At Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity, our Helpline Advisors hear all the time from people who are just realising they may have an eating disorder. one piece of advice we give all of them is to seek help now. The quicker they can get a diagnosis and get into treatment, the better their chance of making a full recovery. Speaking with Beat’s Helpline may be the first step towards getting better.
But for some, we’re just one part of the network of support around the person suffering. The family, friends, healthcare professionals and others who help someone through an eating disorder can play a key part in recovery. For children with eating disorders, family therapy is often the first treatment recommended; plenty of those who have recovered from eating disorders have credited those around them with helping them stay on track, or picking them up when they were down. But caring for someone through an eating disorder is no simple task, and it’s made even more difficult if those people don’t get the help and information they need to be able to provide proper support to their loved one.
We believe around 5 million people, both those suffering and those supporting them, are seriously affected by an eating disorder right now. Having a loved one with an eating disorder can be frightening and isolating, and these are illnesses surrounded by misconceptions. There’s a lack of training for the healthcare professionals key to providing access to treatment; treatment itself is underfunded and often people face long waits before they can get the help they need. During this time, the illness can develop further as people around the sufferer fight to keep them healthy – and in some cases, fight to keep them alive. Furthermore, eating disorders can completely transform those suffering from them, and encouraging engagement with treatment can be an uphill battle in itself.
The guidelines on eating disorders from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) are clear that those caring for someone with an eating disorder should be given information about eating disorders and their loved one’s treatment. Families should be offered assessments of their own needs, too, including what they might need in terms of practical support and the impact of the eating disorder on their own wellbeing. But neither of these things necessarily happen.
“I really had little guidance as to what I could do other than try and get [my daughter] to follow the meal plan, and after just a few months I was on my knees feeling desperately unhappy and finding that family life was very difficult to manage,” one parent told us recently, an experience that unfortunately isn’t uncommon. Thrown into uncertain, stressful, and often completely alien circumstances, many carers find themselves without adequate guidance. While some manage to find help, whether through Helpline services like the one from Beat or local support groups, they should not be left to find these measures for themselves, nor should these be a replacement for the tailored, in-depth information they should receive regarding their loved one’s illness. This has to change for both their sake and that of the person they’re supporting.
For Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2020, Beat is focusing on the issues faced by those caring for people with an eating disorder. Not only is it distressing and frightening to see a loved one go through such a horrible illness, but eating disorders can take a serious toll on carers’ wellbeing, have major financial implications, and disrupt people’s work, education and social lives. As a parent described it, “I have aged 100 years and have never known anxiety like it. I have had to be the driving force at every turn and have had to be vigilant 24 hours a day for 15 months now. It’s exhausting.”
We believe that with the right support and information, things don’t have to be this way. We also know that well-informed, well-supported carers are better able to care for their loved ones. That’s why we’re asking people to join us this Eating Disorders Awareness Week in demanding the best care, support and information for people with eating disorders and their friends and family.
If you’re supporting a loved one with an eating disorder, you don’t have to deal with it alone. Beat offers Helpline services via telephone, email, one-to-one webchat, online peer support groups for anyone supporting someone with an eating disorder, telephone-based one-to-one peer coaching, and training for carers. Eating Disorders Awareness Week runs from 2-8 March 2020. You can learn more about Beat’s campaign work for better quality treatment and information for everyone affected by eating disorders here.
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Guest post: “If you’re supporting a loved one with an eating disorder, you don’t have to deal with it alone”
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MumsnetGuestPosts · 03/03/2020 09:39
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