POSITIVE OUTCOME TO ASSOCIATED EATING DISORDER-

[vicbee]

Hi everyone

 

I havent been on here for a while. Some may have come across my posts talking about my daughter who was diagnosed with ASD at 13 and was also suffering from a fear of choking on solid food (so she didnt eat anything at all except certain liquidised foods) together with extreme anxiety, not wanting to go out etc etc.

 

Well, I have to say that things have improved for us 100 %! My daughter was undergoing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for her eating problems which I thought was going to take years - maybe never, to sort out. Well, after starting special school (secondary) in September, together with CBT, a wonderful one to one swimming teacher who has taught her to swim now and given her the most amazing confidence in herself, and also she is on fluoxetine medication - all of this has improved our lives immmensely. She started eating again last October - only small amounts of food - and still only has small meals which still need to be supported by a supplement shake but she is putting food in her mouth and swallowing it without becoming anxious of choking.

 

I recently read through some of the first correspondence I wrote about my daughter when she was first going through the diagnosis process and I cannot believe how bad life was for us just a year ago. I was beginning to crack up myself and ended up on anti depressants because i was becoming anxious myself about going out as I spent so much time on my own at home with my daughter going through horrible cycles of aggression, anxiety, phobia and normal ASD stuff and the eating problems. But all this has changed now. We are just about living a normal life (well, as normal for an asd child as is possible!)

 

I have to be careful that I do not become too complacant though as things just hit you out of the blue when you let your guard down and think things are ok. i still have to carry through the CBT tecniques with my daughter as she does have very irrational thinking that she cannot figure out in her head and so I have to get her to think about why she feels like she does so she can work it out for herself instead of me just saying it will be ok.

 

Touch wood, things will continue to go ok for us.

 

I just want to say that if there is anyone out there going through a similar experience to what my daughter went through with her eating disorder, please get in touch. I found it very very difficult to find anyone else going through the same thing with the food choking phobia. But there is hope and my daughter is real proof of that. I thought she would never eat solid food again. But with a lot of hard work from the right people and from me too - which I overlook sometimes, things have begun to get a hell of a lot better for us...

 

 

[baddad]

Well done all round. So a first Christmas dinner a few months ago and Easter on the way! Hope she enjoys it.

 

L&P

 

BD

[barefoot wend]

Hi Vicbee

 

My sister went through choking phobia when my Dad died and lived on yogurt, without fruit lumps , for ages. She was in her thirties and had counselling (there was no CBT at the time) as well as Fluoxetine. She has coped well since but always has to be on her guard against relapse - same for any phobia really.

 

She still detests swallowing pills whole but I always make her if I'm around - what a horrid sister I am. Hope your daughter continues to make progress.

 

Barefoot

[vicbee]

Well done all round. So a first Christmas dinner a few months ago and Easter on the way! Hope she enjoys it.

 

L&P

 

BD

 

 

It is an absolute joy to be able to just sit and eat a meal together - albeit she picks and faffs her way through every morsel, spitting it back on the spoon a bit, dissecting petit pois peas by peeling their skins off!!. Christmas was great and this is her first easter for 3 years where she can have an easter egg!! oh the simple things in life that we all take for granted!!