Talking to a friend about having an eating disorder can be really hard. You have to be very understanding. If you come on to strong and judgmental they may not open up and let you in. You have to understand where this person is coming from and have a lot of patients. Eating disorders are very complex and usually are for an unknown reason that they may hide. It is not uncommon for girls to hide the fact that they have an eating disorder. So they may not admit it the first time you bring it up. As long as you make sure that she knows that you are someone she can talk to and make sure you are there for her no matter what. That’s really all you can do if she doesn’t want help at the time. You can’t help someone if they don’t want to be help, or if they are in denial.
Your photo is very powerful. Eating disorders are something very hard to get over since it is a psychological issue. I wonder if this issue was brought about because of the images we see and we are made to believe we need to weigh so much (an unhealthy weight) in order to feel beautiful. Many of the girls at my job are conscious about their weight and are always on diets, which includes not eating or taking pills. One of the girls is on a fluid only vitamin only diet! I told her how 95% of dieters gain the weight back and not eating is not a healthy way to lose weight. I informed her about the mypyramid.gov cite so she could see how many calories to consume and that she needed to exercise. There is no way around exercise and eating healthy in order to maintain a healthy weight. I am glad to say I have seen her eat, however she is still consuming some type of diet supplements.
ReplyDeleteI never knew anyone with an eating disorder. I know it is a very pressing issue with a lot of women, especially our youth. television doesn't make life easy as a teenager. I think we as parents should put more empahsis on inner beauty than outer, that way our children can develop as mentally healthy adults.
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