Category Archives: Parent Resources

Supporting Your Child Through an Eating Disorder: A Guide for Parents

Supporting Your Child Through an Eating Disorder: A Guide for Parents

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Feeling overwhelmed, frightened, and unsure of how to help when your teen is struggling with an eating disorder is a common and natural experience for parents. And while eating disorders are complex and often misunderstood, with the right resources and support, recovery is possible for your teen. And as a parent, you play a crucial role in your teen’s healing journey.

Below you can find compassionate guidance as well as therapist recommended resources to help you support your teen through their eating disorder recovery effectively.

Start With Understanding:

Eating disorders are complex, but that doesn’t mean they are unknowable. Education is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal, not only to help you find effective methods of support, but also to help expand your understanding of what causes and may impact eating disorders, so you can give informed care to your teen–rather than having to rely on guess work and risk causing harm. Understanding the nature of eating disorders and their impact on both physical and mental health can demystify the illness and empower you to provide informed support to your teen.

Here are some highly recommended resources to deepen your knowledge and help you in supporting your child:

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder by Lauren Muhlheim:

This book provides practical advice for parents navigating their child’s eating disorder, offering evidence-based strategies rooted in Family-Based Treatment (FBT) in a non-clinical manner so they’re accessible to the non-clinical reader. Muhlheim is the founder of Eating Disorder Therapy LA, an outpatient treatment center, has trained many clinicians and is a frequent speaker at eating disorder trainings and conferences. You can read my full review of this book, and why I consider it a must read here.

Sick Enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders by Jennifer Gaudiani:

Dr. Gaudiani’s offers a compassionate exploration of the medical side of eating disorders throughout Sick Enough, helping parents understand the seriousness of eating disorders and how to advocate for their child’s car by breaking down the impact of dietary restriction on your children’s bodies and brains, providing descriptions of common medical problems associated with eating disorders, as well as common co-occurring medical issues that complicate diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Gaudiani is a board certified-internal medicine doctor who specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, as well as the founder of the Gaudiani Clinic: an outpatient medical practice specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, and a highly respected physician in the eating disorder community.

How to Nourish Your Child Through an Eating Disorder by Casey Crosbie and Wendy Sterling.

Authors Crosbie and Sterling are registered dietitians who specialize in the treatment of eating disorders. How to Nourish Your Child focuses on the Plate-by-Plate approach, a  resource which gives parents actionable steps to help their child restore nutrition-without counting calories or macros.This book helps parents answer the question, “what and how much should I be feeding my child,” especially for parents of teens with eating disorders.

Anorexia and Other Eating Disorders: How to Help Your Child Eat Well and Be Well By Eva Musby.

Eva Musby’s lived experience as parent supporting a teen daughter through in an eating disorder makes her book a wonderful resource. She provides invaluable tools for parents, including guidance on communicating with compassion, handling mealtime challenges, and navigating the emotional toll of supporting a child with an eating disorder. You can visit her website for free resources and updates.

Lean on Community

Try to remember that you are not alone in this journey. Many parents have walked this path and found solace, guidance, and strength in connecting with community and many who have found healing in connecting with others who understand your struggles.  Some places to start:

FEAST-ED.org:

F.E.A.S.T-ED (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders) is an organization that offers resources specifically for parents and caregivers of children with eating disorders. Their community of parents provides support and shared experiences, and resources like forums, educational materials, and a library of researched back information

The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness:

This organization offers support groups, treatment referrals, and education for families. Their resources can help you find professionals and programs tailored to your child’s needs.

Practical Tips for Supporting Your Child Effectively:

  1. Practice Patience and Empathy: Recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. Validate your child’s feelings, even when you don’t fully understand them. If you want to learn more about why validation is important (and how to do it) in your child’s recovery I highly recommend this video on emotional coaching.
  2. Focus on Nourishment, Not Blame: Approach meals and food with a goal of healing and restoration, rather than criticism or punishment.
  3. Prioritize Your Own Well-Being: Supporting a child through an eating disorder is emotionally taxing. Seek support for yourself, whether through therapy, parent groups, or trusted friends.
  4. Communicate Openly With Your Child: Foster an environment where your child feels safe to share their thoughts and feelings without fear of judgment.

A Final Word

As daunting as this journey may seem, remember that recovery is possible. By equipping yourself with knowledge, support, and compassion, you can help your child reclaim their health and happiness. Keep taking it one step at a time, and don’t hesitate to reach out for help when you need it. You are not alone in this fight—and neither is your child.

