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supporting my friend with eating disorder?

27 replies

Xmasdaft2023 · 08/01/2025 20:16

How does one support a friend with eating disorder?
apart from being at the end of my phone 24/7 I’m not sure what else I can do. i’ve had a rough few weeks myself and I’ve done and encouraged as much as I can and I don’t know what else to do?
she’s starving herself (talking about 4 days no food!) or binging when she has to (I front of others) and forcing sickness?
I’ve encouraged talking to ED helplines, I’ve been blunt at her weight loss and her needing fuel herself but I’m just lost. Do I approach her husband/family/friends that know her much more than I do?
really struggling with what to do. I can’t agree with her not eating?
help!! Struggling friend that just doesn’t know how to help 😞

OP posts:
pumpkinpillow · 08/01/2025 23:37

Has she asked you for help?
Has she acknowledged that she has an ED?
Only she can help herself, it's not your responsibility as much as you care for her.
All you can do is tell her that you are concerned and that you are there to help and support her if she want it.
The other significant people in her life must already know she is unwell. Do you know them well yourself?
Is she so unwell that her health is a risk right now (collapse?).

I am sorry you are witnessing this, it's very hard to watch.

BobbyBiscuits · 08/01/2025 23:42

If she doesn't want to stop, she's unlikely to even fully admit she has a problem. I'd say just be there for her emotionally. Certainly don't comment on her eating or trying and make her eat. She will withdraw and be ashamed and defensive probably. The phobia of weight gain can be overwhelming.
If her weight is dangerously low, I of 13 or lower and she presents at the GP or hospital, she could be sectioned. She may well know this and be terrified of that prospect as you have no control whatsoever. But for some people they need it and it really saves their life. It did for me.
You sound really caring. But sadly there isn't all that much more you can do.

username299 · 09/01/2025 00:08

If she's in the depths of an eating disorder, she'll just hide it from you.

She knows how you feel, so I would stop repeating yourself. I'm surprised family haven't noticed her weight loss.

The best thing you can do is try and encourage her to visit her GP.

Mummyoflittledragon · 09/01/2025 06:33

I would speak to her husband. Definitely. Someone with an active eating disorder not eating for 4 days is a medical emergency. The MEED risk assessment, some parts of which you can use as a checklist to see if she’s on red and therefore needs to go to hospital: https://meed.org.uk/meed-risk-assessment/.

Your friend should be taken to A&E if she goes without eating for 24 hours or eats less than 500 calories or is eating then purging so not receiving nutrition. She may be ill enough to need immediate hospital admission.

It is unlikely that your friend will respond to reasoning. Her brain is too starved so trying to talk to her about eating will most likely make you seen as a threat to the ED.

In any case, her dh should call the GP for an urgent referral to an ED clinic and if they can afford it, consider private care.

MoveToParis · 09/01/2025 06:38

You can’t help her. Trying to help her will temporarily or permanently kill the friendship. She has no interest in the type of friendship you offer.

I would speak with her DH and family though. Not eating for 4 days makes her a danger to herself.

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 07:47

I ultimately know I can’t help her without medical help, how do I go about this? I think she’s lying about the help she’s asked for… been to gp and has appt at hospital! I just don’t think she has

OP posts:
Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 07:51

Family definitely know of previous issues, assuming they do now as it’s very obvious however I don’t believe it’s 4 days without food.
i never tell her she needs to eat, I use terms like “you know you need to, you need to fuel your body” “you need to fuel yourself to look after the kids”, what should I say when she says I just need to get to X weight, just need to make it to 4 days etc?
I really am mentally struggling with this as it’s like she only has me to speak to (I doubt that’s the case but it’s been non stop for 6 weeks and i just want to cry when I read the awful messages)

OP posts:
pumpkinpillow · 09/01/2025 08:19

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 07:51

Family definitely know of previous issues, assuming they do now as it’s very obvious however I don’t believe it’s 4 days without food.
i never tell her she needs to eat, I use terms like “you know you need to, you need to fuel your body” “you need to fuel yourself to look after the kids”, what should I say when she says I just need to get to X weight, just need to make it to 4 days etc?
I really am mentally struggling with this as it’s like she only has me to speak to (I doubt that’s the case but it’s been non stop for 6 weeks and i just want to cry when I read the awful messages)

I'm so sorry she (her condition) has put you in this position. It's OK to be cross with the situation. If you are genuinely worried for her health then I'd hand it back to her husband and remove yourself from the relationship for a while. You are not qualified to help. Manipulation and lying to others is part of the ED. She is not your responsibility.

