Your teenager has just shared with you that she hates her body- now what? You may catch your teen frequently staring at herself in the mirror. She may avoid eating certain foods, develop restricting behaviors, or eat lesser portions. Maybe, your teenager is weighing herself every day or multiple times a day. Or, your teen struggles with self-harm or compulsive exercising on top of an eating disorder. Your teen might purge after eating a meal. As a concerned parent, you may be wondering how to respond, and where to go from there.
Anxiety, OCD, shame, guilt, obsession with exercise, obsession with counting calories, obsession with weight are all common in teens with eating disorders.
It is increasingly common for teens and adolescents to feel self-conscious about their appearance. Adolescents with disordered eating habits are influenced by a variety of different factors. Anxiety, past trauma, movies, social media, to fad dieting being normalized by society, family members who are modeling disordered eating habits, and the pressure to belong and fit in at school can all be influences.
Specialized ARFID, anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling takes into account all of these influences. For eating disorder recovery, adolescents begin to gain awareness on these influences. With the rise of social media throughout their childhood, teen boys and girls are a major population that struggle with body image. Just because your teen “looks healthy,” they could still be struggling with inner criticism, feeding issues, body image issues, and an eating disorder.
If you notice your adolescent or teen exhibiting one or more of these signs, eating disorder therapy for teens at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut can help your teen love and accept themselves.
It might be common to think only girls suffer from eating disorder. However, males and boys suffer just as much, but are often not given the proper mental health care needed. More often than not, if a female and male have the same disordered eating habits, only the female will be referred for eating disorder therapy. If you have a son, be on the look out for eating disorder behavior and seek counseling right away.
Professional eating disorder therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling can help your teen build a loving relationship with food and love their body shape and weight.
Fortunately, you can help support your teen to love themselves and encourage them to develop a healthy, positive relationship with their body. One way you can begin to support your teen is by working with a professional counselor who specializes in eating disorder recovery. At Wisdom Within Counseling, adolescents have a safe place to talk about their relationship with food, and the anxiety, fear, shame, and guilt often that goes with eating. In addition to beginning Connecticut eating disorder therapy for teens, keep reading below to learn more ways to help your teen practice grace and develop compassion towards themselves.
The Impacts of Social Media on Teen’s Body Image
Children begin forming opinions and beliefs about their body and food from a very young age. During the prepubescent and pubescent years, teens often experience conflicting feelings about their physical appearance. Your child may be getting bullied at school and made fun of for body shape, size, or appearance. This can lead to low self-esteem, body image issues, and eating disorder behaviors. At times, adolescents needing eating disorder therapy in Connecticut will label certain foods and good or bad. Fear of not fitting in and fear of being made fun of again propel eating disorders.
As their body goes through physical and physiological changes, teens may develop a more positive or a more negative body image. Add the impact of societal “beauty standards” on top of this, and watch one’s self-esteem worsen. Adolescents needing eating disorder therapy in Connecticut can gain self-love and self-esteem skills. Teens can learn to believe in themselves again and let go of the fear of judgment from others.
If you are a concerned parent and worried about your teen’s relationship with food, click the button below to start with an eating disorder counselor.
Social media plays a large factor in how a teen perceives their body image at this stage of development.
For teen girls and boys, everyday they may be exposed to Instagram models and influencers on their feed. What your teen is not realizing is that simply seeing these images everyday can significantly impact the way they perceive their own body. Your teen may begin to compare her or herself to these photoshopped images. Also, your teen may feel as though he or she is not good enough for societal standards. Adolescents needing eating disorder therapy in Connecticut may suffer from high levels of anxiety and insecurity. As a result, teens may speak negatively or hatefully towards themselves forcing themselves to skip meals and loose weight.
What can you do when your adolescent is needing eating disorder therapy in Connecticut?
As a parent, you can support your teen by encouraging them to unfollow these types of accounts on social media. Explain to them the importance of personalizing their feed to content that makes them feel good. This may look like following self-care accounts, daily positive affirmations, recipes, or funny animal videos instead.
These unhealthy messages teens receive about societal ideals can negatively impact not only their body-image, but their overall mental health and well-being. Teens are at an increased risk for developing eating disorders and depression who compare themselves to others.
