The feelings of intense guilt and anxiety that caregivers experience are probably similar to those produced by living with a person who is suicidal. An over-involved parent may even support the patient's eating disorder for various reasons:
Some parents may be afraid of releasing some underlying anger or grief directed at the patient.
Other parents may identify with the goal of thinness and not even perceive that their child is unhealthily underweight.
In such cases, it is extremely important that the family fully understand the danger of this disorder and that they are collaborating in their child's illness, or even death, by encouraging this state.
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