Eating Disorder

[food guru]

we're relocating to Singapore, and our daughter is combatting with an eating disoder. She was being treated in a little clinique before but we're just worried that when we move to singapore it might get worse, is there any clinique avaiable there??

[very sadly]

There is no special eating disorder clinic here. Most patients get admitted into the normal private hospital under the psychiatrist. It is not ideal and I would be getting treatment elsewhere if possible.

[vavavoom]

I guess this sort of things doesnt really happen much in the Asian country, as ppl are generally smaller anyway

[Okapi]

I googled around, & found that the Institute of Mental Health (aka Woodbridge Hospital) & Singapore General Hospital have their own Eating Disorder Clinics.

There's also something called the Sayang Wellness Clinic, also under the IMH & located on the same premises at Buangkok.

[%^&*]

It certainly is an issue here. The pressure to be slim is enormous amongst the local population. All these ads and clinics are not aimed at the expats.

I would be concerned for any Caucasian girl who already has image/weight issues who moves here. Just look at the nonsense on this board, where 'fat' and 'expat' are invariably used together. Even slim ladies feel like whales here.

My only direct experience of anorexia here was a local lady who ended up dying. The hospital treatment over the years was not very good.

[trying to help]

if you could wait, i could help ask my shrink for recommendations. the problem is i won't see him till mid dec.

yes the preoccupation with being thin here is pervasive. i'm a young local and many girls of my age or younger are always saying they are fat, even when they're bags of bones.

i really hope things will work out for you and your daughter here.

[Hazelnutz]

Actually I have never felt fat here but feel like Cinderellas sister when I am trying on shoes. In the UK they put out size 38's on the shelves to try. Here they put out size 32 or 33's to try. It looks so bad when you try and put your foot in a shoe!! And to be honest my feet are small for a westerner - a size 38!! I am often the biggest size they have.

[deep]

Google for the "Support for Eating Disorders Singapore" (SEDS) group.

I'm sure someone there can tell you what kind of help is available for your daughter.

[Hazelnutz]

Yeah gig, that's real helpful.