Living with Anorexia Nervosa (AN)

Anorexia Treatment and Therapy in Toronto

What is Anorexia?

Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of weight gain and often times a distorted body image. Individuals with anorexia tend to have a significantly low body weight, however, this is not always the case. This fear of weight gain pushes individuals to use unhealthy and extreme strategies to decrease or avoid gaining weight. Often times they do not understand the seriousness of their condition, and as they continue to loss weight, their fear of gaining weight increases. Fortunately, there are many effective virtual and in-person treatments and therapies in Toronto that can help children manage the challenges faced with anorexia.

There are 2 types of anorexia:

• Restricting type:

  • Does not binge eat

  • Chronic restriction of food and calories

  • Rigid thinking patterns that are often OCD in nature

  • Obsessively controlled by diet and their appearance

• Binge eating purging type:

  • Frequent episodes of binge eating and purging

  • Purging is in response to the guilt of binge eating and reduces the fear of gaining weight

  • Alternative between rigidity and impulsive behaviours

What are Common Symptoms of Anorexia?

Children with anorexia may show the following symptoms:

• Chronic restrictive eating

• Frequent episodes of binge eating (i.e. eating large amounts of food in a certain amount of time)

  • Binging episodes can result in the individual feeling overly full to the point of painful stomach aches, drowsiness, or guilt

• Purging (i.e. laxatives, throwing up)

• Extreme and rapid weight loss or being significantly underweight

• Obsessions with counting calories and contents of food

• Distorted body image and beliefs of being fat, even if underweight

• Excessive exercising

• Anemia

• Dermatological problems (i.e. excess body hair, dry skin, hair loss, yellowish skin tone)

• Absence of periods in girls (amenorrhea)

• Engage in ritualistic eating habits (i.e. hiding food)

• Depression or lethargic

• Abdominal pain

• Cold intolerance

• Muscle weakness

• Discoloration of teeth from throwing up

• Difficulties concentrating, social isolation

How to Support Children with Anorexia?

• For instructions:

  • Have frequent check-ins to ensure the child’s understanding of the material

  • Prearrange a space where the child can go if they do not want to eat in front of others

• For social skills:

  • Use role-play and modelling to teach positive body language and active listening skills

• For emotional regulation:

  • Help the child identify their triggers and provide healthy coping strategies as a distraction (i.e. crossword puzzles, calming music)

Anorexia Support for Families

For individuals and families in Toronto struggling with anorexia, there are a variety of in-person and virtual treatments that may be beneficial, including:

• Anorexia or eating disorder programs and groups for kids

• Individual or family therapy

• Cognitive behavioural therapy

• Dialectical behavioural therapy

• Social skills training

• Emotional regulation training

• Anorexia or eating disorder parent training