Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / When Food Becomes the Enemy: Helping Kids Through Eating Disorders [Parental Guidance Ep. 3]
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: All this week on the Happy Families podcast, it's been
- 0:08Speaker 1: a conversation about body image, following up from the third
- 0:11Speaker 1: episode of Parental Guidance on Channel nine. If you haven't
- 0:14Speaker 1: checked it out yet, you can stream it via replay
- 0:17Speaker 1: on nine Now could they Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast.
- 0:20Speaker 1: It's Real Parenting Solutions every day on Australia's most downloaded
- 0:23Speaker 1: parenting podcast, where Justin and Kylie Coulson are really really, really,
- 0:28Speaker 1: really really tough conversation. Today we're talking about eating disorders
- 0:32Speaker 1: and more specifically the impact of anarexia. A lot of
- 0:35Speaker 1: the stats ninety percent of teenagers have negative thoughts about
- 0:39Speaker 1: their bodies. We have far too many of our mainly
- 0:42Speaker 1: young women, although young men to a lesser degree, who
- 0:46Speaker 1: are really struggling with psychologically challenging issues around body image
- 0:53Speaker 1: that lead to in some cases, the very worst of outcomes. Kylie,
- 0:58Speaker 1: we were introduced to four new focus families.
- 1:02Speaker 2: Elvy and Sean.
- 1:04Speaker 3: We are authoritative parents.
- 1:06Speaker 4: We have high expectations on our children.
- 1:08Speaker 5: In the meantime, were set strict rules and boundaries.
- 1:11Speaker 3: Nick and Sophia where the positivity parents, where confidence is key.
- 1:16Speaker 1: Josh and Cassie.
- 1:17Speaker 3: We are the life school parents, and we use real
- 1:19Speaker 3: life experiences to educate our kids and Amandarin has Son.
- 1:23Speaker 2: We choose to parent the hard way. We don't take shortcuts.
- 1:26Speaker 6: It's hard on us for easing the fun for the kids.
- 1:30Speaker 1: On this week's episode of Parental Guidance, we met an
- 1:32Speaker 1: incredible young woman who was gripped by this deadly disease
- 1:37Speaker 1: of the mind.
- 1:43Speaker 3: Force yourself to eat it, Ashley, yes, she can.
- 1:46Speaker 2: Sure you're punishing me. I'm not punishing you.
- 1:53Speaker 3: You are choosing to listen to the voice instead.
- 1:57Speaker 6: What is a voice saying right now?
- 2:01Speaker 5: So you need to do the opposite?
- 2:03Speaker 4: What does it.
- 2:03Speaker 5: Feel like to complete your meal? Yeah?
- 2:10Speaker 1: Loves watching that. Watching Ashley Kylie, I I'm speechless.
- 2:21Speaker 4: Like the.
- 2:23Speaker 1: Pain, the difficulty, the challenge that this family has been
- 2:27Speaker 1: through in so many other families.
- 2:29Speaker 2: How do you even react to that?
- 2:31Speaker 6: As we've been going through each episode, obviously her scream
- 2:35Speaker 6: is part of your promo, and I've been trying to
- 2:38Speaker 6: work out what the noise was. It's been just really
- 2:42Speaker 6: I've been struggling to wrap my head around what that
- 2:45Speaker 6: noise was and to actually put it into context and
- 2:49Speaker 6: to see.
- 2:51Speaker 2: It's hard to fund the words.
- 2:52Speaker 6: Isn't it to see the immense struggle, like the depth
- 2:56Speaker 6: of struggle it was for her to just put food
- 3:00Speaker 6: in her mouth, yeah, and to have it there but
- 3:03Speaker 6: not be willing to swallow or like.
- 3:05Speaker 1: Just her mum that you can't let the voice win.
- 3:08Speaker 1: I mean, oh my goodness, how do you deal with that?
