Tips to care for someone who is anorexic
One of the main things you should do as a carer, is keep the network of support tight around the sufferer until such time as it is not needed as frequent. As a carer you should aim to perform the following roles:1. Be supportive.
2. Encourage.
3. Keep smiling, have your own tears, if needed, away from the sufferer.
4. Listen, advise and be patient.
5. Be strong. Sometimes it is difficult to be hard on the people you care about, even when it is for the best.
6. Do not force. An illness such as this cannot be forced to recovery.
7. Do not shout and get uptight with a sufferer as this will create tension and cause problems.
8. Try to understand the illness as this will help you to cope and be able to give good advice at the right times.
9. Learn all the little things that the sufferer does to defy the carer. Have no secrets. Get the sufferer to tell you when they have slipped up. This will take time to introduce and sustain.
10. Keep them talking about even the silliest parts of the illness. It will help initially and you will laugh about them later.
11. Get the sufferer to keep a diary of their food intake and feelings. Food and feelings are often linked and this will be easy to see if written down. It definitely helped us.
12. Focus on the positives. Try to turn all negatives in to a positive. Congratulate the sufferer on the smallest of achievements as it will be these which encourage them to take bigger steps.
13. Look after yourself.
14. Do not become complacent.