In your position, I would tell her husband - show him some of the messages, then tell your friend you are unable to support her at the moment and you'll be there for her when she is ready to start recovery. You can tell her you care for her deeply.

Be prepared for some backlash. If she doesn't see how unwell she is then she'll think you're making a fuss over nothing. In time she will understand.

Mummyoflittledragon · 09/01/2025 08:35

My dd has anorexia. She was very very mentally unwell and got to the point that she didn’t think she needed to live to eat. She was consuming less than a baby at the start of weaning. Over a 13 day period, I estimated she ate 1200 calories. That’s less than 100 calories a day and this was with me encouraging her to eat.

I wouldn’t be so sure your friend hasn’t eaten for 4 days. Some people do literally stop eating. Your friend likely will have boundless energy until the moment she doesn’t.

The very obvious question for me is how much is she drinking. When a person is this ill they often don’t consume fluids. Or consuming only few millilitres. This is even more dangerous. It is more likely that she’s lying about getting help from the doctor or hospital than lying about her food / fluid intake.

I have 2 photos of my dd 10 days apart (face only as I had to take the pic clandestinely). The weight loss is staggering. You talked about weight loss. If your friend is going days without eating then bingeing and purging her body is completely starved of nutrients and she could be losing a kilo a week.

Did you look at the MEEDS link? If it is as severe as you are saying, you dh may need to take her to A&E now. Would there be anyone to take care of the kids?

Cynic17 · 09/01/2025 08:39

All I can say, OP, is that it's really hard, so you have my sympathy. You just want to shout "eat something", but obviously you can't.
Do encourage her to seek professional support, if possible.
But be aware that this is about control - including controlling her relationships, and that includes you. She may still want to convince you that she has the perfect lifestyle.
Just listen to her - you don't need to agree with what she's doing. Don't feel bad if you find yourself starting to resent or dislike her - that's normal. But also take time for yourself, and be prepared to step away occasionally, because this illness is incredibly draining for friends and family.

WhatTheKey · 09/01/2025 08:49

I am writing this as someone with an ED in recovery. It isn't true of everyone, but it's quite common for sufferers to get a bit of a kick from others' concern. I used to get a real thrill when people would tell me that they were concerned about my weight, that I was dangerously thin, that I was risking my health etc. It's so fucked up, but it might be useful for you to know this when dealing with your friend. I have a friend now who is hugely abusing weightloss injections, and I mentioned the thrill of being told you look gaunt etc- he said he felt exactly the same.

Perfectlystill · 09/01/2025 08:50

Speaking from experience there is very little you can do. Just being there to chat about whatever they want to chat about brings them some comfort, but IME you cannot help them get better.

WinterFoxes · 09/01/2025 08:55

I have never had to deal with this, so have no idea whether this suggestion would have any impact, but I'd discuss anything but the ED. I'd ask what plans she has for the summer and if she has a bucket list of lovely things to do with her children this year. I'd try and remind her of all the wonderful things life offers beyond her ED, without referring to it.

Yellowseat · 09/01/2025 09:04

WhatTheKey · 09/01/2025 08:49

I am writing this as someone with an ED in recovery. It isn't true of everyone, but it's quite common for sufferers to get a bit of a kick from others' concern. I used to get a real thrill when people would tell me that they were concerned about my weight, that I was dangerously thin, that I was risking my health etc. It's so fucked up, but it might be useful for you to know this when dealing with your friend. I have a friend now who is hugely abusing weightloss injections, and I mentioned the thrill of being told you look gaunt etc- he said he felt exactly the same.

This is a very important question. What is your friend getting out of telling you she hasn’t eaten in 4 days. At a very base level she is getting attention which is feeding her ED. I would ring a doctor’s surgery especially if you know hers and ask their advice and follow that.

Then I would tell her that the doctors surgery told you to tell her to call them and leave her to do it.

If it is the attention she gets from you that is stopping her getting help maybe it is time to kindly and gently pull that attention away from her to actually really help her if you see what I mean.