Do you have a teen who is struggling with an eating disorder? Working with a therapist who is experienced in Family-Based Treatment can help. If you are in Texas and interested in working with me, click here to fill out a contact form.

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Levels of Care in Eating Disorder Treatment: How to Choose the Right Option

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Treatment for eating disorder recovery isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

Every person is unique, and not everyone recovers in the exact same way. This is why eating disorder treatment is categorized into different levels of care, depending on what the person in recovery needs.

This post will provide a brief overview of the different levels of care available during eating disorder treatment.

What are levels of care?

Levels of care refer to how much support is needed to reduce eating disorder behaviors during treatment. Several levels of care may be utilized throughout treatment for an eating disorder, based on what is necessary for the person in recovery.

Treatment choices can be overwhelming if you or your teen are newly diagnosed with an eating disorder. Residential, day treatment, or outpatient care – what does this all mean?

Levels of care in eating disorder treatment are selected based on many factors including:

  • Medical: This often is the driving factor in selecting the level of care. If you or your teen are medically compromised more care may be needed.
  • Severity of malnutrition: Different levels of care offer varied amounts of support for nutrition rehabilitation.
  • Co-occurring conditions: Often those with eating disorders have other medical or psychological conditions that also need to be treated.
  • Social support: Social support improves mental and physical health. The different levels of care offer varying levels of social support.
  • “Motivation”: Most of us want to feel better and be healthy. However, change can feel scary, overwhelming and downright impossible at times. Those who feel more stuck in their eating disorder may need more support to feel like change is possible.
  • Access to care: Proximity to treatment, insurance, and specialty care are all considerations. Virtual treatment by clinicians and treatment programs are being utilized to increase access to care.

What are the different levels of care in eating disorder treatment?

In-patient hospital care

In-patient hospital care is used when a person with an eating disorder needs round-the-clock medical care. Since eating disorders have significant medical consequences due to malnutrition and/or purging, medical stabilization may be needed during treatment.

Residential care

In this level of care, round-the-clock care is provided in a therapeutic environment. This allows for intensive psychological treatment and nutrition rehabilitation, while also monitoring medical status. The residential care environment is highly structured and allows for the reduction of eating disorder behaviors.

Partial hospitalization

In a partial hospitalization program, the person attends several hours per day most of the week. Partial hospitalization provides psychological treatment (individual therapy, group therapy, and family therapy) and nutritional therapy, including therapeutic meal support. This level of care is very similar to residential care, just without spending the night. In this level of care, you or your teen may go in several days a week, and each day have a meal or snack at home.

Intensive out-patient (IOP)

This level of care is when you or your teen spend the majority of time at home and engaged in usual activities such as work or school. The person in eating disorder treatment usually has a therapist, dietitian, and doctor and attends several groups per week.

Outpatient

Outpatient care is considered the lowest level of care in eating disorder treatment. In this level of care, you or your teen are spending 2-3 hours a week in treatment with an outpatient treatment team. Oftentimes, outpatient services are utilized first because it allows the person in treatment to stay active in daily activities such as work or school. Outpatient care can be easiest to access because most areas, particularly with telehealth options available, have qualified eating disorder outpatient providers.

Family-based treatment (FBT) is an outpatient treatment for teens. It is particularly effective for teens with anorexia nervosa. FBT can be an option in place of residential care or partial hospitalization, if the person in treatment is medically stable.

How do I know which level of care is right for me?

First, consider your medical needs with your doctor. The more medically compromised the person with the eating disorder is, the higher level care they may need.

If residential treatment is recommended, that doesn’t mean the eating disorder is worse than others. It just means that you need this level of support to get back to health.

If you or your teen are utilizing outpatient care, your treatment team will work with you to help determine the level of support needed.

Many treatment centers provide multiple levels of care residential, partial-hospitalization, and IOP. The treatment center will help determine the level of care needed via an assessment, which is usually free and done over the phone.

It is not unusual to utilize multiple levels of care during the course of recovery.

For example, someone in treatment may start out as an outpatient. If the person in treatment and their treatment team determine that their eating disorder symptoms are not getting better, they may benefit from a more supportive level of care (which is also referred to as a “higher level of care”).

Eating disorders usually don’t go away on their own. They can progressively get worse over time. My hope is that if you, or someone you care about, is suffering with an eating disorder that you make the initial call to get help.

