Restriction from anorexia brings some benefits.

• Relaxation of tensions
• Feelings of control
• Status

However, it does not aid in conflict resolution or relieve mental stress. As a result, they are reinforced, or they may even reach a dead end. For instance, in a situation when a person is in a submissive relationship and feels inadequate as a result, the "solution" may be excessive food control, displaying a valorizing control over having a slender body. Thus, a sense of self-control is fostered as a result of this activity, which also improves self-esteem. Contrarily, dietary limitations do not stop the initial stimulus.

Because stressors cannot be totally eliminated by the responses brought on by food deprivation, deprivation always seems "necessary" yet is never enough. In general, the pathological vocabulary that people acquire while being socialized in accordance with their socio-demographic characteristics provides the solutions to their stresses, or more specifically, to the specific behaviors that will crystallize their ills: food deprivation, "bulimia crises," alcohol consumption, drug use, scarification, etc., or the triggering of a pathology without practice (depression), or even suicide.