I fear my little brother is developing an ED but I feel like I won’t be taken serious
Hello, I really need some help..
Im very VERY worried that my little brother (13) is on the path to developing an eating disorder. Especially the way he talks about his body calling himself “fat” and saying he needs to stop eating so much “junk” and talking about these “Maxxing” videos online. even though he’s very normal for a Teenage boy (I think its definitely some form of body dysmorphia). Now he wants to exercise and eat zero “bad” foods so he can lose his “fat.” It makes me so worried because I’ve seen this pipeline and I know my brother. He’s tried to starve himself before (which he told me about). He doesn’t do that anymore but that confession alone scared me really bad. Our Mum doesn’t know about that. He’s been bullied about his weight too. I also noticed he started using our scale very frequently.
I feel like, because he’s a boy the warning signs aren’t taken serious by my mum or anyone else I could tell because he’s painting it as if he wants to get “healthy” which is bullshit because he IS healthy. Teenage boys just eat a lot it’s so normal for his age, he’s growing. I have thought of talking to my mum about it but it’s hard especially because I think the way she talks about herself, calling herself “gross” because she feels fat, saying she shouldn’t eat this or that because It’ll make her fat…it breaks my heart when she talk about herself like that. And it’s frequent.
It doesn’t give the best example for my brother when you grow up with an already negative talk about food and bodies from the person you’re supposed to look up to. But I fear if I tell her that the way she negatively talks about herself might impact him this way she’ll feel like im blaming her. I also don’t think that she would take my concerns seriously, she might say im overreacting.
I don’t think Im overreacting but I don’t know Im unsure. I need help on how to support him without pressuring him but I fear he’s too far into it. I’ve tried talking about it with him in quiet moments but it’s like, Im rather on the skinny side and I don’t gain weight at all so he doesn’t really feel like I get how he feels and he’s right, I don’t, I’ll never know how he feels and saying I do would be a lie. I don’t know how I can help him and Im out of ideas. Im just so worried.
Sorry if this sounds messy but Im really anxious and I don’t know what else to do and I wanna do something against it before it’s too late.