Hi! I’m Alison Pelz, a psychotherapist and registered dietitian in Austin, TX with over 16 years of experience in eating disorder treatment.  If you or someone you care about is struggling with an eating disorder, don’t hesitate to reach out for help. To learn more about eating disorder treatment and levels of care, schedule a consultation with me today.

Are you a clinician? Sign up for my mailing list and get a coupon for 10% off of one of my CE courses!

Book Review: When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is a Must-Read

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The book When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder: Practical Strategies to Help Your Teen Recover from Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating, author Dr. Lauren Muhlheim discusses eating disorders and their treatment in great depth.

If you think your child or teen has an eating disorder, this is a must-read.

Eating disorders can perplex many parents and clinicians alike. Your teen may not be acting like their usual self. It’s hard to know if this is just normal teenage angst or something more serious. If your teen has an eating disorder, they may have changed greatly right before your eyes. Including food refusal, increased anxiety around eating, or changes in mood and energy.

You may have talked with them about the importance of eating and tried to reassure them that they are not gaining weight. (In fact, they are likely losing weight.) But your child’s struggles seem to be getting worse, not better.

If your teen has not seen a doctor yet about their eating disorder, this is the first step to make sure they are medically stable.

This book can help guide you and your family in treatment while establishing an eating disorder treatment team consisting, at minimum, of a doctor and therapist.

About the Book

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder discusses the complicated concepts surrounding eating disorders in teens in a non-clinical manner. The book provides an overview of various treatment options. It goes into depth about a unique and well-studied treatment called Family-Based Treatment (FBT).

The author of the book, Dr. Lauren Mulheim, owns a counseling and training center in southern California. She uses Family-Based Treatment in her clinic and has been instrumental in training many of the eating disorder therapists in the Los Angeles area and beyond. And she is currently serving on the advisory panel of FEAST (an organization for parents). She is a regular speaker at national eating disorder conferences.

If you are a parent worried about your child and unsure how to help them overcome their eating disorder, this book is a must-read. As an eating disorder therapist myself, I recommend this book to all of the families that I work with. It is a great resource and provides a glimmer of hope to you on your journey.

What is discussed in When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder?

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder outlines the complexities of eating disorders and the impact that they can have on your teen (and your family’s) life.

Learn the warning signs:

  • Changes in eating and/or exercise habits
  • Frequent trips to the bathroom
  • Changes in body weight
  • Loss of menstrual cycle
  • Complaining of feeling cold all of the time
  • Lack of growth
  • Obsessive thoughts about food, body image
  • Changes in overall mood
  • Poorer concentration

Muhlheim highlights the importance of early detection and intervention with trained clinicians, so that the eating disorder can be addressed before it escalates or becomes chronic.

She provides the reader with an excellent explanation of how malnourishment impacts your teen’s ability to understand how the eating disorder is impacting their mind and body. Parents often feel perplexed when their bright, loving child begins to act irrationally around food. You will also learn how to separate your child from their illness, one of the basic assumptions of family-based treatment.

The majority of the book really gets to the heart of the matter: What parents really want to know when their child has an eating disorder. You might be asking yourself questions like “What do we do?”.  Or, “How do we improve our child or teen’s health and get them feeling better again?”

This book can help you answer those questions. In it, Mulheim:

  • Outlines the path to help your child or teen heal from their eating disorder using family-based treatment (FBT). 
  • Discusses the three stages of recovery-nutrition rehabilitation, eating independence, and relapse prevention in depth.
  • Provides parents rationale behind each step so parents can feel empowered to help their child.

Discover Practical and Helpful Tools to Help Your Teen in Eating Disorder Recovery

This book is a practical guide that provides effective, concrete strategies for eating disorder treatment, and examples of how to use them.

Family-based treatment helps parents become empowered agents of change amid their child’s eating disorder. The book provides general guidelines about what to feed your child and how to structure meal times. Additionally, highlights how to effectively interact with your child at each stage of treatment. Including how to be empathetic with them when they are struggling.

In addition to concrete strategies and practical steps, it also covers the challenges that parents might face during treatment. The book details what to do when your child refuses to eat. It also explains how the parents can get support throughout the difficult journey of helping their child get better. You know about The hard aspects of treatment athat they are prepared.

Muhlheim provides all of this information while also sharing real-life examples throughout the book. The stories within this book help parents feel less alone about what is going on with their child. It also provides them with a realistic picture of what they are facing. These examples make parents feel more confident about applying the practical tools needed for recovery.

