[blackdog]

I married twenty five years ago to a woman with an eating disorder. It never goes away and it's consequences are disasterous. The lengths that they will go to in order to deceive is amazing. Normally gifted, bright, intelligent people become preoccupied with it to the point of death. They reach a body mass index of a weight so low that their brain goes into a fog. As they age, this number increases. So a 5'7" woman in her 20's may be able to sit on the BMI fence and function at 90lbs. That same woman at 40 years of age will suffer psychosis and if not stopped by forced hospitalization, will die.

I could give examples of some of the behaviors of these women and the long term effects, but it's beyond your wildest imagination and I won't go there. Just go visit a regional psychiatric hospital which specializes in eating disorders. They run $1,000 per day. The sights and stories you'll experience will boggle the mind. Another thing to realize here is that the article seems to think starvation is the issue, it's not. Most eating disorders are binge eaters who then vomit. Very few percentagewise starve themselves by not eating. They eat all the time. Food in pockets, their glove box, car trunk, desk drawers, etc... They can puke in buckets, soda cups, etc... like a normal person would burp. Their abdomen and stomach gets trained to puke on demand.

[Nataku X]

What a sad story. It can be beaten, but only sort of. It's like alcoholism in that regard, you have to first want to beat it and then you have to make the commitment to never tempt it again... Ever. That includes no junk or trigger foods in the house, and never eating to the point you're full and get a "oh s**t I ate too much" feeling. I'm thinking that those bulimics with an anorexic component have a much easier time of it because of their incredibly focused perfectionist mindset.