Tree's battles with Alyssa continued on. The redhead realised she needed to be firm, to continue pushing her forward so she remained firm on the rules of 3 meals and 2 snacks a day. Alyssa hated it and Tree had to correct many eating disorder behaviours during every meal.
One day, Tree arrived home slightly later than normal which meant dinner was later. Although it was a minor change and one that was unavoidable, the young girl couldn't cope with it – she had been stressing about the meal all afternoon and the delay just continued to heighten her anxiety. By the time dinner came around, she was a bag of nerves and struggled throughout.
Tree had been watched her for the first 15 minutes, poking around the food and eventually she sighed "honey – you need to start eating properly. No more pushing it around, no more squashing it all and hoping I won't notice. You have 15 minutes left to eat."
Alyssa looked up at her, a deep sigh escaping her lips "I'm trying..."
Tree smiled at her "I can see you're battling your thoughts and you're being really brave but trying isn't enough – you have to eat."
Alyssa nodded, picking up her knife and fork again. She placed a small bite of chicken in her mouth and chewed it over and over. When she swallowed, she took a large gulp of water – refusing to make eye contact with Tree. She made it through 80% of the food but then began to cut the food up into tiny pieces – cutting over and over. Tree reached over – taking the knife away from her "you need to stop that, please"
Alyssa bit her lip – taking another few small bites before declaring she was done. Tree had got into a routine of taking her fork and scraping around the plate after every meal since Alyssa often tried to spread food out to hide it. Today, when she reached towards the girl pulled her fork back slightly "it's just sauce!"
Tree shook her head, grabbing the fork from her "the sauce has chicken in it too – you need to eat it"
Alyssa hesitated for a second, clearly weighing it up before reluctantly taking the fork back and eating it slowly. When she was done for real this time, Tree smiled at her "great job Honey..."
Alyssa looked up at her "can I go to bed?"
Tree shook her head "you know the rules honey...30 minutes with me after meals"
Alyssa couldn't control her emotions and instantly burst into tears "I'm SO tired...", she covered her face – sobbing into her hands.
Tree moved next to her, rubbing the teen's back gently "OK, ok – listen. You want to go to bed? I will come and sit with you. I'll read while you go to sleep, ok?"
Alyssa nodded and Tree smiled and wiped her face softly "great, let's get you up there then honey..."
Alyssa climbed under the covers, snuggling down to sleep as Tree settled down next to her. The young girl immediately rolled away – facing the opposite direction. A few minutes later, Tree noticed her shoulders shaking gently as the girl silently cried. She decided to ignore it for a minute, knowing that if the girl was trying to be quiet – she didn't want Tree knowing but when she kept glancing over and the girl was still shaking she decided she couldn't ignore it anymore. The woman put her book down, then placed a gentle hand on the girl's back. As soon as she made contact, Alyssa went from silent cries to full blown – loud sobs. Tree shuffled down – hugging the girl from behind "you're ok honey..."
Alyssa didn't respond but Tree just held her until she fell asleep before creeping out to her own room.
The following day was tense, Alyssa refused to talk about why she was so upset but Tree could clearly see she was overwhelmed. That afternoon, Alyssa was sat at the table, trying to get her homework done but as the time went on, her frustration just increased. Tree was sat opposite her – on her own laptop working away. She noticed as the teen began to bite her lips, then her nails. The rate at which she was typing away slowly down and Tree could tell she was stuck. She offered to help but was shrugged away. The redhead continued to watch until Alyssa's anxiety clearly peaked – she was tugging at her hair and rubbing her face in frustration.
