Knowing how to help someone with anorexia isn’t easy. You can’t take away their pain, but you can play an important role in keeping them safe, providing emotional support, and helping them find the treatment they need.
What You Need to Know About Anorexia
Before you can decide how to help someone with anorexia, you need to understand some fundamental facts about this complex condition.
What Are the Diagnostic Criteria for Anorexia?
According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a person must meet the criteria such as the following to be accurately diagnosed with anorexia:
- Restricting their energy intake to the point that it causes them to have a significantly low body weight for their age, gender, and developmental level.
- Having an intense fear of gaining weight or being fat.
- Allowing their body weight or shape to have an undue influence over their self-esteem or sense of self.
- Failing to recognize the seriousness of their low body weight.
How Can I Tell if Someone I Know Has Anorexia?
It can, of course, be valuable to know the clinical criteria for anorexia. But unless someone tells you about their weight-related fears or describes their self-esteem struggles to you, how can you know what they’re really going through?
If you suspect that someone in your life has developed anorexia, the evidence you’re looking for is likely to come from how they act. Here are a few behaviors and characteristics to keep an eye out for:
- Following a highly restrictive diet
- Paying extremely close attention to calories, fat content, and other characteristics of the food that they do eat
- Being hesitant or unwilling to eat in the company of other people
- Habitually participating in detoxes, cleanses, or other types of fasting
- Exercising excessively or obsessively
- Frequently wearing baggy or intentionally shapeless clothing to prevent others from realizing how much weight they have lost
- Regularly appearing to be exhausted, lightheaded, and/or cold
- Following “thinspo” social media accounts, which promote unhealthy weight control behaviors and unachievable body shape goals
- Becoming angry or irritated when others talk to them about their eating habits or exercise regimen
Is Anorexia Common?
The good news about anorexia is that it is relatively rare. However, given the population of the United States, even rare conditions can affect large numbers of people:
- The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has reported that the lifetime prevalence of anorexia among adults in the United States is 0.6%.
- According to the most recent census, the U.S. population includes about 258.3 million adults ages 18 and over.
- This means that more than 1.5 million adults are currently living with the symptoms of anorexia.
The NIMH has also provided the following statistics about who is more likely to develop anorexia, and what other struggles they may also be dealing with:
- Women (0.9%) are three times more likely than men (0.3%) to develop anorexia.
- Only 29.8% of women who have anorexia have sought treatment for the eating disorder.
- Almost exactly half (50.2%) of men with anorexia have sought treatment for it.
- Nearly half (47.9%) of people with anorexia have a co-occurring anxiety disorder.
- More than a quarter (27%) of adults with anorexia have an addiction to alcohol or another drug.
How to Help Someone With Anorexia
When you discover that someone in your life has been struggling with an eating disorder, it is both normal and understandable to be confused or even afraid.
Here are a few suggestions for how to help someone with anorexia:
- Educate yourself about the condition. As we noted earlier, it can be difficult to know what a person is thinking or feeling, even when that someone is a close friend or family member. As you learn more about how this disorder affects a person’s thoughts and emotionsl, you will be able to better understand that they’re going through.
- Talk to them. Express your concern, reaffirm your love and support, and let them know they can talk about anything with you without fear that you will judge, criticize, or reject them.
- Be patient. Your loved one may not yet be willing to open up to you (or to anyone else). Don’t push them. Your actions will speak much louder than your words ever could. Remaining an active and supportive part of their life will allow you to be present when they’re ready to talk.
- Listen to them. The information you learn when you research anorexia can be valuable – but nothing you find in a book or on a website can tell you exactly how your friend or family member is feeling. They’re they only ones who can do that.
- Be prepared for denial or even anger. They may claim they don’t know what you’re talking about, or that you are exaggerating the extent of the problem. Anything they tell you – even if it’s uncomfortable to hear – can give you invaluable insights into their state of mind.
- Talk to an expert. Healthcare providers or representatives of eating disorder treatment facilities can give you advice about how to keep your loved one safe and continue to support them, even if they are currently resistant to the idea of getting help.
- Remove obstacles to treatment. If they’re concerned about how they will get to and from treatment sessions, offer to provide transportation. If they’re worried about who will take care of their children, help them arrange for childcare. If they don’t know how to find the right treatment center, assist them with making phone calls or scheduling appointments.
Perhaps most important of all, plan to remain a trusted source of friendship and support before, during, and after their time in treatment. Recovering from anorexia can be a slow, long, and difficult journey. Make sure that your loved one never feels like they’re walking that path alone.
Find Anorexia Treatment in Atlanta
If someone in your life has developed anorexia or another eating disorder, Peachtree Recovery Solutions is here to help.
Treatment options at our center in Atlanta, Georgia, include a partial hospitalization program (PHP), an intensive outpatient program (IOP), an evening IOP, traditional outpatient care, and gender-specific programming for both men and women.
In each of these programs, your loved one can receive compassionate care and comprehensive support from a team of highly skilled treatment professionals. We understand the devastation that untreated anorexia can cause, and we are committed to providing the focused services that will help your friend or family member achieve improved health and a much more hopeful future.
To learn more or to schedule a free assessment, please visit our Admissions pagev or call us today.