Concerned my DD is developing an eating disorder

[cheeseandbiscuitsss]

Hi all,

I'm concerned my DD, 18, is developing an eating disorder. She has struggled with her mental health since around 11, and now on citalopram.

She has recently started exercising 7 x per week which has increased from around 3 x per week, she's eating much less, around 1000 cal a day and not eating at all on some days. She watches calories and will not allow herself anything high in sugar etc.

She was aiming to lose weight at the start of this year and has lost 7kg, constantly asking me to measure her waist and hips, which she has lost 3 inches off her hips and 3.5 off her waist.

Help? What can I do now she's 18?

Good for you to be concerned! It's hard to avoid gaining weight on citalopram because it makes you hungry (I'm on it) so some level of calorie awareness might be useful. I would suggest that you talk to her about finding balance. Tell her you love that she is putting in effort to take care of her body but you want it to come from a place of love and health not control and obsession. If her goal is weight loss there's actually a lot of evidence to suggest that exercising intensely every day is not beneficial as your body goes into a preservation state. Talk to her about finding social ways to exercise e.g team sports so there's another element and it's not just about how her body looks. If she gets below a healthy bmi take her to the gp

Op this is very concerning 1000 calories is no where near enough if she is excersizing as well that’s a red flag. If she is deliberately food restricting she needs to go to gp asap. Ed’s are very dangerous and can spiral out of control very quickly. Don’t want to worry you but my dd has anorexia and this is how she started , reducing and missing lunch and excersizing even more than normal. I know she’s 18 so it’s very hard to get her to gp but please talk to her about this and offer to go with her. It’s much harder to treat as an adult so even if it’s not it’s better to be safe than sorry. I hope your ok