desired body shape is in effect very unhealthy. Poor body condition compromises female vitality, health, beauty and fertility. Imperfections can be removed readily and easily with modern digital photography creating "perfect" body forms impossible to emulate. The 'perfect' female form is digitally remastered as an image (no longer a photograph) on the covers of magazines and billboards the world over. Popular media feeds image after image to insecure teenagers who are hungry for pop culture. This mass popular media disillusions young people to what is real and actually normal. Anorexia survival becomes challenging when you have to fight against this mass off popular culture feeding your sick child confusing images of what a "normal" body shape is.

In this world of teenage existential angst there is sometimes a trigger that converts this melting pot of young hormones, insecurities and angst into very serious psychological illnesses such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. A peer may call them "fat" which leads to a psychological scarring to which they react adversely. The victim associates and connects being fat with the disappointment. The teenager may not realise a goal or have a breakup in a relationship. There is often a trigger for the disease which connects body weight to the tremendous disappointment and the deadly game for anorexia survival is triggered.

There is an element of "hiding" the problem by lying about eating meals and avoiding situations where a social group may eat. This becomes counter productive as guilt about lying and avoiding normal social interactions further alienates the anorexia sufferer. The secret lives of anorexics and bulimics involves lies and the deepening of guilt through hidden behaviours. Bulimics for exapmle will binge, feel remorse and guilt and then purge. When the individual with anorexia first loses weight, their condition is reinforced by society telling them how good they look. Society tends to reward the self destructive behavious be offering positive commenst to the weight loss which reinforces the condition. When the individual progresses past being slimmer to dangerously underweight, society turns its back and is too afraid to say anything for fear of offending delicate sensibilities.

Medical treatment is often unrewarding in anorexia survival. Sometimes what happens in a group situation is that the patients become competitive and try to become sicker than everybody else. This of course is counter productive. The support group can become a "team" where each member is dependent on another to keep improving with treatment and therapy. failure rates can be high when the group is broken up. The individual may relapse following the group being disbanded.

There is a concept called neuroplasticity that differs from conventional treatment. Neuroplasticity may offer an alternative for those patients that traditional therapy just isn't working.