When I was treating a case of anorexia, I asked myself, ‘why does a person who follows a hypercaloric diet not gain weight and even sometimes continues to lose weight?’ I started to think about this problem in terms of the Yin/Yang theory:

Generally we could say that YIN is inside and YANG is outside.

For some people, losing weight is YIN and gaining weight is YANG.

When you have a patient in session who is anorexic, it is fruitless to simply ask her (or him) to eat more, because she or he will refuse to do that.

But, one also notices that most patients who suffer from anorexia avoid going outside and socializing with other people. They usually stay home alone or with a few family members.

What we can try to do is to ask them to go outside – nowhere inside – just to drink a glass of wine or join one or two other people and walk on the beach, in the countryside, or do any other activity outside!

If they accept the idea, you win and they start the healing process.
Going out – from inside to outside – is one of the different issues. (From YIN to YANG).