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 09:34

You’ve all said exactly what I think, me giving attention to it (assume by even replying) is part of the illness.
I’ve really tried to take a step back, I’ve tried being the one to message every day first about everything else but it starts off ok and nose dives right in to it and I’m then reluctant to ignore but also reluctant to reply.

she tells me she’s seen the GP and she has a hospital appointment (the next couple of days) but can’t face going.

i can’t not see her, daily, for a complex reason so I can’t just hand over to her husband which makes it all the more difficult.

she’s functioning daily which leads me to believe she is eating something (not the extent she tells me she’s not) but then I feel I can’t say that’s not true because I truly don’t know, the weight loss has been extreme and fast, with a gym obsession also thrown in and others have noticed. With questions like “is X ok” “X has lost weight”.

I think she needs help, something she’s reluctant to seek as she knows she then can’t control what’s happening.

am I 💩 friend if I actually say I can’t do this anymore? That’s where I’m at! I’ve not even spoken to my husband about this as it already takes up too much of my brain and I think he’d action it elsewhere which could have serious consequences for her/her family.

seems an impossible situation 😞

OP posts:
CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 09/01/2025 11:06

You aren't a shit friend if you tell her you can't do it any more. Current ED suffered with a very long history starting in earlier adolescence, with various ups and downs here.

First thing to note is that the only thing an A&E visit will yield is a chat with a psychiatrist to check she doesn't need to be sectioned, and if she's dehydrated or in electrolyte imbalance they will put her on a drip to fix that. They won't get her to eat if she doesn't want to. Saying she will be sectioned if she is at a BMI of 13 is inaccurate - the bar for sectioning is so incredibly high now. She'd have to be at such a parlous physical state that going any longer without hospital treatment would kill her, and there is quite a lot of case law affirming the autonomy of very sick sufferers even when their eating disorders threaten their lives as well. If she's relatively new to this and has suffered significant health problems, a short admission to rehydrate her might shake her up a little bit. Unfortunately, don't expect health professionals to step in urging help and providing plentiful support. Even if she willingly goes to her appointment and appears quite sick, she'll also have to demonstrate a lot of willingness to change to access and keep accessing treatment.

EDs are also highly egosyntotic and everyone believes it won't happen to them - whether "it" is sudden cardiac death, oesophageal rupture, hair falling out, symptoms such as bingeing and/or purging, and so on. In my case it was osteoporosis - I knew it was happening logically but didn't realise what the impact of that would be. Broken toes were acceptable and so were broken ribs - until my punctured lung collapsed. Losing feeling in my feet was scary but OK until I connected it with a severe spinal fracture. My dominant arm shattering like chalk after an insignificant tumble off a pushbike was... well, totally physically disabling, still painful and stole my life for six months. My nose also broke and I was lucky it wasn't my skull.

Two other points I want to make: there are commonalities between ED sufferers, but many more differences. When you know or have been one person with an ED, you know one person with an ED. None of us know your friend like you do and like her family members do, so I'd go with her instinct, coupled with clues others are giving you, instead of relying on blanket statements. There's also a twofold effect in responding with things like "you look gaunt" or "I'm worried". On the one hand, particularly with new sufferers, younger people and particular personalities, they do "get a kick" out of it and it will worsen things because they will feel like they want to keep getting this, in their mind, positive feedback. On the other hand, not reacting at all can make you feel like you're "not good enough". I've never been someone who loses weight for aesthetic reasons, so the compliments I received around a BMI of 14.5 were more worrying and perplexing than anything. However, people ignoring my weight - I always hid restricting and purging behaviours - led me to believe that I wasn't being good enough or punishing myself enough for my eating disorder. If nobody says anything (and your boyfriend at the time is sleeping with you even though you look like a starved dog) and then someone says offhand that you're too thin, it's much harder to accept it. I would advise maybe don't say anything unless it's called for by the conversation, and if you're responding to any fishing by her, say something factual and fairly neutral.

If you want to keep in communication with her, or even if you don't, this may be controversial but think about having, again, a very neutral and factual talk about how this is affecting you. Say you know she's fishing for validation, acknowledge what she's going through and then tell her what a huge emotional toll it's taking on her. Not emotional blackmail, or telling her off, but try to combine acknowledging her physical state and her own suffering while making her aware that as someone who cares about her, it's making things incredibly difficult for you. Whatever you decide, at the very least, you should have boundaries in place. I don't want to say EDs make you selfish in the true sense, but they result in you becoming incredibly self-involved and doing things that hurt people even if you don't mean to. Don't accuse her of doing it TO hurt you or not caring about you, that's likely to backfire and in some cases making people feel guilty makes them want to starve and punish themselves more. It depends on what sort of person she is. But you need your own oxygen mask on first and sometimes people genuinely don't know they are causing others worry (some know very well and don't care, or want to "win" at weight loss, and I don't really know what to say in that case).

