When your a child, adolescent, or young adult is struggling with an eating disorder, here are some tips to be supportive. Often, parents and caregivers have their own set of worries and concerns. Manytimes, food and mea times can be chaotic and stressful too. For parents of children, they worry that their child will not grow. And, for parents of teens, they worry about peer pressure around dieting. So, working with a holistic eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut can support a healthy family life.
What are symptoms of eating disorders?
Maybe, your teenager has gone vegetarian or vegan and effort to lose weight or be skinnier. Perhaps, your teenager is going to the gym multiple times a day. Or, you can now see their ribs when you could not before. Also, you may worry your teen is going to be obese. Or, as a parent, you have struggled with fad diets and dieting in your college years. And, you want your teenager to have a better sense of self love. Right now, it might not feel like you’re teenager knows how to feed themselves properly. Also, you want your adolescent to be loving and appreciative of their body, with their relationship to food. Frequently, holistic, creative counseling for eating disorders helps your teenager learn to listen to their body and hunger signals. Wisdom Within Counseling frequently works with teenagers who criticize their body weight and shape.
Often, teens with anorexia don’t listen to their hunger signals and end up losing weight to look skinnier.
How to talk about food at mealtimes? What not to do
As a parent, you may feel fear, worry, and concern. Sometimes, when caregivers are feeling concern, they express worries and concerns in an overwhelming way. And, this can lead to more severe eating issues in your child. Often, anxiety and fear around food leads to eating disorder development. Manytimes, our culture does not provide education around how to love ourselves. To note, we will discuss how to promote calm energy at mealtimes in counseling sessions too.
Gaining weight in pregnancy can cause a mother to feel shame about her body shape and weight. Major life changes like having a baby and postpartum depression put females at risk for eating disorders. If you are a new parent and feel like. you need help loving yourself, our team would love to help you.
Sometimes, toddlers develop food fears, texture aversions, and eating issues.
And, parents get stuck in power struggles.
On that note, our team of eating disorder specialists work with children, adolescents and young adults who struggle to feed themselves. Wisdom Within Counseling teaches families skills to support eating disorder recovery. Working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut can support healthy eating tools. Often times, when we work with families who have a child or a teenager struggling with an eating disorder, the whole family benefits from positive coping tools.
What is going through the mind of someone with an eating disorder?
Many times, and adolescent with an eating disorder is receiving pressure from their culture, friends, parents, and loved ones to eat. In addition, an adolescent with an eating disorder may also be feeling judgement from tv, social media, culture, pressure from their peers, and pressure from siblings. Frequently, working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut helps families in conflict to remove this pressure around eating. And, in family sessions, all members can talk about their emotional experience. Sometimes, family therapy can support releasing fears and worries around certain foods.
How can working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut help?
Well, before going to counseling, one thing that you can do today if your loved one has an eating disorder is to avoid praising them for eating food. On that note, praise, even though it is positive, creates more pressure. And, praise leads to anxiety for a person who has an eating disorder, anorexia, or bulimia.
What is another thing to avoid when taking a tip from an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut?
As well, it is unhelpful to talk about good or bad foods. Remove all good or bad judgments from food. Sometimes, good foods are only vegetables or fruits. But, a person with anorexia will live by this rule and starve themselves. Often times, when a child has an eating disorder, they develop rigid rules around food. Also, it is natural to want to talk about junk food being negative or bad. But, this is unhelpful for adolescents with eating disorders.
To note, labeling certain foods as good or bad perpetuates fad diets and eating disorder behaviors.
Commonly, our American culture will talk negatively about sweets, candy, and desserts. But, working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut can help you find inner balance. Often, when a food is forbidden, eating disorder therapists observe binge purge cycles and extremes.
What is the cycle of an eating disorder?
As well, our culture tells us that if we eat too much of these foods, we will get fat and not be socially acceptable. Many times, going to the gym is in an effort to look different or more fit. Sometimes, teenagers with anorexia who have OCD take going to the gym much to far. Essentially, with anorexia self-discipline becomes an relentless struggle of becoming thiner. So, in counseling, we teach moderation and self-love.
