How to Support Someone With Anorexia

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I am going to talk to you about how to support someone with Anorexia. This can be quite a challenge because often times people with Anorexia are in denial so the main thing is to make sure that you are there for that person. If they have very severe symptoms they end up having to go to the hospital, let them know that you are there for any amount of support that they need but remember that this is truly their problem. You can't exactly force somebody to address the problem unless they are ready to address it themselves so it is good to have a group of people who are actually supporting this person not just one individual. You would need a therapist. You need a doctor. It is good to have a nutrition professional involved as well. Often times this particular type of person will have to enter an inpatient rehabilitation facility because it can be very difficult to treat them in an outpatient setting because there are so many issues that work. A lot of times there is the very large dynamic of control. Many times the people with Anorexia are using food as a source of control, as a source of power. They view themselves as being in control of not eating for one thing and for controlling their weight. So again it can be very difficult to support someone that is in this state of mind in an outpatient setting. Often times they do need to go to an inpatient facility and actually go through a whole rehabilitation process where they have a team of people around them, the therapists, the doctor and the nutritional professional and again just knowing that you are there for any support and any questions once they are ready to leave that facility. Having you to count on to help them avoid returning back to their old habits of not eating it is good to always keep a stocked supply of good healthy foods that are available so that they don't have to worry about weight gain in a bad way they have got good nutritious foods that are available to them. But again remember in supporting somebody with Anorexia it needs to be a team approach not just one individual, make sure that you have access to a group of professionals that can help you in your support of this particular person."