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For Immediate Release
New Book Clears Up Misconceptions
About Eating Disorders
Do you believe that dieting is the best way to lose weight?
- that nobody eats breakfast?
- that food restriction and weight concerns are a normal rite of passage for adolescent girls?
- that parents are the cause of their child’s eating disorder?
- that eating disorders are incurable?
- that parents should never interfere with their child’s food?
If so, you are wrong, but not alone. As a result of the many myths and misunderstandings surrounding the nature of eating disorders, the emotional needs of adolescents, what constitutes good nutrition, and what makes for effective treatment, eating disorders are seriously underdiagnosed and ineffectively treated diseases. This is particularly disconcerting in light of the fact that eating disorders are the most lethal of all the mental disorders, with a mortality rate of 10% - 13%.
Problems cannot be resolved unless they are understood and properly defined. It is therefore essential for parents and their children to go beyond the myths to find truth, to understand what eating disorders are about and what they imply about the child, so that they can take charge where necessary in the face of an out of control child and a run away disease. Abigail H. Natenshon’s new book When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder Jossey Bass, San Francisco October 1999 debunks myths and clarifies misconceptions about these disorders, helping parents to understand and recognize anorexia and bulimia so they know whether, how, and when to intervene to prevent or cure these conditions in their child.
Could this be you?
- The father of an anorexic adolescent mistakenly assumed his daughter couldn’t possibly be anorexic because "she eats, after all." It is a false but common belief that anorexics eat nothing or very little and that anorexics are easily recognizable for being sickly-thin.
- A parent who observes that his daughter is eating three times daily at meal times, after eating no food at all, assumes that this constitutes recovery; this is not the case for the patient who remains weight phobic and restrictive of calories, or who limits the frequency, portions, or choices of foods that she eats.
- A medical doctor warned an eating disordered patient that if her weight dropped below a certain point, he would need to hospitalize her; having been capable of managing her weight so as to prevent this occurrence, she assumed that she must be officially "out of danger."
- The father of a depressed bulimic college student assumes that nothing could be wrong with her brain chemistries because she is "so smart in school."
Eating disorder myths are pervasive and destructive
Myth A.
Anorexics are easily recognizable.
They are thin and don’t eat.
Eating disordered individuals are typically of normal weight and appear physically fit. They do eat, though in idiosyncratic ways and not in response to hunger. Eating disordered victims are typically "good kids," high achievers, and are motived to please - hardly the profile of a child in trouble.
Myth B.
Fat-free eating is healthy eating.
We all need some fat in our diet to synthesize vitamins. Women need it to support estrogen so they are capable of carrying on the species. Moderate, balanced eating is healthy eating. When eaten in moderation, there are no bad foods. Dieting and food restriction are the least effective way to lose weight; 95% of dieters regain their weight lost within 3-5 years.
Myth C.
Adolescents are naturally noncommunicative, rude, moody, and withdrawn. These qualities facilitate the normal process of separation from the family.
If such dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors in a child are accepted as the norm or a rite of passage, parents run the risk of missing important and telling warning signs of eating disorders in their childrens’ actions. Detecting early warning signs is the key to prevention and a timely recovery.
Myth D.
Once anorexic, always anorexic.
In fact, recovery statistics are highly optimistic. In approximately 80% of cases, with knowledge and the proper treatment, eating disorders can either be totally cured or controlled. What is more important, with knowledge, parents can prevent disease, virtually "eating disorder proofing" their child.
Myth E.
Parental involvement in a teenager’s life is intrusive and violates privacy and independence.
Eating disordered youngsters with malnourished brains are incapable of rational, nondistorted perceptions and good judgment to be used in self-care and effective problem solving. Feeling out of control of their lives, they need someone else to step in and take charge (if not control), until they are capable of assuming control of themselves. When parents become involved in a child’s disorder, the child typically feels relieved that his secret is out in the open so that he can get help. Research has proven that family therapy is more effective than individual treatment for children living at home who have been anorexic for less than 3 years.
About Abigail H. Natenshon
Abigail H. Natenshon, MA LCSW has been a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in the treatment of eating disordered individuals and their families for the past 28 years. She is co-founder and director of Eating Disorder Specialists of Illinois; A Clinic without Walls, and the author of When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook for Parents and Other Caregivers (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, October, 1999). Visit her web sites at www.empoweredparents.com.and www.empoweredkidZ.com
CONTACT:
Abigail Natenshon, MA, LCSW
Telephone 847-432-1795
Fax: 847-266-9233
Highland Park, Illinois 60035
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