Help for Eating Disorders

Most teenagers have a friend who has been affected by an eating disorder. Such disorders affect almost 20% of teenage girls in North America at some point in their development. Magazines and movies constantly stress a thin body image as the defining force for popularity. The message teenagers get is that thin is the only route to popularity and happiness. Through the Eating Disorder Program, Drs. Katzman and Pinhas, at The Hospital for Sick Children, have developed a program that helps young people and their parents deal with the problems of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. First, the book shows parents how to identify an eating disorder and when to become concerned about it. Second, there is vital information for parents on how to become informed users of the health care system and how to collaborate in their child's treatment. Third, practical support for parents, family members and coaches enables them to participate in the recovery of a child or adolescent with an eating disorder. Worksheets, diaries and first-person case studies assists parents and caregivers to help youth overcome an eating disorder.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Mental Health, Self-Help. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.