Because of the emotional anguish that occurs even during treatment of this anorexia nervosa, the disorder has adverse effects upon the self-concept and self-perception of a troubled teen. They have observed that those afflicted are too obsessed with their eating habits to recover by themselves. How she is rescued- is up to those around her. Treatment itself has an effect on the afflicted and may not only cause wellness but altering distress through the process as well.

One initial step in treatment of anorexia nervosa is stabilizing the physical health of the afflicted. This primarily concerns re-feeding of the patient in order to nurse one back to health. It is otherwise formally known as ‘force-feeding’ by esteemed doctors who care for eating disordered patients, because of the general reaction of non-compliance to the initial attempts of feeding offered to those afflicted. In such cases, the patient may first be fed intravenously. She may be force-fed through this method of tube-feeding called hyperalimentation. Food is literally shoved down her mouth, or a tube is inserted into a vein above her heart in a surgical procedure and liquid nourishment is then pumped directly into her bloodstream. That is done to provide nourishment and nurse the body back to a healthy weight.

 Force-feeding an anoretic brings about confusion as the body is nourished by the food while the mind is torn with guilt and self-hatred from this “sinful act of consumption”. Suicidal thoughts begin to enter her mind. She has lost control over the only thing she can control – eating. 

But this isn’t the only way treatment can affect an anoretic. All this negativity need not be so. Another significant step in treatment exists- psychotherapy. Psychotherapy stresses the need to control symptoms of anorexia nervosa from analysis of what goes through the mind of the afflicted. It may deal with their irrational fears of being fat through simple conversations. This step in treatment is based on the understanding that as long as a patient focuses all energy and thinking on carrying out the actions of problem eating, she will not become motivated toward the process of detrimental self-examination and change. Force-feeding does take care of the physical well-being of those afflicted but it does nothing for the root of the disorder- its mental side. Without psychotherapy, an afflicted patient may just as easily return to her old ways of starvation as soon as she is out of the hospital because what drives her thoughts remains the same.