- 3:12Speaker 6: I think a challenge like that would literally test anybody
- 3:16Speaker 6: to their very core.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Every relationship, every relationship. So that was actually her parents
- 3:22Speaker 1: are Candle and Andrew. Ashley is now a healthy and
- 3:25Speaker 1: strong young woman. Nine years later she joined us on
- 3:28Speaker 1: the episode. It was Oh, it was such an inspiring conversation.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So we asked her how this battle
- 3:37Speaker 1: first started for her.
- 3:39Speaker 4: I started following these influences online that were posting photos
- 3:42Speaker 4: of their shopping trolleys. And I was looking to these
- 3:45Speaker 4: people that were seeming like they were happy when they
- 3:48Speaker 4: were going on a diet or when they were losing weight.
- 3:50Speaker 4: And so I was constantly being reinforced that who why
- 3:53Speaker 4: I was and what I looked like was not enough.
- 3:56Speaker 6: I know that as you were going through social media
- 3:59Speaker 6: and with the algorithms, you were just seeing this certain
- 4:02Speaker 6: image really dangerous diets.
- 4:06Speaker 4: I really wanted to then have a flat stomach. I
- 4:09Speaker 4: do all the seven minute workouts or the ad workouts,
- 4:12Speaker 4: and then the more I lost, the more validation I
- 4:15Speaker 4: got in the sense of or you look amazing, what
- 4:18Speaker 4: are you doing? You're so fit, you look great, And
- 4:21Speaker 4: it was feeding me like I was then striving for that,
- 4:24Speaker 4: and I was seeking that because it's like you're possessed.
- 4:29Speaker 2: Kennell became not a moment anymore.
- 4:31Speaker 1: She became a care which was a big task, and
- 4:33Speaker 1: then I became the parent for the other two kids
- 4:36Speaker 1: and look after the house.
- 4:37Speaker 3: Can you explain to all of us what it was
- 4:40Speaker 3: like at its worst? At its worst is that I
- 4:43Speaker 3: have met the devil. You know, you could physically see
- 4:48Speaker 3: Ashley eyes roll back and this different, demonized voice would
- 4:53Speaker 3: come forward. It was going to walk. We were basically
- 4:57Speaker 3: told to take a home. She's got the most extreme
- 5:01Speaker 3: eating disorder and probably the highest mortality rate, and you
- 5:05Speaker 3: just need to get food in, you know, as she
- 5:07Speaker 3: wouldn't even brush your cheeks. She wouldn't even drink water
- 5:10Speaker 3: because she thought it had calories in it.
- 5:13Speaker 4: I didn't want to be here. I didn't feel like
- 5:16Speaker 4: anybody loved me. I didn't feel like I was worthy
- 5:21Speaker 4: of being loved. And when I was admitted into hospital,
- 5:27Speaker 4: into a children's mental health war, you were on your own,
- 5:30Speaker 4: and you're like twelve or thirteen, and you've just got
- 5:32Speaker 4: no family. I had mom turn up every single day
- 5:36Speaker 4: at nine am and then be told to leave at night.
- 5:40Speaker 4: And for someone that thought that nobody loved her, but
- 5:42Speaker 4: to have her mum turn up every single day, while
- 5:45Speaker 4: there were other kids in there that had their mum
- 5:49Speaker 4: come drop them off and then never return, I thought, Wow,
- 5:54Speaker 4: I'm like wasting away my life so selfie. When I
- 6:00Speaker 4: have a mum and a family that's so willing to
- 6:03Speaker 4: fight for me. That's when I made the decision that
- 6:06Speaker 4: I'm going to give full recovery a go. And I mean,
- 6:09Speaker 4: here we are nine years later.
- 6:10Speaker 2: On Oh my goodness, that's a lot.
