Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Consulting

Can it be cured?

No. There is always a risk for relapse.  After treatment, some women with anorexia never have symptoms of the disorder again, but relapse is very common. Research shows that the brain adjusts to prolonged starvation, so that the longer a young woman starves herself, the easier, and more tempting, it is for her to slip back into the behavior.

Who should I go to?

Parents should seek out a therapist with experience treating anorexia, who is familiar with the family therapy that appears to produce the best results, and who focuses on the symptoms of the disorder—and getting rid of them. For years, therapists attempted to treat anorexia by trying to tease out the “underlying issues” responsible for the condition through talk therapy. But as one expert comments, “you have the rest of your life to think about your underlying issues.” Right now, the symptoms of the disorder are killing you.

Will treatment make my child fat?

Treatment will restore the health of your child. If you’re invested in health, it will work. If you’re invested in body fat, it won’t.

What is my involvement in treatment?

It is very important that Parents are involved in treatment.  A therapist will teach you how to manage your child’s disorder, how to make your home and your family’s lifestyle incompatible with anorexia. It will be important that you change the way you talk about shape and weight, and help your child change the way she relates to food, to get her eating and healthy again.

How long is treatment?

You can expect to meet with a therapist over the course of 6 months to a year for most cases. But anorexia never really goes away—so watchfulness, and maintaining a lifestyle for your family that is incompatible with anorexia, must be ongoing.

Will drugs help?

Young women with anorexia are often prescribed medications to address co-existing conditions like depression or anxiety. But while these drugs no doubt improve quality of life, the treatment for the core symptoms of anorexia is behavioral.

Can it be fatal?

Yes. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. Prolonged starvation wreaks havoc with the chemical balance in the body, which can cause the heart to shut down without notice, even in a young woman who does not appear to be dangerously thin. And the disorder disrupts and undermines lives so severely that many commit suicide.

Why can’t my child see what she’s doing to herself?

People with anorexia have a distorted body image; they can be blind to the ravages they inflict on their bodies because what they perceive is not real, and they are unhealthily fixated on weight and appearance.