Warning: This article contains content about eating disorders that may be distressing for some readers."This is a child who is a particularly gentle, generous, kind, sensitive human being. But when she's terrified about food or if she's stopped from exercising, she can turn absolutely demonic."Seated at the dining room table of her family home in Melbourne, the mother of seven appears exhausted. At times she's on the verge of tears.
"We ended up with broken windows and her running away. Police chases. It was just absolutely terrible." "There are various factors. We do have a very disabled child in our family and that's stressful … also COVID and being away from her friends for a very long time.""She was doing obsessive amounts of skipping. Even though I'm a doctor it didn't twig that that was an eating disorder."
How about dealing with the issues before it becomes an issue. Watching a child get thinner and thinner is a big fucking clue to a big problem.
The rise in mental health issues amongst teen girls is tied to the rise of smartphones. But no one wants to make the age of consent for social media 18 like it is for a lot of other things.
Having spent a year now fighting this with daughter, as a father I find both this headline and the main article headline's wording a kick in the guts. What would have been wrong with 'parents'?
The answer is more people trained in eating/dysmorphic disorders. But what does the Govt do? Just say they 'recognise there's a problem' and then move on to the next subject. Maybe marching in a parade or attending tennis would help?
My daughter is 23 and has been fighting AN for nearly 5 years. We are the ACT, there are NO beds for eating disorder patients here.
blame falls on Madison Avenue more than other places