- 6:12Speaker 1: We're going to be back after the break and discuss
- 6:14Speaker 1: the science to look for if you concerned it all
- 6:16Speaker 1: about your child and how we can deal with this
- 6:18Speaker 1: as parents. Okay, so you've just heard Ashley's harrowing story
- 6:29Speaker 1: going to hell and back fighting anarexia. Her parents, Kendall
- 6:33Speaker 1: and Andrew just amazing people, Amazing people who saved Ashley
- 6:39Speaker 1: I think saved her life, certainly saved her from herself
- 6:41Speaker 1: in so many ways.
- 6:43Speaker 6: Kylie listening to Ashley's acknowledgment that before she went to hospital,
- 6:49Speaker 6: she honestly number one, didn't believe she was.
- 6:52Speaker 2: Lovable, oh my goodness, and.
- 6:54Speaker 6: Didn't feel loved. And you look at the immense care
- 7:00Speaker 6: and attention that her parents were giving to her in
- 7:05Speaker 6: spite of the way she felt. And it wasn't until
- 7:09Speaker 6: she had the stark contrast of being dropped off at
- 7:12Speaker 6: the hospital and seeing her mum come every single day
- 7:17Speaker 6: while other kids had been dropped off and didn't see
- 7:20Speaker 6: their parents at all, and that was her wake up call.
- 7:25Speaker 6: But I guess the thing that stands out to me
- 7:27Speaker 6: the most is even the very best of us can
- 7:31Speaker 6: find ourselves at a place where our kids feel unlovable,
- 7:38Speaker 6: feel unloved by us in spite of everything we're doing.
- 7:44Speaker 1: There's a I mean, I'm always talking about how kids
- 7:46Speaker 1: fell love time and talking about the important of connection,
- 7:49Speaker 1: feeling seen, heard and valued. But there's something that I
- 7:53Speaker 1: don't mention often and I probably should, and that is
- 7:56Speaker 1: that perception is reality. So perception is that we're doing
- 8:01Speaker 1: all that we can, but to our children, what's going
- 8:03Speaker 1: on in their minds? How are they perceiving our relationship
- 8:07Speaker 1: with them, How are they perceiving the connection, because we
- 8:10Speaker 1: know that when that relationship is solid and strong, they
- 8:14Speaker 1: tend to stay away from these challenging situations.
- 8:18Speaker 6: I guess the other thing to acknowledge, though, is just
- 8:20Speaker 6: like in the conversation we had in yesterday's episode about
- 8:24Speaker 6: the distortion of my reality when I looked in the mirror,
- 8:29Speaker 6: when our kids are starting to struggle with mental illness,
- 8:32Speaker 6: their reality is distorted. So we could be doing everything
- 8:37Speaker 6: right and I say that in inverted commas, but we
- 8:40Speaker 6: could literally be giving them every good thing. But as
- 8:44Speaker 6: they're spiraling down, their perception is so warped. It is
- 8:49Speaker 6: so lacking in realness. I don't know how has to
- 8:52Speaker 6: say it, and so I really just wanted to highlight
- 8:56Speaker 6: that if you find yourself in that situation, it's not
- 9:00Speaker 6: to say that you've done anything wrong, but we have
- 9:04Speaker 6: to find a way to help them out of it.
- 9:07Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the critical thing. If their perception is
- 9:11Speaker 1: creating the reality in their minds that the connection is
- 9:13Speaker 1: not there, finding a way to make the connection is
- 9:16Speaker 1: just that that becomes the number one job of parents.
- 9:20Speaker 6: Andrew's acknowledgment that Kendall literally became Ashley's career in those
- 9:28Speaker 6: couple of years while she was fighting this battle, mum
- 9:32Speaker 6: literally took on a twenty four to seven carer's role
- 9:36Speaker 6: and he had to pick up the pieces.
- 9:37Speaker 1: All right, So let's talk warning signs. This is an
- 9:41Speaker 1: area that requires a high level of specialty, and I
- 9:45Speaker 1: haven't started in this area. I mean, I've got some
- 9:46Speaker 1: general things that I can be useful for in conversations
- 9:49Speaker 1: about anorexia and eating disorders, but it's actually not me,
- 9:53Speaker 1: it's not what I do. We do have somebody who
- 9:56Speaker 1: is a specialist in this area fifteen years of experience.
