How to Live with Anorexia

When you suspect your loved one may be suffering from anorexia, approach her privately, listen to all of her concerns and gently offer assistance. It is important to refrain from judgment, personal implication and force. If you suffer from anorexia and are drastically losing weight from food restriction or exercise obsession, know that you have a journey to recovery ahead of you.

Things You'll Need

• Healthy role models

Instructions

Live with an Anorexic

1. Withhold judgment. Anorexics have a harsh, unwarranted opinion of themselves and are highly sensitive to criticism of any kind.

2. Take the focus off the food. Anorexics tend to fixate on food and exercise in an attempt to avoid uncomfortable emotions, stresses and internal conflicts. The disorder is less about food and more about underlying causes.

3. Avoid pressuring an anorexic person. Anorexics retain large amounts of stress, and you cannot force them to eat, visit the doctor or cooperate with treatment. Doing so tends to worsen their behavior.

4. Keep critical contact numbers on hand if you live with an anorexic person. Emergency medical information should always be accessible in case of a severe episode.

Live with Your Own Anorexia

1. Remind yourself of your own healthy weight goals when faced with temptation. Challenges to your healing can come from the media, your support group and even your network of family and friends.

2. Look to healthy role models. Remind yourself that thin models, actors and other public figures do not represent the ideal body type. Know that expectations of similar results for yourself are unrealistic.

3. Stay away from negative messages. Part of your treatment may require cutting yourself off from the anorexic community and avoiding websites that are pro-anorexia.

4. Don't kid yourself. Until your physician and counselors tell you otherwise, know that you do not have control over your decision-making. Anorexia remains in the driver's seat until you learn how to resist the damaging behavior.

5. Get to know yourself. Identify situations and behaviors in your life that act as catalysts for your anorexia. Working through these issues is part of the road to recovery.

6. Connect with others. It's important to connect with friends, family members or trusted medical experts about your disease, anorexia is known to thrive in secret.

Tips & Warnings

• Parents of an anorexic individual, under the age of 18, can force him to receive medical help.

• Anorexia support groups should be carefully monitored. The disease causes profound errors in judgment and rationale. Some anorexics actually relapse because of the negative feedback of other sufferers.