Castles crumbling (Taylor Swift's little sister)

Chapter 49

Another month had passed, and you were doing so much better: the use of behaviors at mealtimes had decreased considerably, you had also gained another 5 lbs., which meant that you had to gain only 3 more lbs. until your initial target weight. At the end of every month at the program you were supposed to have an appointment with your family and the professional's team in which the team would tell you what the next step on your recovery should be. You didn't know it, since you didn't get the chance to be a whole month in the program (because you got hospitalized before completing a month). It was your first appointments of this kind, and you were immensely anxious about it. You had your afternoon snack and were called by Dr. Pine to one of the offices, when you walked in, you saw Taylor, your mom, Dr. Sach and Dr. Maine sitting down, waiting for you. You sat down beside Taylor, and she held tightly your hand, she whispered - "It'll be okay, you've worked so hard".

- "Thank you for being here, Mrs. and Ms. Swift. As you know, it's already been a month and we wanted to talk about Elizabeth's process, improvements, things she has achieved, things she needs to still work on, etc. So, each of us will speak and then we'll tell you the decision that we have made, what we think suits best for your process Elizabeth, okay?" The doctor said and in the last sentence turned towards you.

You all nodded and the first doctor to speak was Dr. Pine, your psychologist, he said he thought you had improved a lot at identifying your feelings, naming them and recognizing that, even though some were uncomfortable to deal with, there was nothing such as "good" or "bad feelings". Then he said that you still needed to deal with those unconformable feelings and tolerate the discomfort rather than compensating and dealing with them through food or running away from them.

Then it was Dr. Maine's turn to speak up: - "You have undoubtedly improved at mealtimes; your disordered behaviors have decreased. As for your depression, I'd like to maintain the antidepressant dosage, for now. You are really good at identifying your sick voice and your healthy voice, but you still need to work on listening more your healthy one".

Finally, it was Dr. Sach time: - "Nutritionally speaking, you've improved too. You've been gaining weight consistently, not as fast as I'd like to, but still, I know that those 5 lbs. represent the hard work you've been doing. However, I would like you to start exposing to fear foods more often, and in your daily life, since you've been eating kind of safe foods mostly"

You immediately blushed and the doctor continued: - "Hey, no shame on that. But it'll be good if you begin trying fear foods more regularly. Okay?" You nodded and then Dr. Maine continued: - "Alright, so, we'd like you to keep coming every day in the afternoons, BUT we've been thinking about letting you go to school in the mornings. Starting next week. What do you think about it?"

Your eyes instantly lit up and Taylor turned around amazed. It had been so long since you had seen your friends.

- "Yes! I'd love that! I miss school, I miss schoolwork" you said.

- "I've never met someone who misses homework" Dr. Pine said joking around and you all laughed.

Then Dr. Maine continued: - "We think that this could be the perfect opportunity to slowly start going back to your life, yet still get the support to keep working on those things we said. You'll need to take it easy, though, no sports, no exercise, you still have weight to gain. You're not healthy yet"

You nodded in agreement and promised to keep up the hard work. Your mom and Taylor congratulated you for being able to go back to school. However, they were scared that you were going to push too hard on yourself, you were a perfectionist.

When you got home you went to your room and got your backpack ready even when it was Wednesday and you were not going back to school until Monday, but you were so excited and happy. You were looking at your uniforms when Taylor walked in and saw you in distress.