It Takes Time

Natural living, one step at a time

Navigation
  • Home
  • Natural Living
    • House
    • Beauty
    • Foodie
    • By Kids for Kids
  • DIY
  • Recipes
  • Natural Health
    • Dental
    • Gut Health
    • Detox
    • Type 1 Diabetes
  • Unseen Reality
    • Microbes & Mold
    • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • About Andrea

My Daughter’s Eating Disorder – A Journey of Hope




Yum

July 17, 2014 by Andrea Fabry 26 Comments

The following timeline details my 25-year-old daughter’s health journey. She was diagnosed with an eating disorder in 2006 at the age of 16. While there are many factors that go into disordered eating patterns, I have learned there is more than meets the eye when it comes to cause and effect. Thanks to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, for opening my eyes.

There's more than meets the eye when it comes to eating disorders. What our daughter's eating disorder teaches us about the connection between the gut and brain!

My Daughter’s Eating Disorder – A Timeline of Events

May 1989. Shannon is born, the third of our nine children. She is an easy, happy baby. She is relatively healthy with the exception of recurring ear infections, which we treat with antibiotics.

Fall 1994 – Spring 1999.  Shannon thrives in elementary school. She excels academically from kindergarten through fifth grade. She is outgoing and has lots of friends. The only health issue we notice is her sensitive stomach. She gets carsick easily.

Summer 2000. We move into our Colorado home. Shannon is 11 years old and entering the 6th grade. Within three months she develops a severe case of strep throat, and in a short time develops another case of strep. Doctors treat her with heavy doses of antibiotics.

Winter 2000/2001. We begin to notice a personality shift. She becomes less social and begins to turn inward. She develops acne at any early age and continues to suffer sore throats and episodes of strep throat. Antibiotic treatments continue.

Years later I would learn about the connection between PANDAs (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections.), strep throat and eating disorders. See Certain Eating Disorders May Be a Neuropsychiatric Manifestation of PANDAS: Case Report.

Winter 2000/2001. Her eating habits change. She begins to snack and later tells me she notices an inability to stop eating.

Summer 2001. Shannon goes on her first mission trip to Mexico. She experiences severe abdominal pain and asks for help from team leaders. She also notices an escalating fear of speaking in front of a group.

Fall 2002/Winter 2003. Shannon’s vision deteriorates. She experiences increasingly painful menstrual periods. Her lips become abnormally chapped.

Summer 2003. Shannon goes on a second mission trip to Mexico. She develops strep throat and is taken to Texas for treatment with antibiotics. She notices a distinct change in her intestines for the first time. Her digestive tract feels “off.” Her brain feels “full.” She notices a major disconnect from feelings of fullness or hunger.

Fall 2003/Winter 2004. Shannon is a freshman in high school. She makes the volleyball team but notices a decrease in motor skills. She begins to pull out of activities. We notice more of a personality shift. She withdraws from friends. She begins to struggle academically.

Depression sets in. She loses her ability to focus. She finds herself daydreaming about traveling. She takes long walks alone. She has crying bouts at school.

Fall 2005. Now 16, Shannon begins work at a tanning salon. A coworker who struggles with bulimia shows her how to throw up food. Shannon is put off by the practice and thinks nothing more about it.

She continues to withdraw from family and friends. I am at a loss on how to reach her. I try to talk with her, but she is distant and angry.

January 2006. Shannon moves to Georgia to nanny for close friends of ours. I fly with her to help make the transition. I sense a renewal in our relationship. She starts to call and talk. She shares her increasing depression and talks about her eating habits. She tells me she has started to binge and purge. I suggest, and she agrees, that she should come home.

March 2006. Shannon returns home and sleeps in the large downstairs bedroom, the room where we will soon discover high amounts of mold. Her depression escalates. She regularly binges and purges. She begins patterns of self-destruction and daydreams about suicide.

We seek counseling for her, but I feel at a loss. I keep hoping for a turnaround. I do not realize the extent of the depression or the eating disorder.

Fall 2006. Shannon’s condition deteriorates. She is a senior in high school and hates everything. It is obvious she is doing her best to hang on. She remains open to counseling and attends her first session with a local counselor specializing in teen depression and eating disorders.

The counselor says she cannot help Shannon because her issues are “too severe.”

Spring 2007. We find a counselor who is willing to work with her. Shannon tries again for several months, with no improvement.

We uncover massive amounts of black mold in the lower level of our home. The remediators blow fans on the mold, releasing high levels of spores and pathogens.

I focus on the remediation while continuing to hope for a turnaround in Shannon. I am thankful every time she opens up and talks. I see her good heart and feel powerless to help her.