You don't have any obligation towards her. She might want and need support, but you can only do as much as you can do, if that makes sense. I personally don't believe tough love works for the sufferer, but self-protection for people who know and love them is absolutely essential. Many people have had to distance themselves from me over the years - not just over the ED - and rationally I completely understand that and don't resent them at all, I just miss them. Of those who have stayed around, the most helpful are the ones with strong boundaries.

I went through years with my sister when she saw I had dropped a lot of weight after my first term at uni and decided then and there to diet, plastered her wall with pictures of supermodels, got on pro-anorexia websites and promptly ended up with anorexia. I could see the signs from day one and literally went mad trying to alert my parents and family members, being gaslighted, manipulated and bullied in return, and my sister blames me entirely for developing the illness in the first place because I lost weight (I was five years into severe bulimia at that point). I would not wish that on anyone. It's pure emotional torture. However, the people who can and should do the most for your friend are her family, biological and by marriage. I'd make your feelings known at least to her OH and any other family members you're close enough to. Normally I would frown on talking about her behind her back, but if you have mutual friends you could share your feelings and concerns with them.

Unfortunately she's an adult. You can't make her do anything. I'm sorry this was so long - you don't have any responsibility to her, except that in the end you do have to put yourself first. Best wishes to you, and take care.

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 11:58

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 09/01/2025 11:06

You aren't a shit friend if you tell her you can't do it any more. Current ED suffered with a very long history starting in earlier adolescence, with various ups and downs here.

First thing to note is that the only thing an A&E visit will yield is a chat with a psychiatrist to check she doesn't need to be sectioned, and if she's dehydrated or in electrolyte imbalance they will put her on a drip to fix that. They won't get her to eat if she doesn't want to. Saying she will be sectioned if she is at a BMI of 13 is inaccurate - the bar for sectioning is so incredibly high now. She'd have to be at such a parlous physical state that going any longer without hospital treatment would kill her, and there is quite a lot of case law affirming the autonomy of very sick sufferers even when their eating disorders threaten their lives as well. If she's relatively new to this and has suffered significant health problems, a short admission to rehydrate her might shake her up a little bit. Unfortunately, don't expect health professionals to step in urging help and providing plentiful support. Even if she willingly goes to her appointment and appears quite sick, she'll also have to demonstrate a lot of willingness to change to access and keep accessing treatment.

EDs are also highly egosyntotic and everyone believes it won't happen to them - whether "it" is sudden cardiac death, oesophageal rupture, hair falling out, symptoms such as bingeing and/or purging, and so on. In my case it was osteoporosis - I knew it was happening logically but didn't realise what the impact of that would be. Broken toes were acceptable and so were broken ribs - until my punctured lung collapsed. Losing feeling in my feet was scary but OK until I connected it with a severe spinal fracture. My dominant arm shattering like chalk after an insignificant tumble off a pushbike was... well, totally physically disabling, still painful and stole my life for six months. My nose also broke and I was lucky it wasn't my skull.

Two other points I want to make: there are commonalities between ED sufferers, but many more differences. When you know or have been one person with an ED, you know one person with an ED. None of us know your friend like you do and like her family members do, so I'd go with her instinct, coupled with clues others are giving you, instead of relying on blanket statements. There's also a twofold effect in responding with things like "you look gaunt" or "I'm worried". On the one hand, particularly with new sufferers, younger people and particular personalities, they do "get a kick" out of it and it will worsen things because they will feel like they want to keep getting this, in their mind, positive feedback. On the other hand, not reacting at all can make you feel like you're "not good enough". I've never been someone who loses weight for aesthetic reasons, so the compliments I received around a BMI of 14.5 were more worrying and perplexing than anything. However, people ignoring my weight - I always hid restricting and purging behaviours - led me to believe that I wasn't being good enough or punishing myself enough for my eating disorder. If nobody says anything (and your boyfriend at the time is sleeping with you even though you look like a starved dog) and then someone says offhand that you're too thin, it's much harder to accept it. I would advise maybe don't say anything unless it's called for by the conversation, and if you're responding to any fishing by her, say something factual and fairly neutral.

