Experts on eating disorders vary in their opinions on this question. Some experts think that anorectics should learn to eat as other people do.

Web4Health-Sweden considers that patients should be encouraged to choose eating habits and food that suit them. This does not imply that they should be allowed to continue with food abuse. Eating like that means they are caught in an addiction and feel compelled to escape their anxiety by starvation and/or binge-eating. They need help to get out of this unhealthy way of eating. More.

Then, they will need extra help in order to find themselves and make their own decisions. It is better for patients to be independent than to be forced into a standard which is not their own. A person who makes her own choices, may of course be more independent than the one who merely adapts to the norm. The patient may also choose to adapt to what is common, but then it is her own choice and not something imposed upon her. The aim is to make patients get in contact with all of their emotions and physical sensations. Based on that, they will then be able to make choices according to their own wishes.