EDEC: How to Help

Talking to someone who you are concerned may be struggling with disordered eating is valuable. This video demonstrates strategies for an effective conversation and addresses challenges that may arise in such a discussion, and this brochure reviews similar strategies.

Books on How to Help Those You Love:

• Loving Someone with an Eating Disorder: Understanding, Supporting, and Connecting with your Partner by Dana Harron, Psy.D.
• The Eating Disorder Sourcebook by Carolyn Costin
• Surviving an Eating Disorders: Perspectives and Strategies for Family and Friends, 3^rd Edition, by Michelle Siegell, Ph.D., Judith Brisman, Ph.D., and Margot Weinshel, Ph.D.

Things to Remember:

• Eating disorders affect people of all genders, races, sexual orientations, ages, body shapes and sizes, and socioeconomic levels.
• Eating disorders are not only about food. They are often also about emotions, feelings, and control.
• People who struggle with eating disorders are doing the BEST that they can. They are trying to solve their problems the only way they know how.
• Many people develop eating disorders to cope with pressures they receive from the outside world.