To address the child's anxiety:
Listen with compassion
- Ask if you can give them a hug or hold their hand
- Help them identify their sources of stress outside of the eating disorder
- Help them articulate their anxiety
- Help them identify alternate ways (besides using eating disorder symptoms) to manage their anxiety
- Don’t ever blame them for the disorder
To address the child's identity and avoidance issue:
- Listen with compassion
- Explore with them the question “Who am I?” and “Whom do I want to be?”
- Help them identify the steps they need to take to become a person that has an identity beyond the person with an eating disorder.
- Encourage them to identify and to express their feelings
- Let them know it is ok to express anger and try not to become defensive when they express anger at you
To address the issue of self worth:
- Listen with compassion
- Remind them of what you and other people like about them.(E.g. Compassion, their smile)
- Try to model healthy self esteem. If you need to seek professional help for your own self-esteem issues.
Ways to help the child combat ‘the eating disorder voice’:
- Listen
- Help them identify how this voice has been hurtful and what it has taken away from them.
- Brainstorm with the person what they have done in the past and what they can do in the future to make the voice go away
- Help them come up with a plan for what t they could do to put this backstabbing friend in it’s place (e.g. visualizing the voice disappearing)
Supporting a child in treatment for anorexia at times can be hard work. If you need support, do not hesitate to call a counselor. Help is available at The Center for Growth / Therapy in Philadelphia 267-324-9564
