Posted one year ago
Hello, my daughter is 15 and thankfully was seen fairly quickly by the CAHMS Eating Disorders team as a result of her binge eating and was subsequently diagnosed with bulimia nervosa. At first she responded pretty well to treatment, which meant me being in charge of deciding what she ate at all meal times. She spontaneously vomits, which i know is unusual and has since been given anti-sickness pills.
However, since last Thursday (5 days ago) it’s like she’s changed personality. She is sullen, hardly smiles and seems to have forgotten her manners. Mealtimes can take ages and last night I found evidence of part of her dinner being spat out (ie not chewed or digested) along with finding out the anti-sickness pills from the last few days hadn’t been swallowed. I have tried being tough on her in terms of getting her to eat and challenging the non-eating, but I’m finding it so hard now and it doesn’t seem to be having an effect. It’s just her and me at home. Her father was emotionally and physically abusive to us both before I left him 4 years ago. I have a new partner, who is massively supportive and who I would like her to get to know in time but she is really negative about me having a relationship. I also work full-time and was promoted shortly before her diagnosis. At the moment I am working half days at home where possible to keep more of an eye on her.
I phoned CAMHS who said to keep the appointment in a couple of days time but they won’t necessarily do anything before then. I’m just finding it so hard. I was thinking of keeping a note of when she doesn’t eat/chucks food away and mention it at the appointment rather than challenge her with it, as that doesn’t seem to work. Any advice and encouragement would be very very welcome.
Thank you so much for reading this to the end 😊