One of the ugliest moments in the down-the-rabbit-hole experience of having a child diagnosed with an eating disorder is the realization that you - until that moment a normal parent - are automatically now under suspicion of having either sexually abused your child or of having let that happen.
I was present the moment my husband first heard that connection. I remember when I first realized that was on the mind of the clinicians we consulted. I really can't think of a more disabling position for a parent seeking help.
So I approach this topic with trepidation. And I read reports of research, Childhood Sexual Abuse Linked With Bulimia Later in Life , with care.
Take-home points: no connection between anorexia and sexual abuse. And in the case of bulimic behaviors we need to be very careful about retrospective self-reports, wide definitions of abuse, and wide definitions of bulimic behaviors. But no matter how you slice it, the baseline of one in five young women reporting sexual abuse is beyond heartbreaking.
And regardless of whether adult trespass can trigger bulimic behaviors, or if people with a predisposition for bulimia are at special risk for interpreting behaviors as abuse -- "1 in 2" is crushingly, horribly sad.
One of the ugliest moments in the down-the-rabbit-hole experience of having a child diagnosed with an eating disorder is the realization that you - until that moment a normal parent - are automatically now under suspicion of having either sexually abused your child or of having let that happen.
I was present the moment my husband first heard that connection. I remember when I first realized that was on the mind of the clinicians we consulted. I really can't think of a more disabling position for a parent seeking help.
So I approach this topic with trepidation. And I read reports of research, Childhood Sexual Abuse Linked With Bulimia Later in Life , with care.
Take-home points: no connection between anorexia and sexual abuse. And in the case of bulimic behaviors we need to be very careful about retrospective self-reports, wide definitions of abuse, and wide definitions of bulimic behaviors. But no matter how you slice it, the baseline of one in five young women reporting sexual abuse is beyond heartbreaking.
And regardless of whether adult trespass can trigger bulimic behaviors, or if people with a predisposition for bulimia are at special risk for interpreting behaviors as abuse -- "1 in 2" is crushingly, horribly sad.