If you are a parent seeking out help and to better understand how to support your child, male or female, living with an eating disorder, below are some strategies and resources for you. Maybe you just started to learn more, or you are here because you suspect your child is struggling with unhealthy eating habits, or maybe something more severe.

Now you know what an eating disorder is, but you want to learn more facts about how prevalent they are! Wonderful. You have come to the right place. There are many resources out there to help you understand more about eating disorders.

People who struggle with eating disorders experience a significant preoccupation with food, body weight, shape, on a routine basis that has been perpetuated over time. Common eating disorders can include binge-eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and avoidant restrictive intake disorder (ARFID).

Part of some people’s mental health challenges, especially if they struggle with anxiety and/or depression, is an experience referred to sometimes as “overthinking”. Many people struggle with long strings of thoughts about one or many topics that end up effecting their daily lives. Overthinking can make you late for appointments, generate unreasonable anxieties against your own goals, or put a halt in your basic motivation which is sometimes casually referred to as “analysis paralysis”. These habits can chronically effect someone’s quality of life, but they are still just habits. As habits, they can be broken, and new habits built up in their place.

Anger is one of the emotions most people would put in their list of fundamental feelings that they, and most others, would experience regularly. There are entire treatment modalities and services specifically dedicated to anger management that help educate and coach individuals in recognizing anger triggers and reducing the spikes in distress in the moment. This does lead to the idea that anger is one of the most common emotions that people do struggle with in ways that directly effects their lives. Though anger is a very strong feeling and one of the ways we may choose to express how we feel in many situations in our lives, it was during my start as a therapist that I was taught, and then reaffirmed through my experiences, that anger almost always comes second. This is means that it is rarely a primary emotion and is often then referred to as a secondary emotion. A secondary emotion refers to a feeling one has about another already existing feeling. It is here that the iceberg idea begins.

The way you begin your morning can have a huge impact on the rest of your day, whether this be a positive or negative impact. The first moments of the day have a correlation to your productivity and your mood. Starting the day off on a positive note helps to set you up for success to conquer the day. This all begins with a morning routine that sets a positive tone.

Most parents have been in the situation where their child continues to act out, break rules, or even talk back; all these situations can be frustrating and disheartening. Now think back to these times and how it is that you reacted. Did you find that your reaction was effective in changing or stopping the unwanted behavior? The way that parents react and discipline in these situations can be a great learning opportunity for their child.

If you are trying to cope with a divorce, you may experience a grieving process. Know this is normal and that there are several things you can do in order to cope with difficult feelings. Divorces can be exhausting, overwhelming, and full of negative emotions. You may experience feelings of depression, anxiety, and/or stress. Know that these feelings are valid. While you navigate through this grieving process, you may go through cycles of feelings. It is important amidst this to enjoy all the things you previously loved doing and make space for you and what brings you joy.

Trust in a relationship, whether it is a romantic relationship or a relationship with a friend or family, is one of the most important building blocks for a close, healthy relationship. It is also unfortunate how easy it is to lose trust, and how challenging it can be to rebuild. To rebuild trust you need time, patience, and hard work; and it is possible if both people are motivated.

Love can have a language of its own, from the way we show love to the way we like to receive love. It is important to be in tune with how you prefer to be loved by others, this can make it easier to understand what it is we are looking for from others. It is also important to understand how your partner likes to receive love because this can make it easier to make them feel appreciated in their own way. In 1992 Dr. Gary Chapman wrote the book “The 5 Love Languages” which can help to work as a guide, noting five areas that are most prominent ways that individuals show and receive love. Take a minute to reflect on how you feel appreciated or loved by others, now look at the following descriptions of the five love languages to see where you align!