Advice for Parents by Doris Smeltzer

"I want to help others now!"

I often receive emails from parents who have lost a child to an eating disorder or who have a child who has suffered (or is suffering) asking for guidance on how they can go about opening a treatment and/or support center of some sort in their area. The experience they've had ignites a passion within them to reach out and help others. The following is a response I sent to just such a mom today:

My wise body

Last Friday I underwent a CT Scan (results were fine!) This was a first for me and I went in with a pretty lackadaisical attitude. After all this is a common non-invasive procedure and I trusted that my insides were OK. I did not realize that I would be hooked to an IV in order to have imaging liquid squirted into my veins. This, too, was fine...until it happened. I became immediately aware of how like chemotherapy and radiation this procedure was...lying perfectly still with arms stretched over my head...holding and then releasing breaths while a substance was injected into me that caused an enormous flash of heat from my nose to my toes. This was followed by a bizarre and real feeling of having wet my pants and a chemical taste in my mouth--very like one of the chemicals I'd experienced during chemo. The technician had warned me of the possibility of all of these side effects just prior to releasing the fluid into the drip...even that I'd swear that I'd just wet my pants and that I needed to trust her that it was merely a sensation caused from the chemical. Her warning did not come close, though, to preparing me for my body's eventual response.

A new book ("new" at least to me)...

Although this book was published in 2007 (Sourcebooks Inc.) I just now discovered it. It arrived a few days ago (thank you Judith!) and when I awoke yesterday morning at 2:30 because of an ear ache I picked it up to divert my thoughts and five hours later I'd finished (it's a quick read).

Not only a "Japanese women" problem

The Washington Post ran an article by Blaine Harden yesterday entitled, "For Japanese women, a competition to be thin." Basically, Harden reports that while US women are gaining weight Japanese women are losing. She quoted Hisako Watanabe, a child psychiatrist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, "Japanese women are outstandingly tense and critical of each other. There is a pervasive habit among women to monitor each other with a serious sharp eye to see what kind of slimness they have."