How are family and friends affected by the sufferer of Anorexia or Bulimia ?
Anorexia and bulimia severely affect the lives of families and friends as well as the sufferer. Parents often comment on the deceptions practiced by their sick child. While anorexics will usually deny having a problem, bulimics will go to great lengths to conceal the eating disorder. It is a tremendous shock for a parent to find evidence of vomiting, or empty boxes of laxatives, in a daughter’s room. Husbands are devastated to learn that the reason their wife delays coming to bed each evening is to purge her body. The brothers and sisters of a sufferer often become co-conspirators with their sibling to keep the truth from parents. Very often, the sufferer manages to conceal the eating disorder for a considerable length of time. The strain of living with the eating disordered person can create divisions in the family. Each person involved will be affected by the sufferer’s behavior in different ways; but on the whole, feels confused, helpless, anxious, and even angry. All wonder how to
