Ah the dulcet tones of Xbox Live in our living room...

Four years ago, Ben stopped playing Xbox Live with his friends. He used to do it all the time, but over that summer of 2009 as the eating disorder began to take over his life, he just stopped. Instead, he played on the Xbox in solitude. Today, however, he's hooked up to Xbox Live again, laughing and yelling with glee as he "fights" a couple of friends on some game or other.

Anger and a pressing need for change means book #3 is germinating inside my head.

And this time I may write it in collaboration with the UK eating disorders charity ABC (Anorexia & Bulimia Care) with whom I am having a series of very nice, friendly and fruitful conversations. This is part of an email I sent to ABC's Director, Jane Smith, today:

A letter I wrote to CAMHS in 2011 about getting Ben WR

This is a letter I wrote to CAMHS in June 2011, 15 months into my son's treatment for anorexia: As of last Friday, Ben is now XXkg (BMI XX. However I am concerned that, as a result of last Friday's session, Ben now believes he is Weight Restored and that CAMHS consider him to be physically "recovered". I am hoping he has misinterpreted this message.

Looking across the dinner table at Recovery

It suddenly dawned on me last night as Ben and I sat across the dinner table eating Italian bean, aubergine and red pepper stew on buttered ciabatta with parmesan cheese (and, in Ben's case, a boiled egg on top) that I was looking in the face of Recovery.

So carers should be screened for depression, say doctors' leaders?

Why has it taken 'the powers that be' so long to come to this conclusion? As parents / carers of a young person with an eating disorder depression is no stranger, as many, many other parents will testify. But, I would like to ask, what good would it do?

Post #2 from 2011: Breakthroughs - the eating disorder is losing the fight...

Recycled post #2: Thursday, 6 January 2011 What do smoked mackerel, After Eight mints, low fat spread and jam on toast, five varieties of biscuit and carrot cake have in common? They are all things that, 12 months ago, Ben would have avoided like the plague but which he’s eaten this week without any problem. And this Christmas, he had a chocolate advent calendar.

Special offer! Get my book "Please eat..." for just £9.99 inc p&p while stocks last

I have 20 copies of my book "Please Eat..." available for just £9.99 each including p&p (within the UK), a saving of £1.68 on the Amazon price (while stocks last).

Okay, maybe I should clarify things a little

I recognise that I wasn't clear as to exactly why I was jealous and angry in this post - or, rather, which camp I felt Ben belonged to: the former or the latter. Great treatment and outcome versus not-so-great treatment and not-so-great outcome.

Wow, this was such a weird experience!

Ben has a history of horrible in-growing toenails. We thought they'd been fixed long ago, but recently they've reared their ugly heads and so it was off to the chiropodist today which was a really weird experience.

I realised I was jealous and angry

Having talked to 20 families for my new book When Anorexia Came To Visit: Families Talk About How An Eating Disorder Invaded Their Lives (published this summer), it became clear that some families had received an exemplary approach to treatment from start to finish - from GP through to eating disorder recovery. Others had received a haphazard, slow, messy, outdated and often counter-productive approach. Guess which approach was more successful?And you know what?

I'm speaking at this conference in November

This is the conference I'm speaking at in November and I've been asked to pass on the details to anyone who might be interested in coming along. It's being run by Professor Janet Treasure OBE and Gill Todd under the umbrella of Kings College London and the South London And Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust:

My very first blog post on 5th January 2011

Recycled post #1: Wednesday, 5 January 2011 Only last night there was a programme on the TV reporting on the pressures of young girls to look stick-thin. But it’s not just girls that develop eating disorders. For the past 18 months, my 17 year old teenage son (who I’ll call "Ben" here) has been battling with anorexia nervosa and this new blog will be about our progress.

My plans for this blog while things are quiet

Things are pretty quiet here (which is a GOOD THING). But I was thinking about this blog which I've been writing for almost 29 months. I know that it's been useful to a stack of parents; indeed the things they've said about it make me blush. Being able to help other families in their fight against anorexia is one of the reasons I put my 2011 and 2012 posts into 2 printed books which I published earlier in the year. However I think I've sold a grand total of THREE!