It is only with weight restoration that she will think in healthy and rational ways, and it is only with weight restoration that she will have a chance to get back on track with adolescent development and achieve healthy and appropriate control over her individuation and budding independence.

best hope for making significant progress.

Siblings can provide an avenue of support for their sister or brother who is ill, especially when your child may be angry at you for being firm about requirements for attending therapy or setting a limit on a behavior such as throwing up or not eating.

In a study comparing FBT to AFT, adolescents in family therapy had greater and faster weight restoration and menstrual return and showed no differences in other measures of psychological functioning.

An important point to remember as you read about the available treatment options is that early and good treatment usually bodes well for your child’s recovery from an eating disorder.

AFT devised for adolescents posits that individuals with anorexia are immature and unaware of their emotions, particularly strong emotions such as anger and depression. These adolescents do not want to face such problems, so they turn to controlling food and weight as a way to keep their feelings and conflicts from surfacing.

A certain degree of anxiety is a good thing—it helps propel you to action—but too much anxiety can overwhelm and immobilize you.

be reasonable in your expectations of both yourself and your child for making behavior changes. Changing behaviors will take some time;

According to this therapeutic approach, anorexia is a self-destructive attempt to manage problems with emotional immaturity, fear, anxiety, and depression by restrictive dieting and weight loss.