Why blog?
I wrote a book about my family and our harrowing, and often funny, encounter with extreme psychiatry when our daughter developed anorexia nervosa. All the usual suspects were featured: bad care, worse care, bad decisions, worse decisions, bad days, but eventually a long run of good ones.
The book, "Eating With Your Anorexic," was published by McGraw Hill in 2005, and I got busy telling people about it. Mostly, this entailed throwing myself in front of the wheels of passing dignitaries, professionals, journalists, and parents who stood still long enough to let me harangue them.
Slowly, very slowly, the world of eating disorder treatment is changing. There is more evidence-based treatment out there, less parent-bashing, more attention to nutrition, and less tolerance for malnutrition. This is good.
There are still a lot of parents who get a bill but not a word in, however, and a lot of families torn apart while they watch an ill family member flail about helplessly while told "It's not about the food."
There is still a need for families to hear this message: "It is not your fault. And there IS something you can do."
The book, "Eating With Your Anorexic," was published by McGraw Hill in 2005, and I got busy telling people about it. Mostly, this entailed throwing myself in front of the wheels of passing dignitaries, professionals, journalists, and parents who stood still long enough to let me harangue them.
Slowly, very slowly, the world of eating disorder treatment is changing. There is more evidence-based treatment out there, less parent-bashing, more attention to nutrition, and less tolerance for malnutrition. This is good.
There are still a lot of parents who get a bill but not a word in, however, and a lot of families torn apart while they watch an ill family member flail about helplessly while told "It's not about the food."
There is still a need for families to hear this message: "It is not your fault. And there IS something you can do."
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