I had a very close friend who was anorexic. Her name was "Cindy" and she was a beautiful 16-year-old girl. At that age everyone adored her: her friends, her teachers, her parents, etc. She lived with her parents in a beautiful house. She was on the honor roll in school. She was very athletic, being on the track team, field-hockey team, soccer team, and the girls' basketball team. She was also musically talented; she was on the choir and played the piano. She was also the editor-in-chief of her high school yearbook. She was popular and was the president of her class. To other kids it seemed as if Cindy at it all. However, no one

The individual may not recognize that his or her weight loss or not eating at all is a problem. Anorexics may be afraid of losing control over the amount of food they eat; thus, they want to control their emotions, and reactions to their emotions. With a low self-esteem and need for acceptance they will turn to obsessive dieting and starvation as a way to control not only their weight, but their feelings and actions concerning the emotions attached (www.healthcentral.com). Some also feel that they do not deserve pleasure out of life and will deny themselves of situations offering pleasure, including eating.

The depression, shame and agonizing sense of isolation caused by eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa affects families, schooling, damages careers with promises, and destroys relationships. Without treatment, the future for men and women with eating disorders is depressing. But with psychological counseling and medical evaluations (sometimes in combination with nutritional counseling and medication), people can recover. Sufferers can develop appropriate inner resources and look forward to living normal, productive and happy lives.

Cindy's mother immediately made an appointment with the family doctor. However, it was not easy to persuade Cindy to go see the doctor. She did not believe anything was wrong with her. In fact, she was so happy with her weight loss that she planned to go on dieting. She was even convinced that she looked healthy and beautiful, which she was not.

At home, her parents noticed the changes too. They were worried by how thin she had gotten. They never saw her eat because Cindy had so many different excuses to explain why she was never hungry. She would say that she had just had a snack; or she would say that she had stopped off for a pizza with us before coming home from school. At first, her parents didn't think anything of that; they thought that she was fine. Besides, she had so much energy with all the school activities she was in. She exercised a lot, and she kept up with her schoolwork. But Cindy became even thinner and paler. She began to look quite sick. Cindy's mother even noticed that her supply of tampons had not been touched in months, so she became worried. She realized that Cindy was ill.

However, the main cause of an eating disorder is the media, such as the magazines, the

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