Summer 2007. Our seven-year-old son, Colin, is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Our 11-year-old son develops severe tinnitus. Our 9-year-old shows signs of a vision disturbance. Shannon continues to receive counseling.

Fall 2007. Shannon starts college at the local university. She moves into a dorm. She gets two jobs, relying on caffeine to get her through. She also turns to diet pills and laxatives. She tries to eat healthy but continually turns to cookies, donuts, cakes, and fast food.

We try another counselor, to no avail.

December 2007. Shannon moves out of the dorm and into her own apartment. The isolation leads to further escalation of the eating disorder.

At this point we are dealing with other seriously ill children. Our four youngest are now unable to attend school. Conditions range from severe migraines, vertigo, mood disorders, and hearing problems to abdominal pain, vision problems, fatigue, rashes, and more. (Read more of our story here.)

I see Shannon’s struggle and feel utterly powerless. Something seems terribly wrong.

Shannon continues to call counselors. She tries desperately to get better.

October 3, 2008. Shannon, now a sophomore in college and living on her own in her apartment, stops by for a visit and notices Kaitlyn’s abnormal eye movements . She sees the aggressive behavior of the two youngest, watches Reagan struggle with his dizziness, and leaves in tears. Something feels so terribly off to her, but she can’t make sense of it.

October 4, 2008. We vacate our home. I meet with Shannon at Starbucks to explain. She seems unfazed and disconnected. She is consumed with her own struggle, but I can’t see it. I have lost brain function and feel foggy and fatigued. I am barely hanging on.

December 2008. Five of the children and I relocate to Arizona. We receive treatment from a toxic mold specialist and begin the process of recovery.

Chris and the other children come for Christmas. Shannon decides to stay in Colorado.

Christmas 2008. Shannon calls and tells me she needs help. Her voice is more desperate than ever. We consider an eating-disorder residential treatment center. I call our mold specialist asking for any direction or thoughts on Shannon. He is the first person to suggest a connection between toxicity and the eating disorder.

January 2009. Shannon relocates to Arizona. She has left college and later tells me she is “consumed in chaos.” She feels she has no other option but to try Arizona.

Spring 2009. Shannon embraces the detox protocol. She continues to struggle and feels added guilt for purging the supplements. I am thankful she is with us and trying. We see a psychologist who understands the nature of toxicity and behavior. I feel a sense of guarded hope.

Summer 2009. We move to a bigger rental home. I see a hint of the “old” Shannon. Her brain seems to be “waking up.” We continue, as a family, to adjust our diet away from sugars and starches. Shannon willingly goes along, but I notice she is still drawn to the carbs.

I decide to take the focus off Shannon’s behavior. I stop being consumed with questions about her purging. I take hold of the fact that it is a symptom of something else that is wrong. I feel relief in my relinquishment.

Spring 2010. Shannon is still struggling, but then, all of us are. It has been more than two years, and I remain determined to focus on the healing process rather than the symptoms. Still, I battle with despair.

May 2010. Shannon, now 21, expresses discouragement with her progress. The GAPS diet comes to mind, something that was mentioned to me several months earlier as an option for our family. I print off the protocol and show it to Shannon.

She is immediately drawn to it. We make chicken stock the same day. She likes the soup and soon begins to make her own. This is the first time I have seen her prepare her own food. I notice a huge change in her.

Shannon tells me later that reading the GAPS diet protocol touched something deep inside that made sense to her. “It felt smarter than me. Nothing until that point did.”

We start her on amino acids as well as other supplements outlined in the GAPS protocol. She describes an immediate boost to her brain.

Spring 2011. Shannon continues to embrace the introductory phase of the GAPS diet. She eats soup three times a day and spends hours in the kitchen preparing it. But she appears thinner than ever. A friend confronts me in tears, saying Shannon looks near death.

I feel at a loss. I know Shannon looks worse, but I also know she’s better than she was. She’s more alert and cognizant than I’ve seen her in years. She’s talking more. She’s not purging.

Chris and I ask her if she sees how thin she is. She doesn’t. We express concern and then decide to trust the process rather than the way things look.

Summer 2011. I continue to study the digestive system and the implications of disrupted gut flora. I pore over Dr. Natasha Campbell’s chapter on eating disorders in the GAPS book. (I have excerpted this chapter here.)

Fall 2012. Shannon enters massage school. She moves into an apartment with her siblings. She tells me later that her mental processes continue to “wake up.” Massage school shows her that her body can be calm. She begins to have a sense of herself again.

She is still quite thin, and more family members express concern. I try to focus on the progress, believing yet again in the process rather than her appearance.