If you want to keep in communication with her, or even if you don't, this may be controversial but think about having, again, a very neutral and factual talk about how this is affecting you. Say you know she's fishing for validation, acknowledge what she's going through and then tell her what a huge emotional toll it's taking on her. Not emotional blackmail, or telling her off, but try to combine acknowledging her physical state and her own suffering while making her aware that as someone who cares about her, it's making things incredibly difficult for you. Whatever you decide, at the very least, you should have boundaries in place. I don't want to say EDs make you selfish in the true sense, but they result in you becoming incredibly self-involved and doing things that hurt people even if you don't mean to. Don't accuse her of doing it TO hurt you or not caring about you, that's likely to backfire and in some cases making people feel guilty makes them want to starve and punish themselves more. It depends on what sort of person she is. But you need your own oxygen mask on first and sometimes people genuinely don't know they are causing others worry (some know very well and don't care, or want to "win" at weight loss, and I don't really know what to say in that case).

You don't have any obligation towards her. She might want and need support, but you can only do as much as you can do, if that makes sense. I personally don't believe tough love works for the sufferer, but self-protection for people who know and love them is absolutely essential. Many people have had to distance themselves from me over the years - not just over the ED - and rationally I completely understand that and don't resent them at all, I just miss them. Of those who have stayed around, the most helpful are the ones with strong boundaries.

I went through years with my sister when she saw I had dropped a lot of weight after my first term at uni and decided then and there to diet, plastered her wall with pictures of supermodels, got on pro-anorexia websites and promptly ended up with anorexia. I could see the signs from day one and literally went mad trying to alert my parents and family members, being gaslighted, manipulated and bullied in return, and my sister blames me entirely for developing the illness in the first place because I lost weight (I was five years into severe bulimia at that point). I would not wish that on anyone. It's pure emotional torture. However, the people who can and should do the most for your friend are her family, biological and by marriage. I'd make your feelings known at least to her OH and any other family members you're close enough to. Normally I would frown on talking about her behind her back, but if you have mutual friends you could share your feelings and concerns with them.

Unfortunately she's an adult. You can't make her do anything. I'm sorry this was so long - you don't have any responsibility to her, except that in the end you do have to put yourself first. Best wishes to you, and take care.

This isn’t new, this is the most recent that I’ve known of in the 5yrs I’ve known her. (Knew of her previously just wasn’t in my life).
when I broached the subject with best friend around 6weeks ago with genuine concern that I’d received such message it was very much a “it’s been on and off since teen years”, friend has now revealed this to me herself and I’d say an issue on and off for over 20yrs.
i’m not particularly close to husband or her parents but I do see them from time to time. Can I send a message to her husband without being a total bitch to her? I’m not sure her best friend has time (with her own life) to deal with this either which is why I think she’s turned to me.. I’m just finding it really hard when messages can appear at any time of day or night and I panic reading some of them.

when I receive “I just need to get to X stone” or “I’ve managed 1/2 a can of juice all day” I just don’t know how to respond 😞.

she knows I’ve my own issues going on and yet never asks I’m ok, selfish as it sounds I’d like support too but nothing even if I mention.

what boundaries do you think your friends have in place?

I’m sorry you suffer too, I understand it never goes away but I do hope you’re keeping yourself well xx

OP posts:
CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 09/01/2025 12:09

I know I replied with reams of text but I was in a bit of a hurry so I'm sorry if I missed details or misunderstood anything. Your friend's behaviour is very reminiscent of other people I've known with eating disorders/disordered eating, BUT all the people I've known with those behaviours have been either teenagers or in the "honeymoon" period of their eating disorder or both.
Hang on, just going to read the OP and your later post again...

fatphalange · 09/01/2025 12:11

From my very long experience of this personally, my only advice is to keep conversations away from food and the topic of the disorder in general.

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 12:20

fatphalange · 09/01/2025 12:11

From my very long experience of this personally, my only advice is to keep conversations away from food and the topic of the disorder in general.

I really do try but it always goes down that route and I can’t just stop messaging or speaking on the phone when it does. Just really tricky for me to navigate alone yet I feel I can’t speak of it elsewhere because I’d not want to lose her trust. I’m a good friend, I just can’t carry this all on my shoulders and that’s how I feel it is just now. Though her family and other friends, her workplace must know there’s an issue. I’d say over a stone of weight loss in a matter of weeks.. along with the gym obsession that seems to be consuming her outwith family/work.