A teenager’s body image can play a critical role in the onset and progression of an eating disorder.
When it comes to eating disorder therapy for teens, one of our therapists will help your teen to first develop an affirming and positive relationship with their physical appearance. Your teenager may hate their weight or a certain part of their body. Part of regaining self-esteem is appreciating all healthy parts of their body.
Without treatment, eating disorders can be life threading. Eating disorder therapy in Connecticut helps your teen learn to feed themselves the appropriate amount of food again.
Our team of specialists help parents and caregivers understand family changes to support a more positive relationship with food too. Meal times for families can become chaotic, emotional, and cause more stress for a teenager with an eating disorder. Some could include cooking together, food shopping together, and reducing anxiety around family meal times.
Eating disorder therapy can help your teen learn to love themself and develop a positive relationship with food. Click the button below to get started.
Lets talk about influences of peers and body image when it comes to eating disorder therapy in Connecticut
The middle school and high school years can pose challenges for young girls and boys as they begin to form new friendships and start dating. Teens are easily subject to peer influence and also bullying. This can adversely impact their mental health and lead them to feel poorly about themselves.
Social humiliation and social praise around body shape and weight can cause an eating disorder.
As well, if your teenager is now getting social praise for being skinnier or losing weight, this can lead to severe eating disorder behavior. Socially, there is praise given when someone loses weight. A teen may feel like they are finally socially accepted by having lost weight. Then, they develop an inability to stop losing weight, skip meals, and compulsively exercise, which is seen in anorexia.
It is important to help your teen develop friendships that are uplifting, supportive, and nurturing. Your teenager needs positive role models demonstrating a healthy relationship with food. Teach your teen that friends should not make each other feel poorly about themselves.
Ask family members to compliment your teen on their intellect, not their body shape or weight
As well, notice any relatives at family gatherings who may make comments about your child’s body shape or weight. Ask those family members to stop commenting, whether negative or positive, about your teen’s appearance. Instead, ask relatives who would comment about your teen’s body to compliment them on their studies, grades, art work, or intellect.
35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives (ANAD, 2022).
Eating disorder therapy for teens can support your child in their school and peer relationships as well. Your teen can work with their therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut to understand the role their friends and family play in their eating patterns. A parent may be loving, but talk about how they feel fat or bloated after a meal. As well, a parent may be dieting themselves or weighing themselves daily. A parent may be buying low fat or fat free foods, and have disordered eating behaviors themselves. Teenagers are watching and observing their parents. A teenager with an eating disorder can interpret these comments after eating in a negative way. In an effort to avoid being bloated or fat themselves, they may skip their next meal. These little things play a large role in perpetuating a teenager’s eating disorder severity.
Cooking together alongside eating disorder therapy in Connecticut can help your teen develop a healthy relationship with food
Your teen can also learn ways of integrating their family members into their treatment. For instance, your teen may want to cook dinner or go grocery shopping with mom or dad. Preparing food with a loved one is a coping skill that not only creates a special bond and memory with a parent. It also allows your teen to learn what types of ingredients go into each meal and how these meals can replenish the body. Be patient as you go grocery shopping with your teenager. Pick out fresh ingredients together. It can be a fun activity to cook together, especially a recipe they have enjoyed in the past. Don’t pressure them to eat it after, but be playful and focus on a positive experience together.
To begin, click the button below to start with a phone consult for eating disorder therapy and a healthier relationship with food.
Other Sociocultural Factors that Contribute to Eating Disorders
Ultimately, we develop our self-image based off of our internal feelings about ourself and also our external environment. As a parent, you play a significant role in how your teen perceives themself. Constant comments about your child’s weight or physical appearance can lead them to feel increasingly self conscious.
According to ANAD, 28-74% of risk for eating disorders is through genetic heritability.
Diet culture can have negative influences on one’s relationship with food. It may seem normal to always be dieting, but it is not. Talking about dieting in from of your teenager can make them develop anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID. You may be used to adhering to certain fad diets, or cutting out specific food groups completely. Parents may also have self-critical language that they don’t realize is perpetuating their child’s eating disorder. This, in turn, can be harmful to not only your bodies’ needs, but can lead to an eating disorder in your child.
