Openness, stigma, understanding and confidentiality

When we first toddled up to the CAMHS waiting room and were squeezed with the other six families into the tiny waiting room, on the peeling walls there was a poster from the Eating Disorders Association (now known as BEAT) with a picture very like this one. The picture and the accompanying slogan which encouraged young people to talk about their problems with eating made it clear - people with eating disorders are quiet, reserved souls and the illness will make them even quieter. As our situation was somewhat different, the poster, and the automatic assumption at first by the professionals that the poster was correct, was REALLY annoying.

All that doesn't mean that as a family we're open and honest and can talk about anything. Far from it. While I am genuinely happy standing on a stage talking to strangers about FEAST and BEAT and am going to do everything I can to promote Charlotte's Helix talking to therapists or medics about the subject we were being herded into the waiting room for in the first place usually ends in tears and unfortunately they are mine not the therapists'. We never did acquire the skills needed for family therapy. This thread has interested and comforted me. There are others about who feel the same.