- 10:00Speaker 1: Gregory is an Illawara based psychologist who specializes in eating disorders.
- 10:05Speaker 1: She's also a mum of two and Christine joins us.
- 10:08Speaker 2: Now, Hi Christine, justin, Hi Kylie Christine.
- 10:12Speaker 6: We've got three questions for you in relation to this.
- 10:16Speaker 6: My first one is what other signs parents need to
- 10:20Speaker 6: look out for if they've got concerns.
- 10:22Speaker 5: Yeah, great question. I think that I'd probably break that
- 10:26Speaker 5: down into two sections. And what I really want to
- 10:28Speaker 5: focus on for you at this point is those early
- 10:31Speaker 5: warning signs because we know that treatment is so much
- 10:35Speaker 5: better if we can get it early. So some of
- 10:38Speaker 5: the things that you might see early on in the
- 10:41Speaker 5: piece is maybe your child is wearing really loose, baggy clothing.
- 10:46Speaker 5: So that could be for two reasons. One might be
- 10:49Speaker 5: to disguise some weight loss, but also because their skin
- 10:53Speaker 5: becomes a little bit sensitive and they prefer to wear
- 10:56Speaker 5: looser clothing. So that's one of the early things. Other
- 10:59Speaker 5: things you might know is not wanting to eat with
- 11:01Speaker 5: you at the family dinner table, or pushing food around,
- 11:06Speaker 5: or becoming particularly health conscious, which can get a bit
- 11:10Speaker 5: disguised between like, oh, we're really proud of our child
- 11:12Speaker 5: for wanting to eat healthy food and wanting to do
- 11:14Speaker 5: more exercise, but then that can go too far. So
- 11:19Speaker 5: if they're really avoiding things, like if they've always loved
- 11:22Speaker 5: chocolate and even though they're on a health kick, they're
- 11:25Speaker 5: still avoiding chocolate and it's their favorite, that should be
- 11:29Speaker 5: a little flag, you know, we should still be able
- 11:31Speaker 5: to have some balance there. And then obviously later on
- 11:34Speaker 5: like that, the weight losses is probably one of the
- 11:37Speaker 5: more significant things. Avoiding social outings, not wanting to go out,
- 11:42Speaker 5: and then the excessive exercise, so really prioritizing exercise over
- 11:47Speaker 5: everything else.
- 11:49Speaker 1: This seems insidious to me because as a parent who
- 11:51Speaker 1: wants children to be healthy and happy, seeing a child
- 11:55Speaker 1: making wise diet choices and getting physically fit and active,
- 12:00Speaker 1: I mean, that's got to be a wonderfully rewarding thing
- 12:03Speaker 1: for both you and your child. And of course we
- 12:05Speaker 1: don't want to pathologize a child who wants to be
- 12:07Speaker 1: healthy either. So this is this is really tricky, isn't it.
- 12:10Speaker 1: There's got to be a whole web, a whole lot
- 12:13Speaker 1: of things that are all leaning in this in this direction.
- 12:16Speaker 5: You guys know your children the best, so if there's
- 12:19Speaker 5: some personality changes happening along with this, if they're being
- 12:21Speaker 5: really snappy at you, particularly around meal times, that they're
- 12:25Speaker 5: the sort of things that add to it other than
- 12:28Speaker 5: just healthy eating.
- 12:30Speaker 6: Christine, is it possible to offer general advice to parents
- 12:34Speaker 6: with such a complex reality.
- 12:37Speaker 5: Yeah, look, it is. It is really really complicated, and
- 12:40Speaker 5: for any parents that have been through this with their child,
- 12:43Speaker 5: they will know it is absolutely one of the hardest
- 12:45Speaker 5: things you can possibly go through. Aside from that, one
- 12:50Speaker 5: of the things that I would really say that's important
- 12:52Speaker 5: is patience, and it is essentially your job as a
- 12:57Speaker 5: parent to feed your child. So if they're at the
- 13:01Speaker 5: dinner table and refusing to eat, you need to have
- 13:04Speaker 5: all the time in the world to sit there with
- 13:07Speaker 5: them and encourage them and make sure they eat their food.
