Ok so my lovely 15 yo has lost nearly 2 stone since Xmas ( most of that was during the first 3 months). She has been showing a great many of the psychological signs of anorexia but is still in the healthy weight range.
Things reached an all time low at half term and she has only just been allowed to remain in school for a full day due to the number of skipped meals. We have been worried sick- huge impact on the whole family.
We got the GP to do a referral to the specialist team locally and I managed to get some advice over the phone and were promised an appointment soon.
We immediately put in place the strategies that they suggested and worked with the school following a clear plan. Dd was aware that a failure to eat would mean she couldn't stay in school for the full day.
Now, I'm having to pinch myself because since that day, dd has gone from strength to strength and ten days on she seems to be eating normally. I just can't make sense of this. How can she go from being so scary and out of control with what she was saying/ how she was behaving around eating and being consumed with guilt about eating... to this sudden improvement?
I'm relieved and delighted and really confused. But also we have her assessment this week and I'm worried that she won't get any help but could then slip back. Can anyone advise me what I should do/ say? She did improve once before then slipped back worse than ever. Dd said that she feels like a fraud for getting help and I know that sometimes appointments with gp/ meeting at school has triggered the fasting to get worse as she has said she feels that she needs to comply with expectations by not eating.
Can anyone Shed any light on this? Does this often happen that someone seems on a downward trajectory towards a full blown eating disorder but quickly turns it around? Please help me make sense of this.
TIA