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Help tw (eating disorder)
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Posts: 7 Confirmed not a robot
How do you talk to someone with an eating disorder when they start talking about it because my friend has one and I don't know what to do when she starts talking about eating too much when I know she doesn't
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I completely understand where you are coming from as it can be really difficult to know what to say to a friend struggling with an eating disorder, as you want to be there for them but you also don't want to upset them.
Therefore this is quite a difficult question to answer and there's not really one answer. I can only really offer advice from my past experience. I tried to be there for my friend as much as possible, and sometimes your compassion and kindness towards them can help them be more kind to themselves. Moreover, just being there to listen to your friend can be really important. Offering support and letting your friend know that you're there if they need can also be helpful.
You could also check if your friend feels comfortable talking about their eating disorder with you and if they do then you could potentially discuss the comments she makes about eating to much.
But it is also important to look after your own mental health too when discussing these heavy topics. So make sure to check in on yourself as sometimes you might realise that you don't feel comfortable discussing eating disorders and that is completely ok, you can still support your friend in other ways.
It can be a hard topic to approach, but speaking from experience, you could let you're friend know that you're there for them if there's anything they ever wanted to talk about. If they're not ready to open up, then that's okay, but then at least they'll know you're there for them when they feel ready.
If they decided to open up to you more, you could let them know that you won't judge them, but just want them to feel listened to and cared for. You could say that you care about them a lot and just want them to feel supported if they ever needed someone to confide in or someone to help them reach out for extra support.
Thank you for being such a caring person - make sure to look after yourself too