Hi, looking for some advice for dd (18).
Last year when she was doing her A levels she dealt with a lot of anxiety which manifested itself in anorexia. She would go days without eating, saying it made her feel calmer and confident when she would otherwise feel stressed or like she wasn’t good enough. It broke my heart to watch her do this and despite encouraging her every day to eat she was committed to starving herself and very quickly she began to lose a dangerous amount of weight.
This went on until A level results day. Her results were absolutely amazing (AAA) and so much better than what she had convinced herself she would get. I think her ED was almost for her to feel a sense of achievement because she was so anxious that her results would not deliver this. But after finding out she got into her dream university she finally decided she wanted to get better so she could make the most of her time there and have no regrets.
It’s been a very long process but I am so grateful that she is now back to being the healthy, beautiful girl I have always known. But now, a year on things have become very difficult for her. Because of all the restricting before there are days when she suffers with very extreme hunger and just can’t stop eating and is constantly thinking about food, causing even more anxiety. She responds to this hunger by eating more so as not to get into patterns of restricting again. But, this also means she is gaining quite a bit of weight (after already being weight restored). Although I can see that there is absolutely nothing wrong with her weight and keep reassuring her that she looks lovely, she extremely unhappy with her current body and is so scared that the hunger will never stop and she will never stop gaining weight and feeling less and less confident.
She is talking to a therapist and a dietician but they don’t seem to be helping and having never been through it myself I’m not sure how to help her. I was wondering if any of you have any experience with sustained extreme hunger and binge eating after recovery or have any ideas how I can help dd. Responding it is making her so unhappy but I don’t want to advise her not to in case it causes a relapse. Any advise would be very much appreciated.