We seem to have reached a (temporary?) plateau...

After 4 months of forging forward, Ben has reached a plateau and seems to be neither going forwards nor (thankfully) backwards in his fight to recover from anorexia. He is still gradually putting on weight but he's reached the stage where he thinks his current weight is OK and he can't see any reason why he needs to put on any more. This, despite the psychiatrist telling him yesterday that he has another 5kg to go before he reaches the minimum healthy weight for his height.


His mood had dipped, too. So we're trialling an increased dose of the Prozac to see if (a) that lightens his mood a bit, (b) gives him the 'leg up' he needs to move onto the next stage and (c) sleep better.

The problem at the moment is that he's lost his motivation. After MONTHS of being chained to anorexia, it's taken so much effort to get where he is that, when he looks ahead and sees how far he STILL has to go, I think it seems an impossible task.

We reminded him how far he has come. This week it's been evident in the kind of food he's been happily eating; stuff which would have freaked him out only 10 months ago or so. Back then he would 'buzz around' the kitchen, too, closely watching what went into a meal and freaking out if any fear foods reared their ugly heads. Thankfully he no longer does this and I have added 'fear foods' to the cooking right in front of his eyes. Up until only a few months ago, I couldn't have done that.

This week we've had cheese (2 nights running!), fatty sausages, tuna in oil, chocolate, pretzels, Starbucks muffin and biscotti, battenburg cake, golden grahams and a few other things he wouldn't have touched with a bargepole in the 'bad old days'.

But we're back to counting calories. I think it was too soon for him to try without and he found he was still adding them up in his head, so he figured that he might as well write them down on paper. And this way I can be sure he's getting enough.

Today, though, he's at his friend's house and has had lunch there which I hope went well...

Meanwhile I think it's time to put a post on the Around the Dinner Table forum to see if anyone has any bright ideas on how to move him on from this plateau...