Down the Rabbit Hole

I am fond of prefacing conversations about eating disorders with: “If, everything you know about eating disorders you learned from an ABC Afterschool Special or Lifetime TV movie, you don’t know anything.” A frightening aspect of this disease is that most people—including doctors and other clinicians—wrongly assume full authority on the topic. Many people don’t remember that until Rain Man came out in 1988, society largely thought autism was caused by cold, unfeeling “refrigerator” mothers. Eating disorders need a blockbuster movie — if you’re a movie producer, call me! Just How Thin Was She? My daughter was very sick and that’s sufficient.  Numbers and photos serve no purpose beyond to shock and fascinate. You can’t tell by looking at someone the state of his/her physical or mental health. One thing I will say: ours is the only case I know of where both parents and pediatrician recognized the problem almost immediately and access to top-notch treatment was both readily available and utilized. Everyone Knows You Can’t Make Someone Want Help If you have the misfortune of suffering from a misunderstood disease, it sure helps if you have a mother who reads widely on and is teasingly called “Google Mom” for her research abilities.  Even before the diagnosis “anorexia” came from the pediatrician, I was online searching for information about a treatment I’d read about that was showing promise. Thankfully, in our case, unlike most others, ou...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - Category: Pediatricians Authors: Tags: Perspectives Eating Behavior Eating Disorders Teens & Behavior Teens & Nutrition Source Type: blogs