Experiences of Mother-Daughter Relationship for Eating Disorders Patients

Abstract

Purpose : This study was to understand the experiences of mother-daughter relationship for eating disorders patients.

Method : Eleven eating disorders patients were included in this study. All subjects were female, whose average age was 23.2, six of them were diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, five with anorexia nervosa. The duration of the illness was 4.5 years on average. Data was collected through recording the process of group therapy form September to December, 2001. Group therapy was provided for 2 hours weekly in the form of a self-help group which was structured with topics such as their illness and coping, and interpersonal difficulties. Content analysis by the method of Kim & Lee(1997) was applied to identify similar content and confirm common experiences. Sixteen themes were confirmed in the analysis.

Result : 1. It was found with several concept categories were found - desire for the love of her mother, symptom escalation related to negative emotional stimulation of a mother, emotional experiences toward a mother related to a patient뭩 eating problem, experiences toward a mother overinvolving in her life, and improvement of mother-daughter relationship through the therapy process. 2. In desire for the love of her mother, eating disorders patients had experienced longing for the love of their mothers, sibling rivalry for the love of the mother, or fear of rejection form the mother. 3. In symptom escalation related to negative emotional stimulation of a mother, they experienced binge and purge, heavy alcohol consumption, self-mutilation, or abuse behavior related to the mother. 4. In emotional experiences toward a mother related to a patient's eating problem, they experienced anger, pity, and guilt. 5. In experiences toward a mother overinvolving in their lives, they experienced the powerlessness related to mother-overinvolvement with their decision making, nervousness related mother-overprotection, and anger related to mother-overprotection, and anger related to mother-overinvolvement with their eating and weight. 6. In improvement of the mother-daughter relationship through the therapy process, they experienced separation between their lives and their mothers' lives, gaining objective perspectives for their mothers, and maintaining distance from their mothers.

Conclusion : Separation-individuation in the mother-daughter relationship is very important in eating disorders. Therefore, the findings of this study may suggest that the mother-daughter family therapy should be included in the process of the daughter's therapy.