My Kid Is Back: Empowering Parents with Family-Based Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa

When anorexia nervosa (AN) develops in a child, it impacts the entire family. However, family-based treatment (FBT) offers hope by reinstating fundamental family coping principles--empowering parents and supporting them and their children in overcoming this serious psychiatric illness.

My Kid is Back serves as an accessible guide to understanding FBT for parents of children with AN and the healthcare professionals working with them. Through a series of first-person interviews held with the parents, the siblings, and the child with anorexia, this book vividly presents the daily, 24/7 challenges of the illness on the family. Parents describe their frustrations in seeking help for their child, and sufferers discuss how the illness gets into their mind. Supplementing chapters detail how to tell if your child has AN, present an approachable explanation of FBT, and describe how to navigate the search for FBT. This second edition includes updated evidence-based research findings and revised content, language, and family resources. The featured case studies have been updated to be more neurodiverse, gender diverse, and ethnically diverse, as compared with the first edition.

Presented in a way that parents, doctors, and treatment teams can readily relate to and understand, this book proves an essential resource for families who want to win the battle with anorexia nervosa.

June Alexander is a diarist, author, life-writing mentor, and ardent eating disorder advocate. Anorexia nervosa has shaped June’s life and writing career. Her PhD explores diary writing as a self-help tool in eating disorder recovery.

Daniel Le Grange, PhD, holds a distinguished professorship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and is director of the Eating Disorders Program in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.