now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

I wonder how different my ability to re-feed our daughter would have been if I had this video? I cannot believe how emotional I felt as I saw this; how relieved I felt for parents watching it, how validating it was. I thought of how practical and calm and realistic and normalizing this is to the more modern approach to eating disorders. Seeing something like this really helps me see how far we have come because THIS is the attitude about the illness and to families and treatment that I wish was widespread.

I'm have no doubt this film would upset many people - indeed, MOST people - treating eating disorders in more traditional ways. Yet they are the people I most want to see it. These families and this filmmaker and Kelty Mental Health deserve an enormous round of applause for creating this and making it widely available. A portion of this video was nominated for the F.E.A.S.T. Film Festival, and I've added it to my list of possible clips for that competition. Check out my list of favorites and let us know what YOU would like to be screened at the conference!

 

Comments

  1. Wonderful! Is this Canadian by chance?

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  2. These ones are good too:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nScgW9lYEI
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdn7CoCkUh8&feature=related

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  3. I haven't watched the video (way too long), but I do think that meal support is VERY important in AN (perhaps especially restricting AN with food phobia). This is something that was always missing from my treatment. I either had people standing over me threatening me, or a (damn) diet sheet. Dieticians and diet sheets are OK, but I already knew what to eat. The problem was that I couldn't bring myself to eat what was on the diet sheet because of FEAR. In order to recover to the level that I have done I have had to de-sensitise myself to that fear - and meal support would have been very helpful!

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  4. Laura,
    I suggest you post the video on the listserv of the Academy for Eating Disorders. Ask the professionals on the listserv who treat anorexia nervosa in more traditional ways, and who are upset by the video, to come here onto your blog and explain why they are upset. I think that having an open discussion on the issue would be helpful.
    In my opinion, the video is very useful. It illustrates for parents how they can be the key to their kid's recovery. It appeals to both my brain and my heart, and I think it is consistent with the best available evidence for how to treat AN in teenagers.
    CB-US

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  5. Well, I don't participate on that forum any more. My blood pressure thanks me.

    I'd adore more debate, more discussion, even more conflict. The greatest problem is that it is very difficult to get different opinions in one room. I try, though.

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  6. This is really very helpful and hopeful - thank you for sharing this Laura!

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  7. Hi Laura
    This video is very well done.Many families will benefit,during challenging times.
    The refeeding at home experience is a very fearful time for all family members. I wish I had the four C's list earlier.

    Grizzly Bear Mom looking after her cub

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  8. Hi Laura - I like many parts of this video, but I feel that the advance meal planning is too much negotiation and interaction; most of my patients can absolutely not tolerate this and their parents need to simply say - "Dinner will be at 6pm and I will serve macaroni," not a collaborative discussion about what dinner will be or won't be with choices. In fact, some of my younger and more anxious patients don't do well with knowing any of the menu (with or without choices) in advance and do better with just having it served at the time. I feel the scenarios here are falsely calm, when most of my patients aren't easily directable at all in the beginning. Otherwise I think there are certainly many helpful points here, but those are my critiques.

    I don't think too many professionals would object to this, as the negotiating and choices are quite traditional, actually - I wish this took a more hard-core FBT approach.

    Just my 5 cents :) - Rebecka

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  9. I completely agree. In a perfect world where we had a range of products like this, I'd quibble over this, too. I did NOT like that part of the video. But is anyone putting out anything like this? I've tried for years to get funding to create videos like this wihtout success.

    I haven't seen much of this kind of content out there at all.

    Having something to show parents who are NOT getting this kind of support, to validate a different approach, and to normalize it - in terms of seeing the malnourishment as a serious problem, patients not choosing their symptoms, parents as the strong wall of protection - andd seeing actual families talking about it: we need this sort of thing.

    MOST families are NOT seeing this attitude and have no reason to believe they could be. This kind of video validates what people like me are saying to them: get treatment that puts YOU on the team, puts normal nourishment as a priority, and has a PLAN from start to finish.

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