It is normal for parents to worry about how treatment will affect their relationship with their teen. When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder emphasizes the importance of your relationship with your teen in the treatment of their eating disorder. A family culture of unconditional acceptance, respect, trust, and empathy supports your child in their recovery. Furthermore, it provides strategies of how to talk to your teen about food and body image during the recovery process.

When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder is a Great Resource For Parents

Whether your teen is struggling with anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, this book is helpful for parents. This book will help you if your child is newly diagnosed with an eating disorder, in early stages of treatment, or if your teen has been through several rounds of treatment already.

This book will empower you to support your child’s recovery. If you are seeking treatment for your child, it will give you enough information to decide whether or not Family-Based Treatment is right for your family. If you decide that FBT is the best treatment option, this book walks you through how to create a treatment team that will be the best fit for your child and family.

As a therapist and parent, I appreciate how this book (and FBT in general), takes a very non-blaming stance on eating disorders. Parents aren’t faulted for the disorder and the child isn’t isolated from their family. This book recognizes the family-based treatment approach and belief that parents are the experts on their child. It emphasizes how treatment for eating disorders needs to include the family for best results and also the importance of meal support and nutritional rehabilitation for recovery. I highly recommend reading this book!

If you think your teen has an eating disorder please consult their doctor for assessment and medical care as eating disorders can be life threatening. If you are a parent and are interested in family-based treatment for your child in Texas, you can schedule a consultation with me here.

If you are a clinician looking for a book that can help you understand eating disorders and family-based treatment, you can get CEU’s for reading this book by clicking here.

*Please note this book is not a substitute for professional help from a doctor and eating disorder treatment professionals.
Can Family-Based Treatment Help My Child Recover from an Eating Disorder

Can Family-Based Treatment Help My Child Recover from an Eating Disorder?

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If you are a parent or caregiver desperate to help your child who is struggling with an eating disorder, family-based treatment may be the solution.

Often, families come into my office worried sick about their child.

Your child may have lost weight or become more rigid around food. Perhaps your child has been over-exercising, using laxatives, or throwing up after eating.

Or, your child only eats a small number of foods, or eats a lot of food at once.  

You may feel terrified because the doctors mention treatment centers or hospitalization. 

No matter what your child’s symptoms are, you may feel frantic, frustrated, and powerless. You have tried to make things different, but don’t know what to do. 

If you find yourself in a similar boat today, you’re not alone. I have worked with countless families who walk into my office feeling this way.

Many parents have been seeking help for a while. Unfortunately, they have found no real results. They often receive criticism, but no real guidance on how to help their child get better, or well-meaning doctors say they will grow out of it, and that it’s just a phase.

I’m here to give you hope.

After years as a therapist and registered dietitian, I’ve seen the positive results that come from family-based treatment.  When parents are properly equipped and supported to be part of the solution, their child’s needs to get better. 

Why Choose Family-Based Treatment?

Family-based treatment (FBT) for eating disorders is an evidence-based treatment for anorexia and bulimia nervosa. 

Unlike many other treatments that put the responsibility on the identified patient or the person with the eating disorder, FBT includes the parents. Instead of seeing the parents as part of the cause of the eating disorder, they are seen as part of the solution.

We use your expert knowledge of your child to help your child get better.

This method of treatment makes sense to parents. If your child had cancer or some other serious medical condition, you, as the parents, would be highly involved in treatment. Such as attending appointments, physical therapy, and all the steps to recovery.

It shouldn’t be any different for treating eating disorders.

Eating disorders are an epidemic in our country. According to the NIH, for teens between the ages of 13 and 18, the lifetime occurrence of anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder is 2.7%. These disorders are twice as common among girls as boys. They also tend to be more common the older the teen gets.

How Effective is Family-Based Treatment?

Family-based treatment has been used in the United Kingdom for many years. It has proven to be more effective than other forms of eating disorder treatment.

With a 75% success rate, teens receiving FBT also recover faster than with other treatments. The research also shows that teens are doing better after engaging in FBT than in other treatments.

How Does Family-Based Treatment Work?

In family-based treatment, a clinician guides the parents in empathizing with the child while also holding boundaries around eating and food. Parents help interrupt other eating disorder behaviors like binge eating and laxative use.

The therapist coaches the parent on how to teach their child to eat again. The goal is for the child to eventually have age-appropriate responsibility for food intake and eating habits. 

