• Be patient
• Listen
• Do not judge
• Do not avoid talking about specific topics, as this will only be noticed by the sufferer
• Be supportive
• Acceptance to anything they tell you, but also, to where they are at
• Look after yourself too - as hard as it may seem, in order to help someone through this rough time you do need to take care of you.  If you are not taking care of yourself it is hard to be supportive to someone else.
• Educate yourself on eating distress - even though you may never know what it is like to go through, if you educate yourself you will be better prepared to understand what the other person is going through
• Try to understand that whatever behaviours the sufferer uses it does have a payoff - if there was no payoff, he/she would not be engaging in the behaviours
• Let the sufferer know that you are there for them if needed, but at the same time you must take care of yourself

Unhelpful Things

• Comments on behaviours - the more you focus in on the behaviours the worse they tend to become
• Comments on appearance (this can aggrevate the behaviours, as ironic as that may sound - what you say, and the sufferer hears tend to be at opposite ends of pole)
• Do not talk about diets, calories, celebrities figures etc.
• If he/she slips do not get angry - a slip is only a slip, and does not necessarily equate a relapse
• Do not measure your worth against the sufferers progress - just because the sufferer is still engaging in the behaviours does NOT make you a bad friend/parent
• Comments on other peoples appearance
• Labelling - the terms are just words, and can have the effect that you seem to be judging - be careful with how you use words