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Recommended Dos and Don’ts DO • Educate yourself on eating disorders • Learn the differences between facts and myths about weight, nutrition and exercise • Ask what you can do to help • Listen openly and reflectively • Be patient and nonjudgmental • Talk with the person in a kind way when you are calm and not angry, frustrated or upset • Remind the person that he/she has people who care and support him/her • Suggest professional help in a gentle way and offer to go along • Compliment the person’s personality successes and accomplishments • Encourage treatment compliance • Encourage social activities • Remember: Recovery work is up to the affected person • Understand that the person is not looking for attention or pity DON’T • Accuse or cause feelings of guilt • Invade privacy and contact the patient’s doctors or others behind his/her back • Demand weight changes • Make eating, food, clothes or appearance the focus of the conversation • Make promises or rules you cannot follow • Threaten (e.g. if you do this once more I’ll…) • Create guilt or place blame on the person • Put timetables on recovery • Take the person’s actions personally • Try to change the person’s attitudes about eating or nag about food • Try to control the person’s life • Use scare tactics to get the person into  treatment, but do call 911 if you believe  the person’s condition is life–threatening 45