acute MH/anorexia with my lovely niece

[10poundstogo]

My niece is a lovely girl, at college, working, loads of hobbies. she has always been slightly nervy/stressy, but generally a lovely bubbly lass. Over the last 3 weeks she has suddenly been in a right state, lots of tears/worrying about what people think/lathargic, not eating etc. its come to a head very quickly, she's always naturally been very slender, so didn't have far to go, despite her mums best efforts and lots of trips to GP in last 2 weeks she is now in hospital, almost totally shut down, not eating or drinking and can barely speak. i am so shocked at the speed this has all happened. No one knows whats caused it, her friends dont have a clue either. has anyone been here or knows someone that has? its the speed of it more than anything. She comes from a loving home and on the face of it no obvious reason for all this. the only thing I can think is that its a bit to do with school finishing etc but only thats cos thats been the only big change in recent months. Any insight gratfully appreciated I am so worried for her..

I was annorexic when younger, it was a coping mechanism, a way of dealing with things. Although I didnt recognise it as that at the time. Only when the underlying issue is addressed can the eating disorder be fixed. Hopefully she will be getting lots of counselling and support.

im thinking now that the not eating is just a symptom of the main problem, what ever that is, as the not eating has only been going on for about 2 weeks, and before she got ill was a good eater and very active. could there be an underlying medical trigger? they have ruled out obvious contenders like thyroid, glandular fever etc...

You mention college and working etc - is she quite a high achiever? Classic anorexic type.

It is possible its not anorexia nervosa and is simply anorexia as in "loss of appetite" however just because there is no real reason anyone outside can see then it doesnt mean she wont have an eating disorder or indeed that she hasnt had it for a long time but to a much lesser extent.

What do the Drs think? What is she saying?

What age is she?

B-eat is a really useful organisation, they used to be called the eating disorders association. They have a parents and carers message board.

thank you will look there, unfortunatly she's not saying anything at all at the moment (literally). they are going to try and assess her again tomorrow. she did eat a tiny bit today, which is a start, but basically out of it. she is 17.

Everything you are saying unfortunately points to a classic anorexic case from my experience - high achiever, possibly a bit of a perfectionist? anxious worrier. ANd the whole thing about leaving school and starting college - thats a very common time for an eating disorder to start as a way of coping with the stress of the change and feeling out of control.

That wasnt my experience I had it in 4th year at school. But have done a lot of reading and met many other sufferers through clinic/hosp groups and the things you have described really ring true as anorexia nervosa.

It sounds very sudden in her case. One positive is that she is getting help, often patients are left for months until they are deemed ill enough for help/waiting on lists for appointments. So although she sounds in quite a bad state just now its positive that she is gettin help.

It is a long road, and it was hell for me. The internal conflict over wanting to not eat VS wanting to eat and live normally is horrendous. Not eating for me was a way of escaping and retreating away from all the stress, it gave me control in situations I felt I had no control.

Let me know how she is doing and feel free to ask anything if you think of any questions.