Helping a friend, family member or loved one with an eating disorder is challenging. In every case, that person must be in treatment, and care of a physician and/or psychiatrist for recovery.
Anorexia Athletica is a kind of eating disorder that female athletes are twice at risk for than their male counterparts. In a study of nearly 700 men and women athletes, 12 percent of women feared losing control when they ate.
Almost one percent of females ages 10 to 20 have some kind of eating disorder in the US, according to the Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. This group estimates eight million or three percent of Americans have some kind of eating disorder.
Learn how you can support a friend or family member who is working to overcome a potentially fatal mental illness.
Instructions
1. Be a non-judgmental friend. Females with Anorexia Athletica have a condition known as dysmorphia, the distortion of how one sees her image. Rail-thin or very close to it, female athletes are coached and rewarded for reducing body fat to such low levels that they stop menstruating.
Amennorhea is common among female athletes and is one of the signs of an eating disorder. Females need at least 17 percent body fat to menstruate. Many of these athletes fall between 10 and 14 percent.
2. Observe her patterns of eating and exercise if she has not sought medical treatment. If you know someone who exercises obsessively and is clearly below a healthy body weight, try to talk to her. If you do not feel comfortable doing this, ask someone who is more likely to be effective to do it.
3. Do not make comments about her appearance. While men can have eating disorders, females are three times more at risk. Given society's emphasis on very slender females at every age, there is a great deal of social reward for being very thin.
Instead, ask her how she feels. Anorexic people can become desensitized: they ignore pangs of hunger and part of their recovery is acknowledging how they feel emotionally and physically.
4. Help her by inviting her to low-key social gatherings. Athletes with Anorexia Athletica often find it difficult to eat in the presence of others. They may not eat very much or only a little.
Do not watch your friend eat obsessively, as this will make her feel more self-conscious. Instead, plan social events around non-competitive activities such as bowling or watching a movie.
5. Be sensitive. You must determine if you can handle the responsibility of helping your friend. It is common for women to be competitive with each other regarding appearance and body weight: do not contribute to your friend's struggle to recover by telling her about your new diet to lose 10 pounds by the New Year.
6. Females with Anorexia Athletica can easily disguise their eating disorder as they train heavily and follow a training table for meals to not overeat. Excessive training and dieting, however, can lead to Female Athlete Triad.
This includes developing an eating disorder and experiencing low energy; missed menstrual cycles or other menstrual disorders and over time, risk for osteoporosis.
to work with people with eating disorders. What this means is if she is struggling in a certain situation or is at home, post-binge, she can call you.
If she clearly needs medical intervention, get medical help immediately.
Tags: eating disorder, Anorexia Athletica, female athletes, kind eating, kind eating disorder