Eating disorder therapy helps teens feel better in their bodies and regain physical and mental health.
Eating disorders are miserable. They take control of eating habits and destroy self-esteem. Symptoms include excessive exercise, purging after meals, avoiding certain foods, and dangerously low weight levels. Eating disorders can take over a teen’s life. But there is hope.
Do you worry about your teen’s eating patterns?
Does your teen seem too thin? Do you worry they may be purging after meals? Is your teen avoiding certain foods, like sugar or carbs? Do they seem fixated on eating healthy? Are they exercising more than what’s good for their body? Do they struggle with body image or frequently express concern about being overweight? Eating disorder therapy for teens can help.
Your teen doesn’t need to feel miserable about their body. Eating disorder therapy can restore healthy eating habits and rebuild their self-esteem.
Signs of Eating Disorders in Adolescents
Key signs of eating disorders in adolescents include extreme thinness, skipping meals, excessive exercise, cutting out certain foods, purging, and concern that they are overweight. Teenagers with eating disorders also often feel intense shame about their bodies, particularly when eating.
However, just because a teen doesn’t exhibit all of these signs does not mean that they don’t have an eating disorder. In fact, usually teens with eating disorders do not have every one of these symptoms. If your teen is experiencing one or multiple of these symptoms, they may have an eating disorder and it’s important to find help.
It’s also important to note that just because a teen has a healthy weight level, it doesn’t mean they are fine. For example, many teenagers struggling with eating disorders don’t appear underweight at all. However, frequent purging and malnutrition can still cause serious internal damage to organs, the reproductive system, immune system, cardiovascular system, and brain health. This is why it’s important to understand and recognize the other signs of eating disorders beyond low weight levels.
Types of Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexic teens are very afraid of gaining weight and typically maintain a weight below a healthy level. These teens also have a distorted view of their body, seeing themselves as overweight when actually they are dangerously thin. When an anorexic teen looks in the mirror, their brain literally changes what they are seeing, causing them to think they are overweight. In order to try to be thinner, teens with anorexia may skip meals, avoid certain foods, and over-exercise.
Bulimia Nervosa
Like teens with anorexia, teens with bulimia also are intensely afraid of gaining weight and have a distorted view of their body. However, teens with bulimia are usually not underweight. Bulimic adolescents binge on food and then feel ashamed and disgusted with themselves. They will then purge, fast, or over-exercise to compensate. This leaves them extremely hungry, and so they binge again, creating a vicious (and often medically dangerous) cycle.
Binge Eating Disorder
Like adolescents with bulimia, teens with binge eating disorder also binge on food, usually in response to emotional triggers. Next, they are greeted by feelings of guilt, shame, and disgust. However, unlike bulimia, teens struggling with binge eating disorder don’t compensate for the binge with purging or other methods.
ARFID
Teens with ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) may appear similar to teens with anorexia in that they are underweight. However, the cause is very different (though it can be just as threatening medically). They do not restrict food due to body image concerns. Instead, they avoid eating because of strong sensory aversions, fear of choking or vomiting, or other intense reactions to food that make eating difficult. Teens with ARFID have usually lost the ability to sense hunger cues. They also often feel full after eating just a small amount of food.
How We Treat Eating Disorders in Teens
At Teen Therapy OC, we use a method called Family-Based Treatment (FBT). FBT involves a team approach that includes a medical doctor, a dietitian, a therapist, and most importantly, you—the parent.
Roles in FBT
- The medical doctor monitors your teen’s weight and physical health to ensure they are stable enough to remain at home. If your teen’s physical symptoms become overly dangerous, the doctor will recommend hospitalization until they are medically stable.
- The dietitian supports the family in making nutritional choices that promote physical recovery and long-term health. They also coordinate with the medical doctor on caloric needs, helping you and your teen learn when to eat, and teaching your whole family about healthy structure at meal and snack times.
- The therapist helps your teen develop skills to challenge and fight the eating disorder. At Teen Therapy OC, sessions take place at our San Clemente or Mission Viejo offices. Parents and teens attend sessions together so you can also learn the tools needed to support recovery at home. You can expect to have a family meal in the therapist’s office where the therapist helps coach you through your teen’s resistance to finishing their food or eating feared foods.
- However, the most important role in FBT belongs to you, the parent. As you work alongside your teen and the therapist to learn the skills that will help your teen, you become the primary support in their recovery. Because you see your teen every day, you are in the best position to notice patterns, guide meals, and help them use the skills learned in therapy. In this way, you play a central role in your teen’s healing.
Benefits of FBT
One of the biggest benefits of FBT is that it allows your teen to recover at home as much as possible. This way your teen can work toward recovery while continuing school, family life, and daily routines.
Another key benefit is that you become knowledgeable about your teen’s struggles. This makes it easier to recognize early warning signs if symptoms begin to return, allowing you to intervene before they escalate.
Therapists on Staff Who Specialize in Eating Disorders in Teens
There Is Hope for Your Teen
Eating disorders are dangerous, and in severe cases, life-threatening. They are not something that should be ignored. It’s also important to note that while eating disorders are more common in girls, they happen to boys too. However, with the right help, your teen can heal.
An eating disorder doesn’t have to define your adolescent or run your family’s life anymore. Eating disorder therapy can help them rediscover a sense of joy in who they are. Let’s work together to get your child back!
To learn more about eating disorder therapy for teens, call 949-394-0607.
