Like the date on a wall calendar with a big circle around it, Jamie’s Bat Mitzvah came — with much preparation and fanfare — and went. But the anxiety that had been building alongside the anticipation persisted.

“We kept waiting to see how she would respond after the Bat Mitzvah, we couldn’t tell if that was a part of this nervousness in affecting her socially, in affecting her behaviors,” her dad Lee recalled.

Jamie had experienced anxiety her whole life and coped such that few would have suspected it, let alone suggested treatment. But in the summer prior to 8th grade, at an age when her symptoms were hardest to untangle from her surroundings, Jamie started to spiral.

Her mom Robin thought, “She grew up, she seemed a little more mature. She was real conscious of what she was eating and wanting to exercise. But very quickly we realized that Jamie was sort of obsessing.”

The confluence of Jamie’s anxiety and anorexia made them difficult to diagnose. But her problem wasn’t unique. Or even unusual: Anorexia is the third most common chronic disease among young people and two-thirds of people with an eating disorder also suffer from an anxiety disorder.

By Jewish tradition, Jamie had become an adult. Yet even with caring “adult adults” all around her, the journey to treatment and wellness took all of her resilience and all their support.

First, there was a sprint toward some kind of solution, recognizing that Jamie had a problem and reaching out in every direction to gain actionable insight and information.

Then, they encountered friction and fatigue. As Robin recalls, “During a lot of that time, Jamie really felt like she didn’t have a problem, we were the problem, these doctors were the problem. We questioned all the time if we were doing the right thing, and often thought we weren’t.”

Ultimately, the best course of action was not the course of least resistance – not the dietician and eating plan, not the weekly visit to the local therapist. “She just needed more help,” and it was a plane ride away at a comprehensive in-patient program.

The scramble and slog have turned into a steady stride. Now in her senior year, Jamie is thriving – she is “rockstar” in Robin’s unbiased assessment. As Lee describes it, “Strength in life is addressing and responding and we’re very proud of how our daughter has done both.”

Jamie has some advice to share, even if she can’t make the calendar go in reverse back to her Bat Mitzvah: “I definitely wish that my younger self knew that I wasn’t alone and that there were people I could reach out to.”

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