I (16M) think my cousin (12F) has an eating disorder and it’s really starting to concern me.

Hi, all. I’m really lost on what to do here.

I’m currently at my uncle and aunt’s place for the time being. As the title says, I think my cousin has an eating disorder. Because she thinks she is fat (nobody else thinks this, she is actually normal weight for her age), she has started skipping meals.

The pandemic has made her incredibly depressed and unwilling to do much (if any) movement as well.

So, she’s been skipping meals to try to lose weight. She was a swimmer before the pandemic, and now she’s a couch potato. I’ve been trying to help her not to do this, but to no avail. As a 12 year old, she just won’t understand. It’s been about a month of this behavior and she constantly complains about headaches and stomachaches. This is obviously worrying me to no end.

It’s gotten to a point where she’s actually skipping two meals at a time, not even eating for nearly 16 hours or more.

I’ve tried telling her that she’s forming an incredibly self-destructive habit and that this isn’t the way to lose weight. My cousin doesn’t seem to care about that or how it could make the rest of us feel if she gets sick.

She’s very aware that I’m aware that what she’s doing is something I can’t ignore. She doesn’t want me telling anyone that she’s doing this. She’s afraid of going to a hospital or something. She doesn’t seem to know that my aunt and uncle are also somewhat aware, but I don’t think they’re aware of the problem as I am. They seem to think “girls tend to want to lose weight” and that “it’s a phase”. They just let her do it, sort of.

I’m stuck between two paths here. Either try to continue convincing her myself to stop (which hasn’t worked at all) or to tell someone (like her counselor or someone else lol my aunt and uncle) and risk her going someplace she doesn’t want to be.

I obviously can’t let her continue like this, I care about her too much to let her do this.

Please, reddit, I need an answer. I genuinely don’t want something to happen that I will regret.

TL;DR - My cousin has an eating disorder and I’m really lost on how to help her.

Submitted February 05, 2021 at 04:28AM by kfbsieb https://ift.tt/3jpeTue