SALT LAKE CITY — As we observe Eating Disorders Awareness Week, national data shows that more teens are landing in the hospital because of eating disorders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports two times as many adolescent girls have found themselves in that situation during the pandemic.
FOX 13 News talked with Carrie Jackson, a mom whose daughter became part of that statistic. Jackson, a clinical mental health counselor, explained she became more aware that her daughter was having problems after the pandemic struck.
“My daughter would come home from school and say, ‘gosh, it’s so cold at school, I can’t even concentrate.’ And, I am thinking as a parent, do I need to call the school and tell them to turn their heat on?”
Her daughter also enjoyed baking but Jackson noticed that she didn’t eat the food she made anymore.
“It gets confusing, right? Trying to tease out what’s typical teen behavior, and what’s actually the warning signs for an eating disorder can be hard because there is some overlap," Jackson reflected.
The physical signs grew more concerning, so they sought medical attention. However, Jackson said even receiving help became complicated since they couldn’t find primary care physicians who provided combined treatment with therapists.
Despite Jackson’s best efforts to keep her daughter in outpatient care, her 16-year-old daughter was hospitalized.
Around that time, Jackson stumbled upon evolvedMD, a company that brings behavioral health services to primary care providers, which is exactly the type of help she had been looking for.
Her belief in this integrated approach motivated Jackson to become a clinical manager for evolvedMD, but career aside, she is a mom first, and through her daughter’s experience with an eating disorder, she learned how to become an even better parent.
“I think, as parents, one thing that we can do is start with ourselves," Jackson explained. "Ask ourselves what sort of messages did we receive as we were growing up about body size or food.”
That way, parents may better understand the types of messages they might unknowingly send to their children. As for Jackson’s daughter, she’s now in her second semester of college and thriving.
Like Jackson’s daughter, Johns Hopkins reports that 60 percent of eating disorder patients will make a full recovery. However, they can be deadly, with Johns Hopkins also stating that eating disorders have the highest rate of death of any psychiatric illness.
If you think you have or know someone who may have an eating disorder, call 1(888)375-7767 for free assistance from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders.
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week runs from February 26 -March 3.
