Tricky few days...

The last three days have been quite tricky. Sunday was the same as the previous Sunday in that Ben's mood hit rock bottom as Monday's school loomed ahead. He didn't sleep on Sunday or Monday nights, and on both Monday and Tuesday he phoned me at break time. On Monday I picked him up at lunch, but on Tuesday I persuaded him to stay for the full day. Oh, yeh, and on Monday night he and his dad had an almighty row...


It all started with Ben announcing on Monday afternoon that he was going to embark on the '500 Year Old Diet' i.e. only eat foods that people ate 500 years ago, cutting out all 'processed foods' like ice cream, chocolate and crisps (potato chips).

Immediately I said "No", because each of these items are things he uses to boost his calorie intake without adding bulk (which fills him up too much). Also, Ben's move towards a 'healthy diet' had been responsible for him losing a quarter of his body weight right at the start, over the summer of 2009. So he and I had a row about it.

The '500 Year Old Diet' reared its head again in the evening and again I said "No". When Ben wouldn't listen to me, I did the age-old trick: I chickened out and went to fetch his dad. All hell broke loose...

The Good News was that, even with all the screaming, effing and blinding going on, it was clear that this was very, very different from the ED rages we used to experience back in the 'bad old days' of the anorexia.

Instead it was just like 'your typical' clash between teenage boy and his dad. OK, most families would find this incredibly distressing, because it was really horrible. But to me, because it wasn't an ED rage and could so easily have been, it wasn't quite so bad...

The Bad News is that it didn't solve the problem of school and Ben's social anxieties, and Ben was as miserable as sin again on Tuesday while I racked my brains on what to do next.

Which I'm still doing...