Therapist / treatment for daughter with anorexia
Our 16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with anorexia last fall. She had been seeing a Kaiser therapist for nine months for anxiety, depression, and difficulty sleeping. Eventually she was referred to a psychiatrist who spotted the eating disorder immediately. She started seeing the teen pediatrician, a nutritionist, and a therapist and we were coached to feed her three meals and three snacks daily (which was extremely difficult for her at first, but she is mostly compliant now).Since that time she has regained about half of the weight she lost, started her period again (after losing it for 9 months). Her mood has improved (she’s taking antidepressants) but her ED thoughts are still very strong and she says she doesn’t want to recover. She does not particularly like her therapist at Kaiser. Has anyone else had experience with the eating disorder teen treatment team at Kaiser Oakland and have you supplemented with any other outside therapist or treatment programs? Can you recommend a therapist in Oakland or Berkeley who specializes in eating disorders? Any other advice or hope for us as we navigate this horrible illness?
Parent Replies
Hello,
I recommend you take a look at the following website:
https://www.ankabhi.org/casa-oakview.html
Through Kaiser, my girl received treatment for anorexia at this residential facility in Lafayette.
During my daughter's long, challenging road to recovery from anorexia, this proved an absolutely fantastic facility.
Find out if your daughter qualifies for treatment there.
Best to you!
Our daughter was hospitalized for AN and is now fully recovered. Please read Lock and Le Grange's "Help your Teen Beat an Eating Disorder". But my most valuable recommendation is aroundthedinnertable.org, a forum for parents of kids with eating disorders, mainly AN. Those parents coached me through all of it, great ideas and support, at any hour of the day! Look at Maudsleyparents.org. It's a marathon, and if you are giving her 3 meals and snacks per day, all of them high-calorie, that is the number one thing you should be doing, so celebrate your superhero parenting.
Our family has a lot of experience with the eating disorder team at Kaiser Oakland. We also had difficulties with the therapist on that team and eventually found an outside therapist. There are a number of outside therapists, and I can point you in that direction if that is something you'd like to consider. I would really welcome speaking with you- please contact me through my username below. I really sympathize with you-- it is indeed a horrible illness, and we have learned so much that we didn't know at the beginning. I would also recommend that you considering asking about the Kaiser Intensive Outpatient Program in Walnut Creek-- a number of people go there and experience improvements in their kids' situations when they've stalled out in a regular outpatient setting. It's also important to understand that it's possible that your daughter's lack of desire to get better might be connected to the fact that she is still underweight compared to where she was. I don't know your situation, but I know that there can be major mental health implications for being significantly below one's target weight. Looking forward to speaking with you- it's so important that other people who have also had this really difficult experience support each other. I'm so sorry that you and your family are going through this.