How to help your teenager with anorexia

Coming soon!

Please email me to join the waiting list: lori@eatingdisordertherapist.ca

Is your daughter not eating very much or dieting to lose weight? Is your son focused on his body and becoming rigid around food? 

When teenagers begin showing signs of disordered eating, it’s important to intervene right away to stop them from developing an eating disorder. But if they won’t agree to get help, what do you do?

I’m Lori, an eating disorder therapist. I’ve designed a 3-week online course for teenagers who are restricting food, dieting, losing weight and are not willing to get help. That’s my specialty.

In almost-daily videos, emailed directly to your teenager, I talk to them about the mindset they’re developing and start to break down their false beliefs about food and weight. It’s not therapy but what I call pre-therapy: getting them prepared to be open to getting professional help and letting them know what that will look like.  

I have worked with so many teenagers who have eating disorders, who are developing disordered eating and who are resistant to treatment. This course is for teenagers who are in the Pre-Contemplation stage of change, as illustrated below.

Adapted from a work by J.O. Prochaska and C.C. DiClemente (1983).

It’s likely that you, as the parent or caregiver or concerned friend, are in the Action stage above, but your teenager isn’t. They may be in the Pre-Contemplation stage and are stubbornly staying there. This is common and part of the psychology of an eating disorder. 

This course aims to move them into the Contemplation and Preparation stages so that they are more open to talking to you about getting help. 

What are the signs of an eating disorder?

Here are a few changes in behaviour and way of thinking you may be seeing:

  • Eating less, avoiding certain foods and/or becoming rigid around food – using excuses like, “I already ate” or “I’m not hungry yet” at mealtimes

  • Eating as a response to stress, anxiety, strong emotions or interpersonal difficulties (as opposed to eating when they’re hungry) 

  • Going to the bathroom after eating (to purge)

  • Preoccupation with weight, calories, “good” vs. “bad” food and exercising

  • Negative comments about their body and low self-esteem

  • Outbursts of emotion or increased irritability, especially around mealtime

  • Loss of interest in things they used to love and/or social withdrawal

While most people think an eating disorder means someone will lose weight, this isn’t always the case. Your teenager can be underweight, overweight or what you would consider a “normal” weight and still be struggling. 

Weight loss is (still) a criteria some doctors use when failing to diagnose eating disorders, so please do not judge whether your teenager needs help based on weight.

For those who haven’t been getting enough calories for an extended period of time, these are some of the physical signs of an eating disorder:

  • Feeling cold all the time

  • Constant stomach aches and gastrointestinal issues

  • Fatigue, dizziness, brain fog and fainting

  • Changes in sleep patterns

  • Hair loss and brittle nails

  • Menstrual irregularities or loss of period

  • A growth of fine hair on the body, called lanugo (thought to indicate poor nutrition and lack of body fat) 

Who this course is for

Teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19, and young adults up to 25, who don’t have an eating disorder diagnosis or who are diagnosed but refuse treatment. The content is focused on those who are mainly restricting food intake (as opposed to mainly binging). 

This course is not for those on the autism spectrum. If you are interested in a course like this for your neurodivergent teenager, please contact me and I will design one if there is enough interest or I can see them in individual sessions.

How it works

After you’ve signed up, you enter your teenager’s email address. Within 24 hours, they will begin receiving almost-daily emails from me with videos to watch. These emails last for 3 weeks.

It’s always best to talk to your teenager first before signing them up. They may be reluctant but I’ve made it really easy for them and have addressed this issue in the first video.* 

How much it costs

$150 CAD

You can pay by credit card. If you’re outside Canada, the exchange rate of the day will be applied to your card. Contact me to pay by direct deposit (Canada and US only). 

What happens afterwards

The goal of the course is the prepare your teenager to be open to getting help. The first step is encouraging them to talk to you and let you know how things have changed since taking the course. I prepare them for next steps (seeing a doctor and getting assessed, and the levels of therapy or treatment they can expect). 

You can then decide what course of action to take: get them into an individual therapist immediately, put them on a waitlist at your local eating disorder program (unfortunately, there is usually a waitlist), or get an appointment with their physician for an assessment and medical check up.

If all of this sounds like something that would be helpful for your teenager, please consider signing them up for this course.

Coming soon!

Please email me to join the waiting list: lori@eatingdisordertherapist.ca

The fine print

* Please note that I cannot guarantee your teenager will complete the course. Pre-Contemplation is a very difficult stage to intervene at but I have a lot of experience with this group. I have designed the content with this in mind.

This course is not considered therapy. If you would like to sign your teenager or yourself up for individual therapy sessions or a consultation, please read more here.

Nothing contained in this course is medical advice, rather, I am providing psychoeducation to stimulate the process of change.

Privacy: I delete all teenagers' emails every month. Once they have finished the course, their email address will be deleted from my database at the next monthly removal date.