Let's F.E.A.S.T.

Guest Post by Axa Carnes One of the most common questions that parents of children with eating disorders ask is: How much longer….? How much longer will I have to feed my child? How much longer will my child be ill with this wretched disorder? How much longer until the Ed voice goes away? Then, there is the question that most parents ask “How much longer until my child is back to normal?”. The cruel reality of this illness is that nobody knows how long it will take a child to recover and neither the child nor the family will ever go back to what was considered as “normal” before the illness. I asked myself and others “how much longer?” and “are we there yet?” when I was going through the terrifying stage one and then again when we seemed stuck in the never ending stage two. I continued wondering how much longer as my daughter experienced paralyzing social anxiety, exercise compulsion, weird phobias, PTSD, sensory integration disorder,   and started struggling in school.

 by Dr. Mark Warren   MD, MPH, FAED, CEO, Medical Director  "...if your Child is not getting well it is because the treatment  is failing,  not you"  I’ve had the privilege of working in the eating disorder field for many years. To come to this work as a recovered professional has been an extraordinarily powerful and wonderful experience. As a male who has recovered from an eating disorder there are ways in which I know my experience has been both very different and very much the same as a woman in a similar situation. I am part of a group of recovered professionals organized through The Academy for Eating Disorders . There are only two men in this group at this time. So I’ve had the privilege of hearing from many women, and a few men, about their recovery, their experience, and what it is like to have had an eating disorder during the 60s and 70s, when treatment was not available. I’ve also been able to tell my story publicly, which has been very positive

As you know, F.E.A.S.T. is honoured to be partnering with EDC and others for the inaugural Mothers and Others March Against Eating Disorders on September 30, 2014. Advocacy can be intimidating.  I am never quite sure I am doing it 'right'.....or even, what it is I am supposed to be doing.  Influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions seems somehow daunting.....so I don't think about it like that. I start smaller: I think about closing the awareness gap.  I think about all I didn't know about eating disorders before our fated diagnosis;  I think about how 'wrong' I had it before our fated diagnosis......and then I think about what I know now.  That is where I begin my advocacy. What we know is tremendous and the gap between what we know and what needs to be known by legislators (and the general public) is real and frustrating.   Parents and caregivers are in a unique position to identify changes needed simply by showing  up and telling our st

Guest Post by Lauren Muhlheim , Psy.D., CEDS and Therese Waterhous, PhD/RDN 2  Case Studies of how FBT trained clinician parents used FBT for an early intervention. Eating Disorders are serious mental illnesses with dangerous medical consequences.   Without early intervention, eating disorders may become chronic or even fatal.    Parents are often unaware of some of the early signs of an eating disorder.   Even if they are aware of early warning signs, they are often uncertain and reluctant to intervene out of fear of worsening the situation.   Maudsley Family Based Treatment (FBT) is one of the leading evidence-based treatments for adolescents with eating disorders.   Studies are underway to evaluate the effectiveness of early interventions using an FBT approach. Parents Act Now is a study at Stanford for early intervention for Anorexia and Family Internet-Based Early Bulimia Nervosa Study is underway at the University of Chicago. This paper describes how two