Episode 30: Eating Disorders in Kids and Teens: Warning Signs Parents Shouldn’t Miss

you so much for having me.

I wanted you to just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Yes, absolutely.

So my name is Veronica Gondek and I'm a physician, a psychiatrist that I've been in this eating disorder field for over a decade, about 15 years or so.

And that's been my passion and I dedicated my professional career to helping people.

patients with eating disorders.

I've always been interested in the interplay between medicine and psychiatry and that's kind of how this field really sparked my interest because even though eating disorders are considered mental health problems, they come with profound physical and medical complications and you mentioned some of them already in the introduction.

So, I mean, a lot of times people come to see me because, you know, they have some of those concerns, like their periods are irregular or, you know, they're exercising all the time.

So I think it's important for us to understand this.

So I want to ask you, you know, when most parents hear the word eating disorder, they may picture an extremely thin teenage girl who simply refuses to eat.

But that's often... not really what you're seeing clinically.

Is that right? And what can an eating disorder actually look like in a child or teenager?

Yes, absolutely.

I'm glad you brought it up because I think there's still a lot of misconceptions and stigma.

And that's typically what comes to mind when people think about eating disorders.

Now, the truth is that eating disorders come in all the different shapes and sizes.

So yes, typically they start in adolescence, but they can affect young adults.

They can affect middle and older adults.

So it's not only adolescents.

People in different body sizes can have eating disorders.

In fact, most of the patients with eating disorders are not underweight, are either of normal weight or in larger bodies.

Eating disorders affect all the genders.

So it's not only females, it's males, it's all the genders and really all the socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures.

Eating disorders are across the world.