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Note: We have received many inquiries, stories, and notes from young women in various stages of anorexia. If you are one of these young women, please write to us. We will help you inform your parents or a significant adult in your life so that they can help you. We can explain your situation, provide the education necessary for them to understand your condition, and help pave the way so that you can begin your recovery without guilt, anxiety, or fear. If you have anorexia, or if you suspect that you do, let us help. Send us a note by clicking here.
If you or someone you love has battled anorexia, send us your story and tell us how the condition was resolved. Be sure to include your initials, city, and state so that we can include it with your story. If you are under 14 years of age, we will require a statement from your parent or guardian authorizing use of your story before we can use it.
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On 3 July 2003, we received the following story from a young visitor. This 14-year old's poignant story serves as both an inspiration and a warning to other women suffering from anorexia. Please contact us immediately with your questions or comments.
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"My name is (withheld due to age). I am 14 years old and I have recently stopped being anorexic. It started in February of this year. One day I decided I wanted to lose weight. At the time, I was depressed because I didn't have a boyfriend. Plus, my dad kept calling me "big butt." I had no clue how I was to accomplish it. I became obsessed with checking how much fat and calories everything had. I started eating less and less at meals, and soon, I had chopped off breakfast and lunch completely, and at only a small amount at dinnertime. I began checking my weight at least three times a day.
Eventually, I decided to tell my friends because I trust them with almost everything. They were both shocked and worried, they had noticed that I hadn't been eating lunch for a long time, they didn't think anything of it though because I had lied to them and told them I ate a big breakfast. Bur now, all of them were worried, but I didn't understand why. I was convinced that there was nothing wrong with being anorexic. It was helping me lose weight and it was fast, easy and painless... or so I thought.
After the first month, I had lost 20 pounds, but that wasn't all I was losing. I was losing my mind. I was obsessive about weight loss. I had to stop doing my normal activities like hanging out with friends just so I could follow my obsessions. Now I almost feared my friends. Whenever I saw them, they told me to eat and shoved foor at my face. One day, my best friends tried to shove applesauce down my throat! The nagging wasn't helping at all. I couldn't bear going to my friends' houses to sleep over. They would say out loud, in front of their parents, "here have this" and after they did it I couldn't say "no, thank you" without appearing suspicious to their parents.
In a few weeks, things got worse. I started to get sharp pains in my stomach quite often. It was harder to concentrate in school and I always felt exhausted. I decided it was time to quit, better now than to have one of my friends tell a grown-up.
It wasn't as easy as I thought. It was easy to start, but nearly impossible to quit. Considering I decided to quit in April and I only stopped in June, you can see how difficult it is to stop. I was in so deep that it was actually physically painful to eat. I tried and tried to gradually eat more, but I had stopped feeling hunger. I decided I needed help. I decided to talk with our school counselor.
I made an appointment and told her about my problem. She got out a book that showed me how much an average teenage girl should weigh according to her height. Before I started, I was 5'8" and 160 pounds. When she showed me the book, it had a diagram and showed me that, for my height, I was at a normal weight. I looked down farter at my current weight, 140 pounds. I was in the danger zone. If I lost any more weight, I would be risking a lot of bad things like facial hair, weak teeth and bones, and a likeliness to get diseases. Now I was scared.
My fear is what saved me. After I was properly informed, quitting was a lot easier. I had my friends' support, my own determination, and the support of our school counselor. I forced myself to eat lunch. From there, I worked on eating more dinner. Finally, I forced myself to eat breakfast. Now everything was almost better. I wasn't tired or in pain. There was one thing though. Almost all of the weight I had lost came back.
No worries! I decided to lose weight the healthy way. I went on a healthy diet with my mom and exercised regularly. I now weigh 140 pounds again which, for my height, is a healthy weight.
Thank you for listening to my story. I just wanted to reach out to all those teenage girls who are anorexic or who are considering being anorexic. You can lose weight an easier way. Try going on a diet with your friend or a family member to make it easier. Make sure it's a healthy diet and you're not starving yourself because that doesn't get you anywhere. Exercise regularly to tone muscles and keep your body in top shope. The most important thing is to be patient! Never give up! Don't be anorexic, it's not worth it. Get help from someone you trust. NEVER face it alone. I was lucky to get out of it, you might not be so lucky if you don't stop now."
Editor's Comment: We thank this young woman for sharing her heartfelt story with our readers.
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