Family-based treatment usually lasts around 20 sessions and happens in three stages.

During the first stage, the parents are responsible for preparing and serving food. Helping their child eat as much as their body needs to nourish them back to health. Parents do the job that a nurse would do during an inpatient stay at a hospital. There is no room for negotiation around food or other eating disorder behaviors like purging, misusing exercise, or laxatives.

The second and third phases include slowly giving responsibility for food and exercise back to the child.

During the second phase, the child may return to more normal activities while being supervised by their parents for any signs of relapse.

During the third stage, the child begins to transition back on track with their developmental stage of eating.

What Makes FBT Different?

Family-based treatment is quite different from the standard eating disorder treatment. 

First of all, at its core, FBT does not blame the child’s parents (or the child) for the eating disorder. One of the core beliefs of family-based treatment is that no one in the family is to blame. Really, the focus is on getting the child well instead of placing blame.

In other treatments, the person with the eating disorder receives the bulk of the treatment outside of the family system. But, with FBT, the parents, child, and sometimes even the siblings, are involved in treatment. 

The parents’ care and motivation to help their child are used to make some major changes in the family’s life, especially around food. Their unique expertise on their child is used to help them get better, and parents are taught how to interact with their child around food, and other eating disorder behaviors.

This allows the family to overcome the eating disorder together. 

Another difference with FBT is the focus on food, nutrition, and eating disorder behavior rehabilitation. FBT believes that a lot of the symptoms of the eating disorder will disappear when the child is better nourished and no longer using other eating disorder behaviors. So they first focus on nutrition, feeding, and decreasing other eating disorder behaviors. 

Often, parents think that their child has to be “motivated” for treatment to be effective. One of the differences with FBT is that the child does not need to be motivated to change to get better. The motivation to make change happen starts with the parents. 

What are the Benefits of Family-Based Treatment?

Family-based treatment has benefits for both the family as a whole and the child, including: 

  • The child or teen usually gets better faster than any other treatment, making it one of the quickest ways to help your child and family heal.
  • Parents are involved in the child’s treatment, allowing them to be the child’s primary support instead of feeling powerless and at fault.
  • This is a good replacement for inpatient treatment or partial hospitalization, allowing your child to stay home.
  • FBT is an evidence-based approach, so you know you are doing the best you can for your child.

Now that you know how FBT can help, let’s look at who it can help.

Who is FBT for?

FBT has been shown to be effective for kids, teens, and young adults showing signs of eating disorders.

It has been used to help kids and teens who are struggling with anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and in some cases ARFID. 

In the cases of binge eating disorder and bulimia, the family is taught to help feed their child adequately and supportively interrupt binge eating, purging, laxative use, and misuse of exercise. 

FBT works both for teens who have been to inpatient multiple times and still struggle to let go of the symptoms, and for teens who have just started to engage in eating disorder behaviors, and for any child in between.

FBT is not just for teens, however. It can also be used with children and young adults still living at home. FBT can be used in all different types of families or caregiving situations (like grandparent caregivers and single-parent households).

Who Should Not Do FBT?

FBT should not be used for children and teens who are medically unstable. Always consult a doctor if you think your child has an eating disorder. 

FBT is often used instead of higher levels of care, such as residential or day treatment. If the child is underweight and cleared by their doctor to stay outpatient, FBT can be a great option rather than high levels of care. 

In the same way, if the child needs to be supervised for other psychiatric illnesses, then this is also a situation where FBT is not going to help until the child is stable psychologically. Family-based treatment may also not be a good option if the child has experienced certain types of trauma.

What Happens During Family-Based Treatment?

Family-based treatment may last around 20 sessions. At each session, you can expect your child or teen to check in with the therapist for mental health support.

After this, the therapist will meet with the parents and child for coaching around nutrition and other eating disorder behaviors. The coaching isn’t just about what to eat but also about how to talk to your child about eating and other eating disorder behaviors, including how to express empathy without giving in.

Unlike other eating disorder treatments, where the therapist just meets with the child, most of the time, the FBT therapist meets with the caregivers and the child.

Family-Based Treatment is Worth the Hard Work

Family-based treatment can be very intense for the whole family. In the beginning, you will be very involved in your child’s day-to-day life, as well as your child’s nutritional rehab, but the hard work will be worth it when your child learns to eat and regains their health again.

Not only does family-based treatment help your child stay home, as hospitalizations can last weeks or months, but it also helps to heal your whole family from the disruption that the eating disorder has caused.

