Over 70 million people worldwide suffer from an eating disorder. Yet not enough is known about the real reasons behind them.
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge disorder are not strange psychiatric disorders. They are understandable reactions against difficult circumstances.
With depression at their root, the feelings associated with eating disorders are much more commonly felt than is accepted. Most of us suffer from depression to some extent at some point in our lives.
The only difference with those who develop eating disorders is that perhaps more damage has been done, deepening and lengthening the depression.
There is a scourge of proana and promia websites out there, encouraging women and even young girls to starve themselves, and glorifying the pain that real people are suffering.
Eating disorders are dangerous but they are far easier to understand than most people think. Those who are suffering from them don't know how to love themselves. They have never been shown. Proper treatment involves good therapy during which the sufferer can learn better coping strategies, and how to carve out a happy life for herself.
She will learn how to improve her self esteem in real tangible ways and be able to live her life free from worry, fear and guilt.
I am a recovered anorexic and have built my website: http://www.anorexia-say-no.com to help other sufferers, and as part of a campaign against the dangerous proana and promia websites.