Essentially, working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut supports health at every size and self-acceptance.
Why does an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut focus on removing good and bad from food choices?
In general, talking about foods in good or bad ways creates disordered eating and body shame. Also, avoid watching watching your child or teenager eat and avoid commenting on eating. So, when your child or teenager with an eating disorder is eating, don’t talk to them about food. And, don’t comment on their body or their food choices during meal time. Many times, parents who are loving and caring make a mistake of bringing up food during the process of eating. Plus, caregivers and parents who are commenting about what their teenager is choosing to eat may feel they are coming from a place of love. So, don’t comment on the food your child is eating, if you don’t want them to develop inner judgment. However, commenting on the food being eaten, creates self-criticism. This commenting and judgment fuels the anorexia, bulimia, and problem eating disorder.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult to work with a holistic bulimia and eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut.
Working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut supports self-love and positive self-talk.
On that note, teenagers with eating disorders may not eat when others are eating. And, talking about food can lead a teenager with an eating disorder to not want to eat at all. So, keep meal times light and playful. In addition, focus on intuitive eating and helping your teenager learn to love themselves through food. Frequently, food is the most important relationship we have with ourselves. There are fears, worries, and lots of emotions around feeding and eating behaviors. And, eating in loving, joyful ways is a method to build self-love. In counseling, our therapists specialize with adolescents with eating disorders.
In our culture, stress and pressure to look a certain way is put on food choices.
And, pressure around body image evolves into an eating disorder. Often, working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut supports intuitive eating. Often, comments at meal times create body image issues and disordered eating habits. A lot of times, people are told to cut calories when they go to their doctor, but don’t get positive tools and how to love themselves. Therefore, when your teenager with an eating disorder is eating, keep the meal times light and playful. So, next time your adolescent is eating, you might feel joyful and excited that they are eating, finally. But, remain neutral and calm. So, release any stress around meal times.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult to work with a holistic eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut.
As well, focus on keeping meal times peaceful and calm, so do not bring up intense conversations around meal times.
In addition, once your teenager with an eating disorder finishes eating, go about your day as if it wasn’t a big deal. During the meal time, talk about your day. And, ask your adolescent if they have a good joke to tell you. Again, do not focus on what is being eaten during the meal time. Instead, allow your child or young adult to eat as much or as little as they want. If you are concerned that your teenager has an eating disorder, anorexia, or bulimia, reach out for counseling today. Overall, working with a therapist who specializes with eating disorders and help you bring playfulness back into meal time.
Why is there so much pressure on food in our culture? How does this play a role in eating disorder treatment?
Often, parents will bargain with their children to just take one more bite. However, these bargains create a lot of pressure. And, this food pressure creates expectation and bases worth on food choices. So, the pressure around food perpetuates and creates disordered eating habits into adolescent and adult years. Essentially, counseling helps your teenager will develop a more confident and loving relationship with their body. In family therapy, your counselor can teach skills to let go of foods being good or bad. Commonly, when certain foods are given praise and other foods are given negative feelings, teenagers will develop food fears and OCD.
Sometimes, adolescents with eating disorders will also have OCD or have obsessive thoughts about what foods are good or bad to eat.
Maybe, your teenager has strange rituals around their eating behaviors. Or, your adolescent combines strange foods together to avoid certain foods. As well, a teenager with anorexia will often be afraid to eat fat and will be afraid to eat sweets. Often times, when you talk negatively about a food, a child will want more of it because they feel like it is for bidden. So, avoid pressure around mealtime and keep eating fun and truly nourishing for your soul.
Often times, families who have a teenager with an eating disorder are stuck in a struggle of trying to get their teenager to eat and their teenager refusing.
Therefore, working with a family therapist who specializes with eating disorders can help you if you feel like you are pushing your teenager to eat. Often times, children and teenagers will perceive all commenting on their food as a reason to avoid eating. And, they just will refuse to eat out of overwhelm or anxiety.
