Hi Everyone,
Back in May 2013, with the release of the 5th edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association - threw many therapists like me, up in arms! Many professionals were torn, and the confusion still exists!
Why? And what is it all about?
We've all heard of children going through phases of fussy eating, picky eating , and certain sensory based avoidance of certain types of food (based on things like colour, texture, smell etc) - which they usually (but not always) grow out of. Well only now, this has been included as an EATING DISORDER, under the 4th group called the EDNOS : Eating Disorders Otherwise Non Specified. This is normally the sub category of EDs that doesn't quite fit the Anorexia , Bulimia or Binge Eating Disorder diagnostic criteria ..everything from Orthorexia to various permutations and combinations of anorexic, bulimic and or binge eating tendencies show up.
Be it Fussy Eating or a Picky Eating - a child usually under 6years of age, would have come under the clinical diagnosis of Feeding Disorder of Infancy or Early Childhood before May 2013. This typically shows its self with characteristics such as :
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Biggest concerns for those of us in the eating disorder or mental health therapy world is that, according to this new way of classifying this challenging eating phase.. and giving it a mental disorder title, it could not only make diagnosis very difficult for non-specialists; but also going to put the child and the family under immense stigma - over something, the child may easily grow out of!
More and more people are going to hear about this, as we fast approach the International Eating Disorder Awareness Week - which is just next week (23rd Feb - 1st March).
I would love to hear what you all think..as I would like to cover some answers to frequently asked questions during the free help week? Especially if you are a parent with a child, that you're struggling with during meal times, or you work with children in an educational or medical backdrop!
With warm wishes
Vathani
I am always wary when things like this get medicalised. Its the same as teenagers being prescribed Paroxetine for shyness!
The idea of little kids in 'therapy' terrifies me even tho I am a therapist who can deal with eating disorders....
Some of the people with eating disorders that I have worked with have been diagnosed, labeled and 'worked at' on their issues, root causes to death. The healing process was actually to get over the various therapies that they had for years.
Present times are very conducive to creating new and amazing conditions by labelling, diagnosing then working on them trying to unravel the deep root causes etc.
No wonder each day new behavioural, eating conditions are coming into existence....and yet the society is moving towards an imbalance that has been unprecedented in the brief history that we know. We know so much yet common sense and our traditional cultural wisdom that bring a certain balance to life are
sadly gone missing.
People are divorced from their inner sense of peace and wisdom and simplicity of traditional wisdom that gets passed on from mother to daughter father to son which enhances and nourishes us at a very deep level. In absence of that....we are left feeling rootless and shaky. In this shakiness all kinds of cries for help arise....
We are preoccupied in issues/problem-solving that we have run straight past ourselves.
I am solution focussed. If someone wants to change their eating patterns, I will help them. Understanding why they have the problem doesn't really help them move forward. The only time I would explore the issue of 'why' would be if solution focussed had not helped, because that would be an indication they needed to deal with an issue in the past
This is the problem with science, it's constantly trying to categorize and compartmentalize things... as if by putting a label on it, they can claim that they truly understand it... (aside fro the categories where they dump all the things they don't understand... IBS being a good one!).
One thing that is most certainly right about the teachings of advaita (how terribly non-scientific of me! 😀 ) is that such compartmentalization of things creates duality, and where there is duality, there is conflict; so in reflection on the original post, most certainly, by putting something as non-problematic at fussy/picky eating into a mental health category, it will create stigma and issues, nomatter how much we all expound the mental health awareness that seeks to try and remove that stigma.
I myself was a fussy and picky eater, not just as a child but even as an adult. More recently, since around the time I started learning therapies such as EFT etc. (and borrowing benefits from that), I've come to 'grow out of it' and eat much better than I did. You'd never have got me eating lettuce back then.... but now I love it. Of course there's still foods I don't eat, though that's generally from experience that they don't agree with my digestive system ( e.g. sweet peppers I used to hate just the smell of them, then I came to like them recently, but they don't like me, so I still don't have them )
So... do I have a mental disorder? (You don't have to answer that people! 😀 )
If so, we'd better get me locked up eh! 😛
All Love and Reiki Hugs
My son was a picky eater. he is now a fine and healthy 25 year old with no therapy needed.