How family and friends are affected

Parents, siblings, partners, friends, extended family, work colleagues and others often experience many different feelings as they learn to cope with the effects of the eating disorder on the person and on their own lives. The strain of living with the eating disorder can create tensions and divisions within the family. Each person involved will be affected in different ways. Common reactions include:

Confusion about:

• The eating disorder and recovery process

• Why this has happened 

• The best way to handle the illness in the family, partnership or friendship circle etc

• Knowing what to say and how to say it 

• How to support the person

Grief & Anger about:

• Loss of the person’s mental and physical health

• Change in the person’s behaviour, denial of problem and/or refusal to get help 

• The difficulties or changes the eating disorder is creating in the family, partnership or friendship circle

• Not being able to make the person well 

• Loss of time alone and/or with other family members/friends 

• Loss of trust for the person who may behave deceptively

• Feeling a loss for the person who may have lost sight of their goals and ambitions

Guilt or Fear about:

• Being responsible for the eating disorder

• Not recognising the eating disorder earlier 

• Not providing effective support and help that is required to promote recovery 

• That the person may not recover 

Gen tells us how she felt when she first discovered her sister had an eating disorder. For more of Gen's story, click here.