anorexia/bulimia Suggested Do's and Don'ts for Addressing anorexia/bulimia planet-therapy.com would like to give special thanks to Lorraine Grieves and the Anti-anorexia/bulimia League for their helpful suggestions in this section.

Ten Do's

• Examine your attitudes about body shape, dieting and fat prejudice. You may have unknowingly internalized ideas which exacerbate a desire for thinness.

• Nourish yourself and your relationships with those you care about.

• Challenge old stories about who you are as a person, daughter, friend, worker etc. that don't fit with who you believe you are and where your life is going.

• Be sure that images of successful females are included in school curriculum and other sources - without such images, girls are left with predominant media definitions of thinness as a primary means of success for females.

• Be aware there are many societal pressures which support the notion that females and, to a lesser degree males, are valued more for how they look then any other quality.

• Beware of unrealistic standards that are impossible to achieve.

• Be aware that perfection is an unachievable goal and will always leave you feeling less than.

• Know that dieting can appear as if it is a good way to "get in control" of one's life but dieting is never, ever successful and can set the stage for an eating disorder.

• Make a commitment to educating boys about the various forms of violence against women, including weightism, and their responsibilities for preventing it.

• Examine the ways in which your beliefs, attitudes and behaviors about your body and the bodies of others have been shaped by the forces of weightism and sexism.

Ten Don'ts

• Don't let exercise becoming "torturcize."

• Don't let the ways of dieting and regimented exercise sneak into your life.

• Don't put your child on a diet or exercise program.

• Don't let your child's school, your home, cottage, or office become sites for promoting items (posters, books, contests) that endorse the cultural ideal of thinness.

• Don't allow discussions regarding food, calories, fatness, shape be dominant in your conversations.

• Don't get into thinking about food as "good" or "bad." Food has no moral value -- people are neither good nor bad based on their food choices.

• Don't let numbers rule your life -- stop counting and measuring calories, fat grams, weight, and stop worrying about your dress, pant size, and breast size, and stop counting how many sit ups/push ups and miles you have walked.

• Don't let anorexia/bulimia and bulimia isolate you.

• Don't negatively compare yourself.

• Don't believe you are anorexia/bulimia and bulimia's special subject -- eating disorders treat everyone with the same brutality.