While it can be hard to find family-based treatment, don’t give up! Finding someone who is trained to do family-based treatment can make the difference for your child.

At a minimum, when you are seeking FBT you will need to at least start with a medical doctor and a therapist.  If your team includes a dietitian, initially, they will only meet with the parents and not the child.

As a therapist who is also a dietitian, I can help you understand what is going on from both angles. If you are in Texas and interested in working with me, click here to fill out a contact form. I would love to support you and your child on your journey to health.

When Exercise Becomes Too Much, Could It Be Exercise Addiction?"

When Exercise Becomes Too Much, Could It Be Exercise Addiction?

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Here are some possible signs of exercise addiction. Do you…

  •   spend a lot of mental energy thinking about exercise? 
  •   think about when and how you are going to fit in? 
  •   have excessive worry or guilt if you don’t exercise? 

If any of those sound familiar to you, they could be signs that your exercise routine has become problematic.

Generally speaking, exercise is a good thing for you.

Exercise is not only fun, but it can improve physical and mental health and bolster self-esteem.  Exercise can also be social. Participating in sports, whether recreationally or competitively, has numerous benefits like introducing you to other people, giving you space to connect with your body, and improving your concentration.

However, too much of a good thing, like exercise, can lead to major health issues.

Exercise becomes problematic when exercise negatively affects your physical health and interferes with other aspects of your life. If exercising gets in the way of your social life, your family life, work, or school, you might be overdoing it.

When exercise becomes so rigid that it is harmful to your well-being it has shifted from healthy to compulsive exercise. Some people refer to compulsive exercise as an exercise addiction, because the urge to exercise often feels very strong and it can be uncomfortable to ignore it.

Are you wondering if you’re addicted to exercise? Here are six signs that you’re dealing with compulsive exercise:

There is rigidity around your exercise routine.

You may find it hard to deviate from your exercise routine. The rigidity that often accompanies exercise addiction can include the time of day the exercise is done, what type of exercise, and for how long you exercise.

Exercise is often excessive.

You spend a lot of time exercising. Usually, the length of exercise increases over time. You may be spending much of your free time exercising or thinking about exercising.

Not exercising makes you feel guilty, depressed and/or anxious.

If you have to miss your regularly scheduled exercise it makes you have intense negative emotions. You may spend significant mental energy thinking about how to “make it up”.

Exercise interferes with your social life and relationships.

You may turn down social invitations because it interferes with your exercise routine. For some, this can lead to significant feelings of isolation. You may even lie or hide how much you exercise. Work or school obligations can suffer because so much time and energy is spent on exercise.

You exercise despite feeling sick or if you have an injury.

When you are sick or injured you exercise anyway. You feel afraid that you will lose ground on your fitness level or you won’t return to exercise if you take time away.

Exercise feels like a chore or an obligation.

Initially, exercise starts off moderately but can slowly get more extreme. After a while, exercise no longer feels like something you want to do, but something that you have to do.

We may all experience some of these signs of compulsive exercise from time to time. However, the tell-tale sign of compulsive exercise is the persistent and consistent thoughts of exercise. In addition to the constant thinking about exercise, you might also experience intensely negative feelings when you miss an exercise session.

Compulsive exercise isn’t just about the exercise itself, it’s also about the enormous amount of thought and effort that goes toward thinking about exercise. Besides the time spent exercising, there is a lot of mental energy that goes into thinking about when, and how to exercise, and after a while that can be very draining.

The connection between athletes and compulsive exercise

It probably comes as no surprise that athletes are at a higher risk for developing a compulsive relationship with exercise.

Studies show that about 3% of the general exercise population struggles with compulsive exercise. Athletes are far more likely to struggle with exercise addiction. As many as 14% of endurance athletes and up to as high as 34.8% of elite athletes struggle with compulsive exercise. Compulsive exercise might feel necessary to keep up with the demands of their sport, but it has detrimental effects on physical and mental health.

The connection between eating disorders and compulsive exercise

Athletes aren’t the only people who struggle with compulsive exercise. There is a strong connection between compulsive exercise and eating disorders. Research has shown that 39% to 48% of people with eating disorders engage in compulsive exercise.

Often compulsive exercise is used to “make up for eating mistakes” or binges. In the eye of the eating disorder, it can give the person with an eating disorder permission to eat. Exercise is used in efforts to obtain or maintain a certain body weight or physic.