Trauma impacts developing anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID
A big life event, trauma, and grief or loss can also contribute to the development of an eating disorder. Medical trauma, being hospitalized, or losing a loved one plays into developing anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID. Witnessing a family member be taken away in an ambulance or paramedics do CPR in the home can be traumatizing. Yelling at home can lead to flight, flight, and freeze trauma responses. If a teenager feels they can never be good enough in a parent’s eyes, they may be very hard on themselves. Being in a severe car accident can also be a trauma that contributes to develop anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID.
Even witnessing domestic violence or high conflict fights between family members or parents can lead to anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID too. The eating disorder serves as a coping mechanism for the pain and emotional turmoil an adolescent is experiencing. It is also common for a person to experience a significant or complete loss of appetite following a traumatic event. The reverse is also true, where one may feel hungrier and eat excessive amounts of food without stopping, following a traumatic event or a loss.
Teens may develop anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, purging, and ARFID due to body image issues
A teen that struggles to accept and embrace their physical appearance may wish to change their body. This may mean developing a disorder or harmful thoughts, feelings, patterns, and behaviors around eating. Common eating disorders that are associated with one’s body image include anorexia nervosa, ARFID, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.
Anorexia Nervosa Therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut Specialize with Teens
Your teenager may be skipping breakfast and lunch in an effort to be skinnier, which in severe cases causes malnutrition issues. As well, your teenager may be eating very slowly, over many hours. At times, anorexia can be co-occurring with binge and purge behaviors, where you teenager eats very little and then throws up. Or, they eat more than three meals worth in one sitting, purge, and over exercise. Compulsive over exercise can be a behavior that goes along with anorexia.
Anorexia nervosa occurs when there is a noticeable limited calorie intake or the individual is not eating a sufficient amount of food to maintain optimal body weight. Other signs of anorexia can be seen through over exercising, self-starvation, or the use of diet pills or extreme dieting behaviors.
Individuals that struggle with anorexia typically have a distorted body image where they see themselves as overweight, even though they are underweight. They may have low body fat and experience other health related issues including a slow heart rate or blood pressure imbalances. Your teenager who suffers from anorexia may not be able to concentrate at school and may feel exhausted al the time. Their pediatrician may have put restrictions on how much they can exercise or play sports. So, your teen will need alternative positive coping tools from therapy when they are no longer allowed to exercise due to having lost so much weight. To offer positive coping tools, art, yoga, meditation, musical instruments, watercolors, are combined with talk therapy at Wisdom Within Counseling.
Wisdom Within Counseling specializes in supporting children, teens and adults with eating disorders and body image struggles. Click the button below to get started with a counselor today.
Bulimia Nervosa
Bulimia nervosa differs from anorexia in that it involves episodes of eating or binge eating and followed by purging. There is a significant amount of self-criticism, shame, and struggle with body image that accompanies bulimia. A teen with bulimia may feel increasingly negative about themselves after eating, and purge to make themselves feel better. There are intense emotions such as shame, guilt, anxiety, and self-hatred after eating when a teenager needs bulimia eating disorder therapy.
In addition, an individual with bulimia may also experience health-related concerns such as a nutrient deficiency. Due to purging behaviors, an adolescent may have pain or ulcers in their esophagus. There may be loss of muscle and atrophy in certain parts of the body.
Working with an eating disorder specialist can help your teen release the intense emotions like shame, guilt, fear, and anxiety as well as self-hatred that go with eating and feeding. Though many of these feelings are cyclical and intense, many eating disorders begin in adolescent years, but often go untreated into adulthood. Without speciality eating disorder treatment, eating disorders like bulimia can be life threatening and lead to death.
Binge Eating Disorder Counseling
Binge-eating is another common eating disorder that is prevalent amongst teens. This type of eating disorder is characterized by frequently consuming large amounts of food and feeling unable to stop. Some teenagers, have a mixture of ARFID, binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia all at the same time.
Typically, binge eating can feel like a loss of control when it comes to eating. You may even feel embarrassed about excessive overeating. And, you may dread holidays or gatherings where you eat with others as a result. Your teenager with binge eating disorder may eat about 3,000 calories in one sitting. They may hide food wrappers in different garbage cans as a result of embarrassment and shame.
An adolescent with binge eating disorder may struggle with depression, shame, guilt, fear, and disgust towards themselves.