OP posts:
fatphalange · 09/01/2025 12:22

Oh having read your latest message, she seems attention seeking and quite childish. I have never ever brought up the topic to others or spoken about it in 22 years. It's usually something very private. Not all people with eating disorders are like your friend so there is no general answer to your question.
Don't try to take on any 'responsibility' for her or meddle by messaging her husband. My advice in my other comment still stands. So when she's trying to involve you with the texts, change the subject. If she doesn't take the hint then the time will come to tell her 'sorry I can't handle you heaping this on me, have you looked into therapy?'
Also: don't mention her appearance in a positive OR negative way unless (for eg) complimenting a dress (ie something not physical).

Xmasdaft2023 · 09/01/2025 12:36

fatphalange · 09/01/2025 12:22

Oh having read your latest message, she seems attention seeking and quite childish. I have never ever brought up the topic to others or spoken about it in 22 years. It's usually something very private. Not all people with eating disorders are like your friend so there is no general answer to your question.
Don't try to take on any 'responsibility' for her or meddle by messaging her husband. My advice in my other comment still stands. So when she's trying to involve you with the texts, change the subject. If she doesn't take the hint then the time will come to tell her 'sorry I can't handle you heaping this on me, have you looked into therapy?'
Also: don't mention her appearance in a positive OR negative way unless (for eg) complimenting a dress (ie something not physical).

That’s how I feel I would Be if I messaged her husband which is why I haven’t done so so far, we were all together over the festive period and when I think of it she didn’t eat or drink at all whilst out (7hrs) in the company of 20+ people, he must know things are bad? So doesn’t need me sending a message.

I’ve heard from her 7 times in the last 12hrs, starts with normal convo but quickly changes, made worse that I know she shouldn’t be messaging whilst at work..

I would never mention her appearance. Compliment outfit but absolutely nothing else.

I may have to get blunt, just can’t shoulder all of it myself

OP posts:
fatphalange · 09/01/2025 12:47

I think that's the best way, being a bit blunter, xmas, you are clearly a good friend. If she is a good friend then she will understand it's not really on to put all this stress and worry on your shoulders.

CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau · 09/01/2025 12:48

OK. To continue, I also have experience with people who message at any time with that sort of thing and I've known OF people who behave like that about their eating disorder.

To answer in order: 1) would you be a total bitch if you texted her husband? Others may differ, but I would say from a moral/ethical POV the only thing that would make this an objectively bad or harmful thing to do would be if you have any reason to suspect the husband is controlling and/or abusive. I won't go into why, but that would be really damaging and abusers often weaponise that stuff if they know about it. Otherwise, I don't think it can do any harm. She's proactively sharing worrying details with you, and you can draw an analogy with priests, doctors, teachers etc who actually have a duty to break confidentiality if they have reason to be concerned. Restrictive eating disorders in particular also speak for themselves. If she's looking worrying and losing weight, you probably aren't telling the husband anything he doesn't know if he's paying attention at all, apart from the fact that his wife is putting huge and unfair emotional pressure on you, is struggling more than he thinks, is hiding things etc. It might also add incentives/pressure to actually go to these appointments.

  1. she probably will think you're a bitch and react badly, which doesn't make that true. Particularly with her behaviour, what she wants is to keep it a dirty little secret with someone who will give her a shoulder to cry on and validation of what she sees as progress. Again, this is particularly young or new eating disorder survivors, and those who don't see their behaviour as damaging to others or dangerous to themselves, but sufferers often get the mentality that they are fighting some sort of war with the ED and their (I hate this word as well) enabling friends on one side and everyone else on the other. By the way, this sort of attitude also makes accessing help really unlikely and difficult. I was actually on a recovery forum elsewhere the other day and someone posted that they had been purging for two weeks and were consciously creating an eating disorder, I responded that they needed to fight and get help ASAP so it didn't turn into a real and entrenched eating disorder (you need symptoms for a month to be diagnosed) and reminded her of the medical risks. This was a teenager who had just started behaviours and the earlier you get treatment the better. Next thing I knew I was being told "people like you make me sick" and how dare I not validate and encourage her. This was a pro-recovery space! So I won't sugarcoat it, she won't welcome you reaching out to her husband or others at all, and usually you shouldn't go behind people's backs. But this is in the end a matter of life and, if not death, ill health and misery. Her behaviour is also duplicitous and secretive, and like addictions, eating disorders thrive in the dark and are allergic to sunlight. If she continues to resent you for it forever, I'd suggest she's possibly a friend you're better off without (that sounds very cruel but again I can completely understand why people have had to step away from me). If she's someone who will be a good friend long-term, she will realise you've got her best interests at heart and might come to be conscious of the effect she's having on you.