You can’t tell by looking at someone if they compulsively exercise. People with all different body types compulsively exercise.

What are the consequences of exercise addiction?

There are several physical consequences of compulsive exercise. They include:

    • Reduced bone density (osteopenia and osteoporosis)
    • Loss of menstrual cycle
    • Chronic muscle soreness, bone, and joint pain
    • Overuse injuries such as stress fractures

In addition to the physical effects, compulsive exercise has a major effect on mental health. Compulsive exercise is associated with decreased overall life satisfaction, negative mood, low energy, and increased rates of depression and/or anxiety.

How can compulsive exercise be treated?

If you’re struggling with compulsive exercise, you’re not alone, and help is available. There are ways to treat compulsive exercise, or exercise addiction. Therapy is an important tool for treating compulsive exercise.

In therapy, you can explore some of the problematic thinking that leads to compulsive exercise. Therapy can also help you learn how to resist and reduce the urges to compulsively exercise. Finally, working with a therapist can help you improve your relationship with exercise in order to enjoy it with both your physical and mental health in mind.

Are you concerned about your relationship with exercise? If you’re struggling with compulsive exercise, working with a therapist can help. Get in touch today for your free consultation.

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Finding Support as the Parent of a Child with an Eating Disorder

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It’s not easy to be a parent or caregiver for someone who is struggling with an eating disorder, at any age.

Parenthood is often described as having your heart walk around outside of your body, so watching your child struggle with such a complicated disorder can be heartbreaking. It’s scary to feel like your child needs help beyond what you can give.

Eating disorders don’t go away without being treated. It is essential for your child to begin treatment for their eating disorder so they can get relief from the distress they are feeling.

As a parent or caregiver, you are an important pillar of support for your child as they go through eating disorder recovery.

Eating disorders are complicated, and we often don’t learn much about them until someone we know is dealing with one. Much of the ‘common knowledge’ out there about eating disorders are actually myths, like that eating disorders only affect teen girls or that they’re not that serious. Eating disorders don’t discriminate by age or gender- anyone can develop an eating disorder. In fact, a common risk factor for developing an eating disorder is a history of dieting.

As the caregiver of someone with an eating disorder, you naturally want to do what you can to help your child through this. Learning more about eating disorders can help you understand what your child is going through, and connecting with other caregivers can give you an opportunity to feel supported yourself. You don’t have to go through this alone.

Here are some resources for caregivers of children with eating disorders:

Eating Disorder Books For Caregivers:

The following books give practical strategies for families supporting their loved one with an eating disorder. They are all using a family-based treatment (FBT) approach to treating an eating disorder.

Family-based treatment empowers the family to help support their child through nutritonal rehabilitation and eating disorder behaviors.

Support Groups + Other Resources for Caregivers

Here are a list of support groups for caregivers. Many families find it helpful to learn that they are not alone in their struggle.

FEAST Resources

Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment for Eating Disorders (Feast) is a non-profit that supports caregivers and loved ones with eating disorders. FEAST provides free support to caregivers around the world:

  • FEAST’s First 30 Days Educational Service
    • Information delivered right to your inbox on how to care for your loved one.
    • “We want to change the course of a family’s caregiving journey in 30 days. These 30 days of lessons are meant to start the family on a new course of empowerment and good information. Over the 30 days you will learn about eating disorders, caregiving, and the resources available for ongoing learning. We will introduce you to the resources and the peer support of our worldwide community.
  • Forums to get support from other caregivers
    • “This is a free service provided for parents of those suffering from eating disorders. It is moderated by kind, experienced, parent caregivers trained to guide you in how to use the forum and how to find resources to help you support your family member. This forum is for parents of patients with all eating disorder diagnoses, all ages, around the world.”
  • Webinar Series that frequently feature leading researchers and experienced clinicians in the field.
  • FEAST’s Parents Do Not Cause Eating Disorders Info Page
      • This statement may seem obvious, but it is the sad history of eating disorder treatment that parents are sometimes still blamed or feel blamed when a loved one develops an eating disorder. For those families suffering from guilt, from feeling blamed, or unsure of who to believe on this topic, here are some things to keep in mind.”

Are you looking for more ways to support your child as they recover from their eating disorder? Working with a treatment team is the gold-standard for eating disorder recovery, as eating disorders impact health in many ways, from physical to mental health.

Part of a treatment team for eating disorders is a psychotherapist. For more information on how I can help, send me a message.