Solstice RTC | Solstice East
Layton, UT | Weaverville, NC

---

Solstice West And Solstice East
Promote National Eating Disorder
Awareness Week

Solstice West and Solstice East, residential treatment centers for teen girls ages 14-18, promote National Eating Disorder Awareness Week by offering advice for parents of teens struggling with disordered eating.

Solstice West and Solstice East offer their support for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week by offering insight to parents of teens struggling with disordered eating.

Disordered eating involves the occasional manipulation of food that can develop into a full blown eating disorder. Some of the eating patterns associated with disordered eating do not fit into the criteria of traditional eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Symptoms of disordered eating often look the same as eating disorders, including restricting food intake and purging. However, teens struggling with patterns of disordered eating may also follow a rigid exercise regimen, take part in yo-yo dieting, and have a preoccupation with food that disrupts their everyday life.

As residential treatment centers specializing in treating girls struggling with trauma-related issues, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other emotional and behavioral difficulties, both Solstice programs have expertise in treating disordered eating.

Solstice East and Solstice West offer the following advice to parents concerned that their teen may have fallen into patterns of disordered eating:

• Act fast: As soon as parents see signs of disordered eating in their child, they should address the issue without delay.
• Don't try to rescue them: This is not something that parents can take care of on their own. Many times, when parents try to take control of the situation it can just make things worse for teens.
• Get educated: Parents should read everything they possibly can about eating disorders. Eating disorders and disordered eating are invisible illnesses, which makes them hard to detect.
• Seek professional help: Disordered eating and eating disorders don't go away on their own. More often than not, teens will not volunteer to get treatment on their own. Parents need to take action and get their teens diagnosed and treated as soon as they begin to spot tell-tale symptoms.

"Promoting awareness of these disorders is important because parents need to be educated about what disordered eating looks like," says Susan Elaine, M.Ed, LMFT, Primary Therapist at Solstice East. "Our culture tells us we should be thin, which creates a stereotypical image of an overly thin girl with an eating disorder. What many people don't realize is that a lot of people with eating disorders are not thin at all. It's not a stereotypical illness."

Solstice and Solstice East help girls recover from symptoms related to disordered eating. Students are required to take responsibility for their eating and must be able to eat buffet-style before coming to the programs.

"Educating parents about disordered eating helps teens get diagnosed faster. Parents should encourage their teens to be critical of the images the media portrays of the ideal form to prevent the formation of unhealthy eating habits", comments Dan Stuart MS, LMFT, Executive Director and Founding Partner of Solstice. "We teach students to love themselves no matter their size or shape. Our support of the intuitive eating model has helped hundreds of struggling girls get back to their healthiest, happiest selves."

Solstice RTC and Solstice East are residential treatment centers that have helped hundreds of struggling teens on their journey to solving issues like depression, anxiety, mood disorders, trauma and associated symptoms, drug abuse/addiction, and behavioral problems. Solstice RTC in Utah and Solstice East in North Carolina offer specialized, clinically intensive programs based on the specific needs of young women. At Solstice RTC and Solstice East, young women discover their full potential.