  2. speaking of which, messaging you at all hours of the day and night is completely unacceptable. She's fishing for (what are to an ED sufferer) compliments, validation, constant support, sympathy and she gets what is effectively a diet buddy thrown in. This isn't helping her in any way, although it's probably making things more bearable. I one could probably forgive quite a lot more if she were messaging you frequently and complaining a lot but it was about the difficulty and pain of a sincere effort at recovery, or a request for friendly support in a purely emotional sense - I would draw my personal line somewhere around sharing that I was scared about serious medical consequences of my eating behaviours. Let's put this in dieting language - she's basically using you as a 24/7 weightwatchers meeting. Imagine if she were abusing alcohol and texting you every day about how much she'd been drinking and how she needed to black out for three days in a row and then would be happy! Nobody would tolerate that. Even other drinkers would probably not stand for even a day of that. Eating disorders are horrible, yes we need support, yes, friends can be a lifeline, yes, people who listen and are kind and loyal to sufferers through their darkest points are wonderful friends to be cherished. She's not asking that of you. She's using emotional pressure to get you to enable her disordered behaviour. The fact that there's an obesity problem and weight loss is lionised and imbued with moral significance in general does not change that. To be really blunt, if she wants pro-anorexia content she can go and get it online, she's a big girl, and not dress it up and milk it from her friend as she currently is doing.

  3. boundaries my friends have set? I'll give one example, which is my best friend. We communicate all the time and want to move in together, and they've visited me in hospital etc so are very aware of what I struggle with and the extent of stuff. He does draw boundaries more strictly than I'd like, but the main one is that I don't talk about things that are objectively harmful to me, and if I stray too close to something that worries him he will say that. "It makes me miserable when you say that" or "that isn't helping me and it's just making me upset". It is always explicitly or implicitly clear that it upsets him BECAUSE he cares about me and also because he doesn't think it helps either of us. As I said, sometimes it would help me, but he is allowed to draw that boundary and I understand why so I try to obey it. In your case I really can't see why it would help your friend at all to be supported in her weight goals and restrictive eating. I have another friend who started off with a professional responsibility for me and who therefore has the seniority to pull rank, but she will say things like "you can stay for dinner at (complicated explanation, but a community that I value) but you have to finish what you get or it's rude to the cook" which makes sense to me. If I can't eat that day I don't have to go. When I was told it wasn't an option to be too faint or weak to perform at such and such venue and therefore I had to eat even a little bit, I could work with that too.

About you getting support - have to run off so this will be short, sorry. But of course you deserve support and should be able to get it from your friendships in general and overall in this friendship. However, EDs are horrible illnesses and even if she weren't acting as she is (which you can probably tell I don't think is in an ideal way) your friend probably isn't in a position to support you even if she was in the frame of mind to want to do so or to have sympathy for you. You do deserve it though. I want to write more on that but as I said, really in a rush, I hope this conveys what I meant :S I'm really sorry you're in such a difficult position and you deserve care and supportive friendships too.

Final thing - as someone who did, in my teenage years, peruse pro-anorexia forums more out of curiosity than anything else (I never contributed and quickly worked out it wasn't a world I wanted to be a part of for many reasons) the reference to "binging when she has to eat in front of others" really made my spider senses tingle. Binging is a problem in eating disorders. What it is not is eating more than you want to in front of others. I've only ever seen the two conflated in explicitly pro-ana spaces.

Really hate to leave it here but have to run xx

pumpkinpillow · 09/01/2025 13:02

binging when she has to eat in front of others" really made my spider senses tingle. Binging is a problem in eating disorders. What it is not is eating more than you want to in front of others. I've only ever seen the two conflated in explicitly pro-ana spaces.

This alarmed me as well. Bingeing and purging is normally a very secretive and shameful behaviour.