Anorexia is one of the most terrifying eating disorders. Taken to the extreme, it will cause organs to shut down and the body to die. It is self-inflicted starvation, and those who suffer from it should not have to go through this journey alone. It can be challenging to get someone suffering from anorexia back from the brink, which is why the best strategy is to catch it early on and to get help before their organs begin to shut down and they are hospitalized due to their disorder.
Know the Signs
Everyone should know the signs of mental illnesses. With anorexia, it is essential to watch warning signs. Dieting and starting to exercise more are a great thing in some cases but taken too far, and it becomes part of an eating disorder. Know the signs, so you can intervene before it takes over.
How to Stage an Intervention
There are a lot of tips and tricks when it comes to staging an intervention. You need to customize this advice to your loved one. Make sure it is calm, it feels safe, and that you have all the resources that you need at hand, like recovery center leaflets for them to look through. You don’t need to get them to agree at the end of your intervention, you just need to get them to look through the material you brought so that they can hopefully come to the same conclusion as you.
Seeking Out Treatment
Now that you have your loved one on board with getting help, you need to help them get the treatment that they need.
Choose a Dedicated Center
One of the best ways to stage an intervention is to have tangible options for recovery available for them to look through. Choosing great recovery centers that dedicate themselves to anorexia treatment means going through their treatment plan, choosing the ones that accept your loved one’s health insurance, and of course, making sure that they are closely located.
Help them choose from the options you have pre-selected and be there with them when they sign up for treatment.
Work with Their Recovery
Work with their recovery so that you can provide support and care at home. They need to build new routines and new relationships with their body and with food, and that cannot begin and end with their therapy sessions.
Continue Your Support
Eating disorders are often managed, rather than something you can entirely recover from. What this means in practice is even if all the efforts you and your loved one have gone through up until this point proved to be a success, something could knock all of your hard work down. A break-up, losing their job, the death of someone close to them – there are so many stressful events that can occur in their life that could very well cause a relapse.
That is why you need to continue your support. Recovery is a journey. Sometimes there will be uphill battles, other times it will be smooth sailing. Be there for both to help them be the best they can be.
