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Gemma’s fight against an Eating Disorder, episode II: The cat is out of the bag

In our first episode, we met Gemma, a teenager who is struggling with an eating disorder. But she doesn’t know that yet. She believes she is just dieting and eating healthier; she hasn’t realised that she has been spending more and more time thinking about food, that she has become preoccupied with what her mum is cooking for dinner, and that she has started to carefully investigate the calorie and fat content on food packaging. This is what people do when they are on a diet, right? Parents ...

Gemma’s fight against an Eating Disorder, episode III: Family Therapy

 It is part of my job to support people and families at very difficult times in their lives. It wasn’t different with Gemma and her family. While dad looks through the office window and Gemma fixes her eyes on her shoes, mum tells me about the changes that have taken place in their lives over the recent months and how the family is functioning now. Gemma then snaps at mum. - I should have the right to choose what to eat and not to eat! My life is nobody's business – she says. Mum bursts...

Gemma's fight against an Eating Disorder, episode I

I would like to invite you to spend the next few minutes thinking about Eating Disorders (EDs). What have heard about it? Maybe that it is a call for attention? Or maybe that it is a modern illness caused by the media? That people could snap out of it and eat “properly” if they wanted to? That it is just about eating healthy foods? We all know there is still stigma around mental health in general, but when it comes to EDs, there is so much misinformation that a large amount of people doesn�...

You are not your choices. Here is why...

I took my children to the town market last weekend. The first stall we saw happened to be a toy one, more specifically a Legoman one. There were hundreds and hundreds of Lego men, it was quite overwhelming for me, so you can imagine what happened to the mind of a 6 year old boy! I said he could choose two. Two out of hundreds? How could he possibly make a choice? He chose two, then changed one, and then the other, and then repeated the process around 7 times. Then the Lego me...

How bad is your anger?

Have you ever caught yourself, or witnessed your partner, having an anger outburst? They can be pretty scary for whoever is on their receiving end. And because anger can look so frightening from the outside (and sometimes the inside), some people believe that anger is a bad feeling, a feeling that should be avoided and not expressed. But experts suggest a different way of looking at it. There is no such thing as a negative emotion, although we may all agree that some feelings are more uncom...

Is it time for a change?

Can you think of something you would love to change in yourself and wonder why it is so difficult? It can be a behaviour, a thought process, or a pattern of communication; we, humans, have quite an ambivalent relationship with change.We will most definitely resist change if it is prompted or requested by someone else (sound familiar?). Raise your hands if the arguments with your partner, or parents, or children circle around that topic! We can see very clearly where the other person needs to cha...

Gemma’s fight against an Eating Disorder, episode IV: how to support their journey

In the previous episodes, I spoke about Gemma’s family’s journey until getting to my office. This last chapter focuses more specifically on how parents can support Gemma in three main aspects of her recovery journey: the nutritional one; disentangling food and feelings; and the ambivalence between building a bigger life and sustaining an illness that shrinks it. Psychoeducation about the illness to both Gemma and her family is an important first step. An eating disorder (ED) is a solution th...