Often @ Thanksgiving Children Return From College With Eating Disorder Symptoms

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Unfortunately one of the things that may occur for families at this time of year is that their college student returns from school with apparent symptoms of disordered eating...

This is NOT an unusual occurrence at all!  Often during the Thanksgiving break families are with their loved ones for more time since their child left for school.  Also the holiday of Thanksgiving surrounds eating and those suffering with eating disorders find being around food is extremely difficult.  Generally this occurs with your freshman but is also very common with older college students as well.  

The important thing I would like to communicate here is NOT to fall into denial about what you may be witnessing with your child!  Additionally, trust your own 'gut' level concerns!  Eating disorder sufferers are known to be in denial themselves, wanting to hide their problem and often NOT wanting to think they have a problem or need help with their symptoms!  One additional HINT is often those with ED's are waiting for YOU to GET IT!  

I suggest you educate yourself immediately!  ED are NOT a fad and RARELY go away on their own.  Get your loved one some help ASAP!  And get yourself some as well through education right away.  It's a tough decision for many parents - whether to allow the child to return to school or not if it is that bad that you are questioning what to do in that manner - DON'T LET THEM RETURN!

If you do allow your child to return begin looking for help at the school and consider seriously having your child take off the spring semester - or go to college in your home town for that semester so that they can get treatment and be around you for support in recovery!

Every year at this time we get many many calls from concerned parents about this subject.  Every year we tell them what I am telling you right now.  Keep in mind just b/c your child is involved in treatment of some sort away at college - the therapist is NOT your 'STAND IN PARENT'!  If your child has developed an ED your child is very sick.  Would you send them off to school with a potentially lethal physical illness and just wait till Christmas to address that illness???  Probably not I'm guessing...DO NOT treat an ED any differently than you would any physical illness!

I hope this does not occur for you this holiday season but if it does there is help for your family reach out and get it!  Don't fall into DENIAL of the seriousness of these disorders!

Here's some information on our website to get you started with: 

http://user1924237.sites.myregisteredsite.com/id245.html#.UKvBjIeACmY

What’s the Link Between Eating Disorders and Vegetarianism?

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This is an issue I have struggled with for a great part of my ED Therapist career!

It is just amazing to me how many ED sufferers come into treatment as a

vegan or vegetarian.  What surprises me is that according to the clients - it has nothing

at all to do with their ED.  Which of course to me is complete nonsense!  I'm not sure

who these folks think they are fooling - but it appears only themselves!  This is a sad

but true statement!  So here is some information on the topic for you to consider.

What’s the Link Between Eating Disorders and Vegetarianism?

Vegetarianism was my attempt at being “healthy” (translation: lose weight).

Published on August 31, 2010 by Adia Colar in New Chapter

Many experts have debated, analyzed, studied, and written about 
a possible connection between vegetarianism and eating disorders.
 In reality, the link is a lot more complicated than many deem it to be.

Here's my take on it. This isn't to bash vegetarianism. It isn't a judgment 
one way or another on it. This is to share my experiences and what I've learned.

Having grown up an omnivore, I can remember when I first started to consider

 becoming a vegetarian. My mom and I had been riding down the California 

coast and we stopped on the side of the road because I wanted to take pictures

 of a pasture full of cows. Most of the cows ignored me, some stared back at me, 

some ate, some mooed, and some did... other cow things. I decided they were cute,

 were my new favorite animals, and I didn't want to eat them anymore. Around that 

time, the movie Babe came out and while I didn't become as enamored with pigs,

 I decided I didn't want to eat them either.

Not long before I decided to become a vegetarian, I started wanting to lose weight.
 Did I want to stop eating animals because I genuinely didn't want these creatures 
to suffer? Yes. Was all of it a tangled web of empathy, guilt, health and self-image? 
Probably. Did I think, I can become a vegetarian and lose weight in the process?Absolutely.
As it turned out, my parents told me I couldn't be a vegetarian. I was twelve at the
 time and they said they wanted to make sure I got enough of the nutrients I needed. 
They said if I wanted to be a vegetarian when I turned 18, I could do so. In the 
meantime, we agreed to a compromise that I didn't have to eat red meat.

My story isn't an anomaly. I've found there is a high co-occurrence of people who 
have eating disorders and who also are or have been vegetarians. From my own 
experience, I don't think it's a coincidence that only shortly after realizing I
 wanted to lose weight, I decided I wanted to be a vegetarian. I thought that if
 I became a vegetarian I could be "healthy". Healthy translated to lose weight,
 although I was hard pressed to admit it. Animals or no animals, I wanted to 
become thinner and rationalized that being a healthy vegetarian was the way 
to do it. I wanted to be healthy until I noticed I wasn't dropping as much weight
 as I wanted to that way. At that point, I decided I needed to adapt unhealthy 
methods. Not long thereafter, I had a full-blown eating disorder.

Is this the case for everyone? Of course not. Many become vegetarians with
 the best intentions, and I think I had good intentions too, but mine were 
cloaked with a desire to lose weight first, and the rest was a distant second.
Years later, vegetarianism - specifically veganism - helped my eating disorder 
recovery, which I'll discuss in the next piece. The third piece discusses 
patterns I've seen in many people, including myself, who both became 
vegetarians and had eating disorders. 

What’s the Link Between Eating Disorders and Vegetarianism? (part 2)

I became a vegan to stop practicing my eating disorder.

Published on September 7, 2010 

I became a vegan out of desperation, not to be healthy, not to save the
 animals, not to lose weight, but to stop practicing my eating disorder.

I was nineteen, enjoying my first year of college, but my eating disorder kept 
rearing its head. I realized I wanted to be in recovery regardless of whatever
 it took. One of the things I did was look at the foods that I usually binged and 
purged on. It seemed that almost all of the items contained milk or eggs.
 I decided to eliminate milk and eggs from my diet and figured that since I
 already didn't eat red meat, I might as well cut out all meat products.
 While, as I mentioned in my previous piece, my desire to lose weight 
and my initial desire to become a vegetarian were interrelated, veganism was
 a tool that helped me in my eating disorder recovery. 

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