- 13:12Speaker 5: And you do it kindly, you do it firmly, and
- 13:15Speaker 5: you just make sure it happens. It's very, very difficult
- 13:19Speaker 5: because that could take hours, but you need to show
- 13:22Speaker 5: that eating disorder that you're stronger than it. You've got
- 13:26Speaker 5: more patience than it, you've got more time than it,
- 13:28Speaker 5: and it doesn't matter what it's telling your child to do,
- 13:32Speaker 5: You're going to be there and make sure they eat regardless.
- 13:35Speaker 1: I'm almost weeping as you say that, because that's what
- 13:36Speaker 1: we see in the episode. I mean, the interaction that
- 13:40Speaker 1: we see is precisely an extraordinarily patient mother saying we
- 13:46Speaker 1: are going to beat this voice. We're going to do
- 13:47Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get this food into you. Absolutely,
- 13:50Speaker 1: and I'm getting weepy just thinking about it.
- 13:53Speaker 2: Just so profound. I love that advice.
- 13:55Speaker 5: The other thing that I think is always imperative. You
- 13:59Speaker 5: just reminded me as you talking about it, is one
- 14:01Speaker 5: of the things I would do is separate the eating
- 14:03Speaker 5: disorder voice from your child voice. So recognize that they're
- 14:07Speaker 5: two different things. Because when you're in the thick of this,
- 14:10Speaker 5: this isn't my child. They didn't behave like this, they
- 14:13Speaker 5: didn't have this attitude, and that is the eating disorder
- 14:16Speaker 5: voice that's coming through, And what you want to do
- 14:19Speaker 5: is talk to your child, not to the eating disorder.
- 14:23Speaker 6: Well, Christine, I'm not sure if this is a fair
- 14:25Speaker 6: question to ask, considering that each circumstance will be different
- 14:30Speaker 6: for different families. But I'm wondering if there are any
- 14:34Speaker 6: main drivers that we see across the board that would contribute.
- 14:40Speaker 2: Or create or create eating disorders.
- 14:43Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 14:44Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a good question, and it's a really common
- 14:46Speaker 5: one that parents will often ask me is where did
- 14:48Speaker 5: this come from? How did my child end up with this?
- 14:51Speaker 5: And the reality is we don't know. So we're looking
- 14:56Speaker 5: at lots of DNA studies, we're looking at genetically. There
- 14:59Speaker 5: does seem to be a link. We do know that
- 15:02Speaker 5: there's certain personality styles that are more likely to fall
- 15:09Speaker 5: into these kind of habits. So if you're more of
- 15:12Speaker 5: that type a personality, you like to do things, when
- 15:14Speaker 5: you do it, you do it well, so if you're
- 15:16Speaker 5: going to lose weight, you're going to lose weight really well,
- 15:19Speaker 5: there's some things that do contribute, but I guess I
- 15:23Speaker 5: guess I would actually worn off looking too much at
- 15:27Speaker 5: what's caused it and looking at fixing it.
- 15:30Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Again, it goes back to that whole We could pathologize
- 15:33Speaker 1: everything and say everything's a predictor of, or a cause of,
- 15:36Speaker 1: or a potential risk factor, and it's more about keeping
- 15:40Speaker 1: the kids healthy and safe.
- 15:42Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, though, I know that.
- 15:43Speaker 1: Eating disorders existed before screens, but how much do you
- 15:46Speaker 1: think that screens and specifically social media have amplified or
- 15:50Speaker 1: magnified or exacerbated this issue.
