However, asking the child or adolescent whether he or she is depressed or thinking about suicide can be helpful. With support from family and professional treatment, children and teenagers who are suicidal can heal and return to a more healthy path of development. In addition, two psychiatric eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are on the increase among teenage girls and young women. These two disorders also occur in boys, but much less often. The child and adolescent psychiatrist is trained to evaluate, diagnose, and treat these psychiatric disorders which are characterized by a preoccupation with food.
Parents frequently ask how to identify symptoms of anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
The fact is that many teenagers are for many months or years successful in hiding these serious and sometimes fatal disorders from their families. At the same time, she suffers from low self-esteem, irrationally believing she is fat regardless of how thin she becomes. In a relentless pursuit to be thin, the girl starves herself. This often reaches the point of serious damage to the body, and in a small number of cases may lead to death. The symptoms of bulimia are different from those of anorexia nervosa.