Article citationsMore>>

Whitney, J., Murray, J., Gavan, K., Todd, G., Whitaker, W. and Treasure, J. (2005) Experience of caring for someone with anorexia nervosa: Qualitative study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 444-449. doi:10.1192/bjp.187.5.444

has been cited by the following article:

• TITLE: Loving her into well-being one day at a time: Narratives of caring for daughters with eating disorders

  AUTHORS: Kathryn Weaver

  KEYWORDS: Eating Disorder; Parents; Narrative Analysis; Transformational Activism

  JOURNAL NAME: Open Journal of Nursing, Vol.2 No.4, December 26, 2012

  ABSTRACT: When a child is diagnosed with an eating disorder, parents are expected to help the child recover. Yet, parents often feel under-prepared and alone, their experiences inadequately known to healthcare professionals. The research aim was to examine the meaning to parents of caring for a child with an eating disorder. Qualitative interviews with 29 parents were analyzed and the parents’ experiences were represented by a collective story of loving her into well-being one day at a time which consisted of two themes: Running on nerves and caring through transformational activism. Running on nerves included threads of feeling lost, traumatized, scarred, and disengaged that mitigated as parents engaged in transformational activism processes directed toward helping themselves, their child, and other parents and children. The findings illustrate the importance of hearing parents’ stories in order to create supportive healing environments and to build capacity within families and health care systems.