- 15:52Speaker 5: I think what I see is that the screens and
- 15:55Speaker 5: the media and you know, back in the day used
- 15:58Speaker 5: to be magazines, all of that. I think what they
- 16:01Speaker 5: lead to is a dissatisfaction with body image. I think
- 16:06Speaker 5: when we start looking at the extremes of anorex nivosa,
- 16:10Speaker 5: blieming novosa, those factors, the incidents aren't necessarily going up
- 16:16Speaker 5: based on that. But what we do know is people
- 16:18Speaker 5: are less satisfied with their bodies. So it breeds more
- 16:21Speaker 5: of the diet culture, which then means that the eating
- 16:24Speaker 5: disorders can hide within that.
- 16:26Speaker 4: I know.
- 16:26Speaker 6: I said I had three questions, but I actually have
- 16:28Speaker 6: another one for you. If parents are concerned, where do
- 16:33Speaker 6: they go to get the help that they need?
- 16:36Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's really really important to get the right
- 16:39Speaker 5: medical attention. You'll end up with lots of appointments, but
- 16:42Speaker 5: it's important to get people that understand and know eating
- 16:45Speaker 5: disorders because, like you said before, justin like, some of
- 16:48Speaker 5: these qualities are really good. So if you get someone
- 16:51Speaker 5: that doesn't understand the pathology of an eating disorder, they
- 16:55Speaker 5: might be recommending things that are actually going to cause
- 16:57Speaker 5: harm to your child. So I would say the Butterfly
- 17:01Speaker 5: Foundation has a national register of gp psychiatrist, psychologists, dietitians,
- 17:08Speaker 5: So Butterfly dot org dot AU would be my recommendation
- 17:12Speaker 5: of where to go.
- 17:12Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're refers to We referred to them in
- 17:14Speaker 1: the show as well, so I'm really glad that you're
- 17:17Speaker 1: recommending them.
- 17:17Speaker 2: We think that they're great as well.
- 17:19Speaker 5: They are absolutely fantastic.
- 17:20Speaker 1: Christine Gregory is an Illa, Warror based psychologist who specializes
- 17:25Speaker 1: in eating disorders. I really appreciate your time, Christine. Thank
- 17:29Speaker 1: you for that. Tomorrow tomorrow on the pod, what are
- 17:32Speaker 1: the biggest moments unexpectedly when everything went sideways, something that
- 17:37Speaker 1: really captured everyone unawares. We'll be talking about that.
- 17:41Speaker 3: As life school parents, we think a good compliment is
- 17:44Speaker 3: one that comes from the heart and it's ris pretty.
- 17:50Speaker 2: How's a peg?
- 17:51Speaker 7: Don't we all?
- 17:52Speaker 6: Some nice?
- 17:53Speaker 5: Nice hair?
- 17:54Speaker 6: Is that so?
- 17:54Speaker 5: Hair?
- 17:56Speaker 3: Nice skin?
- 17:57Speaker 2: Nice skin?
- 17:59Speaker 7: I can't whether or not you believe that you're limiting
- 18:03Speaker 7: their opportunities for careers later Like you said, well, if
- 18:06Speaker 7: they want to be a doctor, they can be a doctor. Realistically,
- 18:10Speaker 7: I don't see that happening if they can't read.
- 18:14Speaker 1: The Happy Families podcast returns tomorrow, please join us for
- 18:17Speaker 1: what should be just a really riveting conversation.
- 18:20Speaker 2: We really appreciate the work of Justin Rouland for Bridge Media.
- 18:22Speaker 2: He's our producer.
- 18:23Speaker 1: Craig Bruce is the executive producer of the podcast, and
- 18:25Speaker 1: Mmhammonds provides all the research and other support to make
- 18:28Speaker 1: the pod happen. If you'd like more information to make
- 18:31Speaker 1: your family happier, please visit us for more at happy
- 18:33Speaker 1: families dot com dot au and we will link to
- 18:36Speaker 1: all the resources to help with eating disorders and the
- 18:39Speaker 1: things we've talked about in this podcast in the show notes,