In turn, this can lead one to develop poor self-esteem and low regard for themself. Working with a specialist at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut helps your teenager understand themselves. Your teenager can identify triggers to their binge eating cycle. Then, they can learn holistic coping strategies to release the intense emotions they are feeling in self-loving ways. Gaining education on irrational fears and limiting beliefs around food, and replacing them with true, factual, and positive thoughts can be helpful.
Working with an ARFID Therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut
ARFID is an eating disorder that your teen may be suffering from. Sensory issues, autism, and food all go hand in hand. Your teenager may not like the texture of certain foods in their mouth. Foods that are too crunchy, soft, or soggy may be avoided. Each teenager with ARFID has their own sensory limitations that pose challenges around feeding and eating. With a high level of fear and anxiety, eating becomes a hassle. ARFID can cause a person to avoid eating out of fear of nausea or throwing up.
A person with ARFID may enjoy the taste of these foods, but the texture in their mouth can lead to gagging and nausea.
There may be a fear of gagging, nausea, and throwing up from eating, which result in loss of appetite. Even if a teenager has only thrown up one time from eating a certain food, the fear is very real every time a person with ARFID eats. A fear of nausea and throwing up come up at meal times for a person suffering from ARFID. Though family members may want to tell their loved one to, “Snap out of it,” it is not that easy for a teenager with ARFID to do.
Pressure, anger, and anxiety from family members can lead to higher levels of anxiety in a teen with ARFID. Your teen’s therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling can help them develop anxiety and OCD coping tools. Helping your teenager decipher the voice of their dysfunctional ARFID eating disorder vs. the voice of their calm, wise self is a key part in recovering from ARFID. Your teenager may only have 1-4 safe foods right now. So, expanding and evolving the safe foods list is a benefit of ARFID eating disorder therapy.
The help of an eating disorder therapist in Connecticut at Wisdom Within Counseling can help your teen build a positive, less fearful relationship with food.
It may seem like your teenager with ARFID has a very limited amount of foods they will eat. At times, a noisy cafeteria can cause a person with ARFID to lose their appetite. If an environment is too noisy or chaotic, a person with ARFID can lose their appetite. A person with ARFID may already be underweight, so a loss in appetite can be dangerous.
Teenagers with ARFID may have a specific diet and may only eat a certain color of food. For instance, a person may only eat white foods limiting themselves to pasta, potato chips, french fries, and crackers. This causes nutritional deficits due to lack of fiber, fruits, and vegetables.
Anxiety disorders, OCD, and ARFID eating disorder therapy
ARFID, anxiety, OCD, and autism can go hand in hand as well. There is often a high level of anxiety before eating and when it comes to trying new foods. Teens with ARFID may have strange rituals when it comes to eating. Certain foods can not touch on a plate.
As well, a teen with ARFID may have to eat certain foods before eating other foods, in a ritualistic order. Children and young adults with ARFID are often worried and afraid of pain around or after eating, choking, gagging, or vomiting when they eat.
Whether your child or teenager has been a picky eater or has a full blown eating disorder, the team at Wisdom Within Counseling specialize in disordered eating. Many eating disorders like anorexia, ARFID, binge eating disorder, and bulimia start off at picky eating and a general disinterest in eating. Wen your child or teenager gets a diagnosis of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or ARFID, it may feel scary as a parent.
You might feel confused about the next steps to take to give your child the best future possible.
The most important thing you can do is to get your child connected to an eating disorder specialist as soon as possible. If your child or teenager is not feeling hungry, is skipping meals, is binging on large amounts of food, or throwing up after eating, get help right away.
As well, if your child dislikes the smell, taste, texture, or color of food, they may have ARFID, which is a reason to work with an eating disorder therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut.
Family and parenting therapy for eating disorders in Connecticut
A high level of anxiety can lead to family disagreements at meal times. Meal times can become a battle where as a parent, you feel you need to ensure you child is eating, and your teen may be very reluctant to eat. As well, parents may need help reducing their own self-criticism and diet behaviors that negative impact on their teen’s eating disorder. If a parent or caregiver is always criticizing their own shape or weight, this can cause a teenager to develop body image issues themselves.