February 2013. Shannon calls in tears. She has viewed a photo on Facebook and sees her thinness for the first time. She asks me what she can eat to help. This is exactly what I’ve waited to hear, and is described in the GAPS book:

As the most severe deficiencies start melting away, the “Bingo Day” will come: your patient will wake up one morning, look in the mirror and suddenly realize just how emaciated he or she looks.

Shannon begins to diversify her diet. She tries new foods. She is more connected than ever with the need to nourish her body. She grows in confidence.

Summer 2013. Shannon begins to explore opportunities in modeling and acting. She communicates regularly and verbalizes her emotions with clarity.

Spring 2014. Shannon expands her diet further, tolerating more solid and raw foods. She says, “There is an increasing desire to ‘build a garden’ in my intestines. There’s less of a feeling of ‘just getting by’ and more of a desire to actually nurture myself.”

(For more of Shannon’s perspective on her journey, see Shannon’s Reflections.)

shannon best

June 2014 – Present. Shannon works part time, continuing to nurture her health while exploring her talents and gifts. We agree to share her journey in hopes of encouraging others.

Related Posts

  • First Month on the GAPS Diet
    67
    First Month on the GAPS DietKaitlyn was 12 years old when we started the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet in August 2010. (See more in this previous post.) It was a rough start for Kaitlyn but eventually we saw significant progress as her digestive system slowly improved. She's 17  now and continues to see…
    Tags: gaps, health, gut, eating, syndrome, psychology
  • A GAPS Diet Reflection
    59
    A GAPS Diet ReflectionOur family ventured into the GAPS diet August 1, 2010.  Four years later most of us remain on a modified full GAPS protocol. I have loved GAPS and find it works really well for me. I use it frequently during times of stress as recounted in this post. What began…
    Tags: gaps, gut, health, syndrome, psychology
  • My Real Food Story - By Kids For Kids
    48
    My Real Food Story - By Kids For KidsColin is 14 years old and an avid consumer of real food. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7 and is the 8th of our 9 children.  My first impressions of this world must have been a sight for sore eyes when I breathed my…
    Tags: eating, gut, psychology, syndrome, gaps, health, toxic
  • GAPS Perspective on Eating Disorders
    48
    GAPS Perspective on Eating DisordersIn her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride offers an unconventional perspective on the origin of an eating disorder. Dr. Campbell-McBride's explanation was the first that made sense to me as I struggled to help my daughter Shannon, who I knew was doing everything she could to restore…
    Tags: gut, eating, disorder, gaps
  • Top Ten Ways to Boost Your Child's Immunity
    39
    Top Ten Ways to Boost Your Child's ImmunityLooking to boost your child's immunity? Consider these ten suggestions! Every time we spend time outdoors I think of the advice offered by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of  Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Dr. Campbell-McBride is a specialist in the field of neurology and nutrition and an advocate for parents to utilize…
    Tags: exposure, syndrome, psychology, gut

Filed Under: Detox, Gut Health, Microbes & Mold, microbes and mold, Mold and Microbes, Unseen Reality Tagged With: disorder, eating, eating disorder, exposure, GAPS, gut, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, gut health, psychology, toxic, toxic exposure

« Indoor Air – It Matters
Men and Health »

Comments

  1. Angela says

    July 18, 2014 at 12:03 am

    What a beautiful, inspiring story of hope.

    Thank you so much for sharing.

    Reply
  2. Kim says

    July 18, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    So glad to finally hear the story start to finish…it must be amazing for you to put together all the pieces and find a beautiful picture in process. “He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it….”

    Keep frolicking Shannon! Love you 🙂

    Reply
  3. Norman says

    July 18, 2014 at 7:20 pm

    Sincere gratitude for sharing your lengthy battles in such depth, purley to help others. Hats of to you and your consideration to others. I have little words to admire your huge heart.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      July 18, 2014 at 8:15 pm

      What a kind note of encouragement. Thank you.

      Reply
  4. Jennifer at Purposeful Nutrition and The Entwife's Journal says

    July 20, 2014 at 2:58 am

    Excellent story. It could have been that of my daughter if we had not discovered GAPS when we did. Praise God that he led you through all of this.

    Reply
  5. Sasha says

    July 21, 2014 at 4:49 pm

    She’s beautiful! And while mine wasn’t nearly as severe as hers, I too suffered during high school with an eating disorder. I’m very happy she is on the road to recovery. Sounds like you all have had a long journey.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      July 21, 2014 at 5:11 pm

      Thanks for the encouragement, Sasha. I’m glad yours was less severe and you’re in a new season of life!

      Reply
  6. Renee Kohley says

    July 21, 2014 at 6:24 pm

    Beautiful story. Man it is all so connected isn’t it! Amazing.