Also, teens may refuse to eat because don’t want to deal with and hear negative comments. In addition, hearing judgments about feeding or eating habits can lead to more self-criticism. Essentially, less pressure around meal times and eating will allow for a safer exploration and intuitive eating skills.
To begin, click the button below for a phone consult to work with a holistic eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut for self-love.
Remember, keep the mealtime atmosphere loving and light rather than an obligation to eat certain foods.
Overtime, with family therapy for eating disorder recovery, you can learn to take the focus off what your child eats. Also, working with eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut can help reduce stress around how much your child or teenager is eating.
Essentially, counseling for eating disorder recovery helps teenagers feel confident in their body. And, they can be ready for college eating in a public setting.
In addition, Wisdom Within Counseling helps families, siblings, caregivers, and parents promote body positivity. Often, caregivers warn a teenager not to eat too much out of fear of getting fatter. So, in family therapy, working with an eating disorder specialist near Madison, Connecticut, can teach self-love skills. Furthermore, family counseling specialists for eating disorder recovery allow families to feel a sense of togetherness.
A lot of times, teenagers will struggle with eating disorders, anorexia, and bulimia cycles alongside other challenges.
Sometimes, a teenager has gone through a break up and feels heartbroken. Maybe, your teenager has a sibling who is going off to college. And, they are feeling a sense of grief that is showing up as an anorexia or bulimia. As well, teenagers who develop anorexia, bulimia, and binge purge cycles may also be going through a family change like a divorce or parental separation. Frequently, teenagers with eating disorders need someone outside of their family to challenge disordered eating thoughts and promote self-talk.
To begin, click the pink button below to schedule a phone call for eating disorder treatment and therapy.
What are some habits of teens with eating disorders?
Sometimes, teenagers with eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia as well only eat at their house. And, teens will refuse to eat at school or if they are in a group of friends. Maybe, your teen has certain safe foods and won’t eating anything else. Or, seeing calories listed on a menu at a restaurant causes your teenager to refuse to eat. Essentially, eating disorder specialized therapy help teenagers push past these anxieties. So, from counseling, your teen can feel confident eating in their public cafeteria with friends. At Wisdom Within Counseling, we help teenagers and young adults learn to love their body and develop intuitive eating no matter what they weigh or their size.
What is unique about working with an eating disorder specialist in Madison, Connecticut? Holistic, creative therapies
We offer holistic practices to teach young adults how to release challenging emotions and healthy ways. Maybe, your teen has lost touch with their creative side, drawing, clay, and painting. Or, your teenager enjoys being outdoors, in the sun, and in nature. Well, those are healthy options we offer at Wisdom Within Counseling. Perhaps, your teenager needs art or nature therapies to feel safe opening up and building trust. So, art therapies, yoga therapies, music therapies, and nature therapies teach lifelong postive skills. For instance, your teenager can paint to express their food fears and eating disorder. Or, can use music to let go of stress around food.
Frequently, the team at Wisdom Within Counseling works with adolescents and teenagers are struggling with frienship stressors.
Maybe, there is friendship drama as well as bulimia. Or, your adolescent’s friends are encouraging diet behaviors. And, working with an eating disorder specialist in Madison, Connecticut can support a teenager through self-harm, cutting, and self-injury. To add, changing friend groups, loss of friends, and coming out as gay or bisexual can be components.
Wisdom Within Counseling helps adolescents learn to love themselves through food.
Teenagers with eating disorders can learn to minimize their inner critic and develop positive self talk. As well, we help Adolescents and young adults with eating disorders focus on the positive aspects of their week around feeding themselves. Sometimes, it is hard for a teenager to challenge their eating disorder by themselves. So, working with a specialist makes a big difference. So, work with one of our therapists who specialize with eating disorders at Wisdom Within Counseling. Overall, working with an eating disorder specialist in Madison, Connecticut can promote positive ways to challenge the eating disorder voice.