Parents and children with ARFID can benefit from working with a family therapist who specializes in eating disorders at Wisdom Within Counseling. ARFID may co-occur with anorexia, binge eating disorder, and purging behaviors making the need to work with a specialist even more important. In addition to texture sensitivities and color restrictions, a person with ARFID may also feel they need to lose weight, despite being underweight.
To begin, click below to book a phone consult for ARFID, binge, and anorexia eating disorder therapy in Connecticut with a specialist at Wisdom Within Counseling.
Eating Disorder Therapy for Teens
As a worried parent, you may not know where to begin for your teen. Or, you may have already exhausted other options and nothing seems to be working well. If your teen is struggling with an eating disorder, it is imperative that you seek support immediately.
Working one-on-one with a counselor that specializes in eating disorders can be largely impactful to your teens treatment. Your teen can receive individualized support that directly correlates to her needs, as opposed to receiving generalized care in a group setting that not may work for her.
Eating disorder therapy for teens can also allow your teen to have a nurturing, safe and personal space to process difficult feelings and emotions with her therapist. Your teen will also be able to create an effective and personalized treatment plan with attainable goals that he or she can adhere to outside of sessions.
At Wisdom Within Counseling, your teen can engage in a creative, mindful outlets to increase positive coping skills and reconnect with her mind and body.
Our therapists integrate a variety of unique approaches and holistic tools such as art therapy, yoga, music, and nature to elevate sessions and guide your teen to optimal health and wellbeing. Wisdom Within Counseling supports children, teens, adults, and males and females who develop eating disorder behaviors. For instance, many teenagers and adults with eating disorders have lost mind body connection and are disassociating.
To reconnect the mind and body in a holistic way, art, painting, yoga, and meditation skills support mindfulness. When your child or teenager suffers from ARFID, anorexia, binge eating and purge behaviors, they need help sooner than later.
Counseling for eating disorders teach teenagers tools to self-regulate, tolerate anxiety, and feel at home within their bodies.
Rather than feeling self-critical or like your teen has to change their body weight or shape to be better or good enough, eating disorder therapy can help them nurture themselves. Having skills for positive self-talk can help your teenager overcome limiting beliefs such as the need to change their body weight and shape.
Positive, holistic coping strategies help your adolescent and teenager overcome myths about dieting and irrational fears around food.
Painting with watercolors or acrylic paints can offer a teenager with ARFID, bulimia, binge eating, and anorexia a language beyond words. Verbal skills may be limited for teenagers with eating disorders, so art, yoga, and meditation skills can be helpful.
Talking about emotions and feelings may not always be easy for a teenager who struggles with shame, guilt, and self-hatred around food and feeding.
Therefore, painting in therapy and doing a mindfulness mediation can teach self-care and relaxation skills. Teenagers with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and ARFID, need help expressing and releasing complex, intense emotions like anxiety, fear, self-blame, and anger. When it comes to managing anxiety and OCD, relaxation skills are often missing and necessary for eating disorder recovery.
Being kind in terms of self-talk is a positive part of therapy for teens with eating disorders. Eating disorder counseling at Wisdom Within supports a lifelong, loving, and positive relationship with food. Wisdom Within Counseling in Connecticut helps children, adolescents, and teenagers love and accept themselves.
Why you should get started in therapy with an eating disorder specialist
At Wisdom Within Counseling, we provide creative and expressive therapies such as art, yoga, mindfulness, and nature during sessions. It is imperative to seek support for an eating disorder sooner, rather than later, as extreme cases can be life-threatening.
We strive to create a positive, compassionate, and healing environment for your teen to connect with their inner emotions and process difficult feelings. Your teen can learn coping strategies to utilize outside of session when they are feeling triggered or anxious. Your teen can also work with the therapist to come up with a safe and effective treatment plan and a set of goals. Our therapists also work closely with registered nutritionists to ensure that your teen is receiving the best level of support.
To get started in eating disorder therapy for teens in Connecticut, click the button below and schedule your free phone consult.
Wisdom Within Counseling would love to support you and your teen with eating disorder treatment. We offer in-person sessions in Connecticut, as well as virtual session to those that reside out of state. Schedule your free phone consult to start receiving specialized ARFID, binge eating, bulimia, and anorexia eating disorder support today.