    Reply
  7. Gina B says

    July 23, 2014 at 6:49 pm

    Your story had me in tears. Thank you for sharing, it’s very powerful and encouraging.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      July 23, 2014 at 7:00 pm

      Thanks for reading it, Gina. Nice to connect with you.

      Reply
  8. Jessica @ConveyAwareness says

    July 24, 2014 at 12:56 am

    What a beautiful tribute in reflection of her story that you have shared with us all. My heart is heavy so I lift your family in prayer because you’re more than a conqueror as is Shannon. I know that this testimony will be the seed that starts the healing in another person. I honor you for being courageous. Blessings to you.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      July 24, 2014 at 1:08 am

      What kind words, Jessica. I will pass along to Shannon.

      Reply
  9. jenna says

    July 27, 2014 at 12:22 pm

    what a powerful testimony in so many ways. thank you for sharing. thank you for the courage and hope you express. I know very personally how what we are exposed to and what we eat effects our minds. it is truly fearful and wonderful at the same time. may you and your whole household continue to experience Abba’s peace, healing and refreshing. thank you for yielding as He uses you to bless others.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      July 27, 2014 at 2:56 pm

      Thanks, Jenna. You’re right – fearful and wonderful at the same time.

      Reply
  10. Lisa says

    November 7, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    It’s your honesty and struggles, that keep me coming back, keep me wanting to read more, Thank you Andrea, your blog and your moms aware sight is the most amazing things I have found on the World Wide Web, your ground work and wisdom is much appreciated!

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      November 7, 2014 at 2:30 pm

      Lisa,
      You made my day. Thank you for taking the time to encourage me. I’m very grateful.

      Reply
  11. Lori Popkewitz Alper says

    May 14, 2015 at 11:37 am

    Thank you for sharing Andrea. What an inspirational story. Happy to hear that Shannon is continuing to nurture her health.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 14, 2015 at 3:36 pm

      I appreciate that, Lori. I will pass along your encouragement.

      Reply
  12. ruth says

    May 20, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    What an amazing story that is part of your bigger story. How tough it must have been to pen these words. Bless you.

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      May 21, 2015 at 12:45 pm

      Thank you for taking the time to encourage both of us, Ruth. I will pass along to Shannon.

      Reply
  13. Kate Green says

    August 26, 2015 at 9:44 am

    Thank you for sharing your daughters deeply personal struggles and for being open about all that your family has been through. We are in the thick of discovering mold in our house and all the implications for our health. Hearing your story has given me courage to keep moving forward and peace to wait on the Lord to bring about healing. Grace to you and your family, Kate

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      August 26, 2015 at 10:08 am

      Thank you, Kate. Yes – it’s all about moving forward yet with that sense of waiting until there is clarity. If I can ever help or support you feel free to email me directly andrea@it-takes-time.com

      Reply
      • Kate says

        August 30, 2015 at 3:53 pm

        Thank you Andrea. That would be wonderful.

        Reply
  14. Jennifer Velasquez says

    January 31, 2018 at 10:53 pm

    Thank you.I’ve also struggled with eating disorders snd mold.

    Eating disorders in my teens and mold from my 20s-40s on and off.

    There must be a connection

    Reply
    • Andrea Fabry says

      February 7, 2018 at 7:41 pm

      I appreciate you sharing this, Jennifer.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Shannon's Journey to Find Balance - Mindful Meals says:
    August 8, 2014 at 4:00 am

    […] can check out Shannon’s mom’s blog here: It Takes Time and read her wonderful perspective on the healing […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

MEET ANDREA

I am a certified Building Biology Advocate, a former journalist, mother of nine, and avid CrossFitter who likes to think outside the box. After our family's health crisis in 2008, I learned to ask questions about what's in our food, our water, and our air. I hope to empower you as you seek to live safely in a complex world. Thankfully, small steps lead to big changes. Let's travel this road together, one step at a time.

Follow

Now Available on Amazon

10 Things I’ve Learned (The Hard Way)

1. The answer may be right in front of you.
2. Time is often the best medicine.
3. Speak kindly to yourself.
4. The air we breathe matters.
5. It's better to know than not know.
6. Relinquishment is a balm for the soul.
7. Symptoms will instruct if we listen.
8. Sometimes you're the expert.
9. Allow hindsight to move you forward.
10. The next step is enough.

The Connecting Place Latest Episode

Listen to "Behind the Scenes: Mold Questions" on Spreaker.

Popular Posts

How to Make Water Kefir

Grain-Free Sourdough Pizza Crust

Looking for safe products?

Natural Living

Are you learning to cook with real food? Clean without chemicals? Use safer products on your skin? Natural living is fun and rewarding. Come join the fun!

Copyright 2023 It Takes Time - Andrea Fabry