ArticleEating and weight disorders : EWD2024
"I don't know how, if, it's ever going to end": narratives of caring for someone with an enduring eating disorder.
Article in Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mental health interventions for carers of individuals with eating disorders: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials assessing efficacy on anxiety and depressive symptoms.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- "We're on the journey now together": a qualitative examination of "close others'" perspectives on barriers and facilitators to help-seeking for eating disorders.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- "Always, always have hope:" persons with lived experience, carers and health professionals' experiences before and after discharge from hospital for an eating disorder.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Post-Traumatic Stress in Caregivers to Children and Young People With Eating Disorder (ED) Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Examination of Relationships With Demographics, ED Factors and Caregiver Skills.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Article
- "It's never ending and overwhelmingly difficult": a mixed-methods survey of the impact of caregiving for a loved one with an eating disorder in New Zealand.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- "No one was coming to save us": an interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring the experience of parents supporting their autistic daughter through anorexia nervosa.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- "The credential did make a difference": eating disorder treatment with ANZAED credentialed clinicians: carer perspectives.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- "Like a rollercoaster": carer experiences of residential treatment for eating disorders.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Exploring body uneasiness in severe and enduring eating disorders: insights from clinical practice.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
- Two identical twin pairs discordant for longstanding anorexia nervosa and OSFED: lived experience accounts of eating disorder and recovery processes.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFamilies and carers are pivotal in supporting loved ones experiencing eating disorders. This role can bring immense distress and burden, yet the experience of caring for someone with an enduring eating disorder has had minimal research focus. Thus, the purpose of this study is to give voice to carers empowering their stories to increase awareness and understanding, which could inform support to carers and consequently people with a lived and/or living experience of eating disorders.
methodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 carers supporting individuals who had been experiencing an eating disorder for 7 or more years. Data were collected and analysed using narrative inquiry approach.
resultsCarers' narratives revealed feelings of guilt and personal failure; a profound sense of disillusion with current treatment approaches; and immense grief and anguish. As they negotiated a tenuous relationship with hope and the uncertainty of their loved one's future, carers spoke to a complex myriad of feelings of acceptance, letting go, and forging on.
conclusionCarers deserve to have their voices heard where they are too often silenced. Their narratives provide an urgent call for transformation in our treatments for eating disorders and further involvement of carers within the treatment journey, and their lived experience perspectives have great potential to guide this endeavour. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, qualitative interviews.
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