I was watching an episode of Intervention on Netflix about a young woman with bulimia. The show puts on info about the disorders with the source at various points in the episode.
According to the American Journal of Psychiatry:
Girls who suffer from anxiety are twice as likely to develop an eating disorder as adults.
This was startling to me in some ways. I don't know when this was published or the study supporting it, but it is interesting. I spent years being accused of anorexia by my grandmother and aunt because I was terribly underweight. The first time they told me this I was four and it continued until I had Wiz, which was after my Gma died. I did have a problem, but it was NOT what we think of as an eating disorder. I had a chemical imbalance and my brain didn't get the hunger signals from my body. I didn't eat because it didn't occur to me - I literally was NEVER hungry until I was pregnant.
So I have always been interested in eating disorders, but i ahd never connected anxiety as a child with eating disorders. But it makes sense.
I am mentioning this because a LOT of us have kids iwth childhood anxiety and docs who seem to not realize that it is a MAJOR problem, NOT just a sign or some other problem or a minor issue. It is something we should watch all of our kids for - not just the girls. If we can find/push for/get help for the anxiety, and keep the kids in some type of help as young adults, maybe we can help keep them from developing an eating disorder or get them help for it sooner if they do develop one.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the correlation between anxiety and eating disorders is also there for boys? Very little is heard about males iwth eating disorders but they DO have them, they just don't get treatment as often because it is seen as a "female" problem and most treatment centers are geared toward women.
How can we push the doctors to address anxiety in children as a primary problem and not as a secondary one? I think a lot of the problems our kids have are rooted in anxiety, but many docs don't seem to want to really address that, instead wanting to deal with the symptoms like aggression, defiance, ODDish behavior, etc...., at least that was our experience.
According to the American Journal of Psychiatry:
Girls who suffer from anxiety are twice as likely to develop an eating disorder as adults.
This was startling to me in some ways. I don't know when this was published or the study supporting it, but it is interesting. I spent years being accused of anorexia by my grandmother and aunt because I was terribly underweight. The first time they told me this I was four and it continued until I had Wiz, which was after my Gma died. I did have a problem, but it was NOT what we think of as an eating disorder. I had a chemical imbalance and my brain didn't get the hunger signals from my body. I didn't eat because it didn't occur to me - I literally was NEVER hungry until I was pregnant.
So I have always been interested in eating disorders, but i ahd never connected anxiety as a child with eating disorders. But it makes sense.
I am mentioning this because a LOT of us have kids iwth childhood anxiety and docs who seem to not realize that it is a MAJOR problem, NOT just a sign or some other problem or a minor issue. It is something we should watch all of our kids for - not just the girls. If we can find/push for/get help for the anxiety, and keep the kids in some type of help as young adults, maybe we can help keep them from developing an eating disorder or get them help for it sooner if they do develop one.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the correlation between anxiety and eating disorders is also there for boys? Very little is heard about males iwth eating disorders but they DO have them, they just don't get treatment as often because it is seen as a "female" problem and most treatment centers are geared toward women.
How can we push the doctors to address anxiety in children as a primary problem and not as a secondary one? I think a lot of the problems our kids have are rooted in anxiety, but many docs don't seem to want to really address that, instead wanting to deal with the symptoms like aggression, defiance, ODDish behavior, etc...., at least that was our experience.