University was never this tough...

Since my last entry I've been 'cramming' like mad, collating links to research, papers and other stuff about the latest evidence-based eating disorder treatment. Yet again, the fellow moms at the Around the Dinner Table Forum have been awesome in helping me get information together. To say that, over the last 19 months or so, the learning curve has been MASSIVE would be an understatement. These days I know so much about eating disorders that I could sit an exam in it. And many of the other 'experienced' moms at ATDT could do a Doctorate in it with their eyes closed... I am constantly IN AWE at how much stuff they know.


I don't know about you, but when I found myself press-ganged into this hellish journey I knew nothing. Zilch. Zero. Nothing. Eating disorders were something that happened to girls, not boys. Sure, I'd heard about girls with anorexia, but like many people I just assumed it was 'dieting gone mad' and, if someone gave them a hard enough kick up the you-know-what, they'd eat. Or at least they darn well should.

I'd heard of Karen Carpenter. And there was a skeletal girl at the gym who everyone used to whisper about, saying "They shouldn't let her into the gym" as she punished herself on the treadmill.

19 months on since we first became aware our son had anorexia, I am a different person. They say "Be careful what you wish for" and I remember that spring / early summer of 2009 before the anorexia I felt especially restless. I remember praying: "God, please find me a direction in life other than being just a mom, wife and freelance copywriter."

Later that summer I got the answer to my prayers as the worst episode in our family life kicked off and anorexia took up residence in our home. Sure enough, I got my 'direction in life' - and it was in the fast lane. Not only was I faced with a mad panic to try and get my son recovered from a condition I knew nothing about, I was faced with a MASSIVE learning curve - and the worst thing was the sheer amount of CONFLICTING information, especially on the Internet.

By November I had accidentally landed upon the FEAST website and their Forum, Around the Dinner Table, which has proved an invaluable source of information and support over the past 17 months or so - and it looks as if I'll be with them for some time...

So if you're new to this and faced with a horrendous and scary learning curve, please, please pay a visit to 'my moms' at their Forum.

Meanwhile, I'll write soon about what it is I've been cramming up on over the last few days...