What do parents want?

"I am frustrated, full of anger. Sometimes I lose my temper and blow. Then I feel guilty. Even when I don't lose my temper, I feel guilty. I am grouchy. I have lost a sense of who I am these days. I grieve. I am sad and I cry, uncontrollable at times. I do not sleep well. I am lonely and I am fearful."

Sound familiar? These could be the words of any parent caring for an eating disordered child. Caregiving, for any grave illness, is very hard.

It helps when they ask us "What parents want" and discover: "parents wanted clinicians to include them in treatment, support and guide them in their daughters' care, and demonstrate positive attitudes toward them."

Comments

  1. Thank God someone out there took the time to do this study and considered it important. And it's about time!

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  3. Yeh, it's about time.
    They also did a couple of other studies -
    "Parents dealing with anorexia nervosa:Actions and meanings"
    and
    "The specifics of coping: Parents of daughters with anorexia nervosa".
    S. Madden is the Head Psychiatrist (Dept. of Psychological medicine) and M Kohn is Head Paediatrician (Adolescent Medical Unit) of the ED programme at Westmead/Sydney.
    A Honey is the Senior Researcher for the University of Western Sydney.
    The Children's Hospital at Westmead is a "teaching hospital".

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  4. Wow, I just read this online. This is certainly an extreme case and very, very sad. It speak volumes to 'the genetics of depression and anorexia'. It speaks to caregiver fatigue and how stressful this illness can be for a family and their ill member. It speaks to the very likely lack of understanding of and effective treatment for this illness--how did this family fall through the cracks and not get timely and effective support and help? At least it sounds that way.

    Woman drowned daughter court told

    A consultant psychiatrist drowned her teenage daughter in a bath before taking an overdose, the Central Criminal Court in Dublin has heard.
    Lynn Gibbs, 47, from Killure, Gowran, County Kilkenny, said she felt there was no hope for her or her daughter.

    She feared Ciara, 16, was anorexic, and had planned that they would both die.

    Mrs Gibbs pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity. Both defence and prosecution told the court that she had been suffering from a mental disorder.

    In court on Tuesday, Mrs Gibbs admitted killing her daughter in November 2006.

    The jury of nine women and three men heard that she was worried about her daughter's anorexia - something she, too, had once suffered from - and decided in a state of hopelessness that it would be best for both of them to die.

    Ciara's father and brother found her body lying on the floor of an en suite bathroom, while Mrs Gibbs was lying on the bedroom floor.

    Mr Gibbs tried to resuscitate his daughter, but could not.

    Mrs Gibbs - who had taken an overdose of sleeping tablets and anti-depressants - told Irish police two months later that she remembered running a bath and pushing her daughter under the water.

    The court heard the accused was anorexic herself at 17, had suffered a bout of clinical depression about 20 years ago and that her mother had taken her own life at the age Mrs Gibbs was.

    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7190432.stm

    Published: 2008/01/15 18:42:12 GMT

    © BBC MMVIII

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