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Eating Disorder BasicsIntroduction to AnorexiaAll About BulimiaBinge-Eating Disorder Your Eating Disorder QuestionsDo I Have an Eating Disorder?Am I an Emotional Eater?What Causes Eating Disorders? Family Dynamics of Those With Eating DisordersAbout.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by Steven Gans, MD
Is Your Family Helping, or Hurting?Some believe that the family of a person with an eating disorder is always to blame. Families do have profound impact on their children, but there are many possible roots of eating disorder behaviors--whether anorexia, bulimia, or some other eating disorder. Keeping this in mind, a discussion on how families can set the stage for eating disorders is in order. In general, families have no conscious desire to foster eating disorders. When a family's dynamics do create a setup in which a child develops disordered eating, the family is usually unaware of it. This makes it difficult to address without outside help. The eating problem may be kept secret, and when it isn't, the shock at the child's eating patterns can focus attention only on the eating and away from family issues. Family Types Common Among Those With Eating DisordersThere are several family types that can make eating disorder development more likely. Newsome and Schettler provide an excellent breakdown of these types:
Other Family Dynamics Contributing to Eating Disorders
Problems Working With Families of Those With Eating DisordersParents of a child with an eating disorder have often poured much emotion and effort into changing the child's behavior by the time she comes to treatment. In fact, treatment may be delayed because of parents' fears that they will be blamed for the eating disorder (even when something else may be more responsible for it). Families must be treated with compassion and understanding to make progress possible. When a therapist or other professional does suggest that there may be problems in the family, parents can become angry or withdrawn. This can confirm the child's fears and strengthen the eating disorder, because the family dynamics that have helped paved the way for it have strengthened as well. For example, a Disengaged family may become even more distant, and a Chaotic family may experience a new crisis. Treatment for FamiliesTreatment centers and individual eating disorder therapists often include a family component in the normal course of treatment. This will often begin after the child is physically stabilized. It is common to work to uncover roles, communication styles, and areas of control or neglect. A treatment option for families of those with anorexia that has generated a lot of excitement is the Maudsley method. The key feature of the plan is that no one gets blamed--the whole family teams up to fight the anorexia. A Final NoteIt is very tempting to look at the family of someone with an eating disorder and come to a quick conclusion about how the disorder came to be. Resist the temptation. It can take a very long time to fully understand all the dynamics and how they contribute--or don't contribute. Back to What Causes Eating Disorders Sources Newsome, Carolyn, and Jim Schettler. 2004. "Family dynamics in eating disorders: An introduction." The Remuda Review 3(2004): 13-19. Spannuth, Whitney A. 2006. "Family structure in eating disorders." Accessed 10 January 2006. Updated: August 28, 2007 Eating Disorder BasicsIntroduction to AnorexiaAll About BulimiaBinge-Eating Disorder Your Eating Disorder QuestionsDo I Have an Eating Disorder?Am I an Emotional Eater?What Causes Eating Disorders? |
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