Today, beauty standards are getting higher and higher. The TV, fashion industry, cosmetic industry, they all keep telling us that we are not beautiful enough. If we don’t use certain face cream or a shampoo, if we don’t wear size zero, if we don’t shop for famous brands- we are nobody. No wonder there is so many eating disorder cases. Young girls are trying to look like models not realizing that they are beautiful just the way they are. I know how it is because I’ve been through that. Anorexia, to be precise. Some may think that eating disorders are a silly, made up illnesses. Well, from my experience I have to say that they are wrong.

An eating disorder is not just a physical but also a mental condition. By that I don’t mean that persons with eating disorders are crazy, just that they have a little bit different picture of themselves. You start by planning to loose excess weight and when you do that you still feel overweight. Every time you look at yourself in the mirror you see something that you don’t like and you eat less and less until the quantity of everything you ate during the day is less than what a completely normal person eats for one meal. I, for example lived on 2-3 apples and 1-2 pieces of brown toast with ketchup per day. The feeling of hunger actually made me happy because I knew I was on a good path to loose more kilos. Crazy, huh? You see, person who has anorexia thinks he/she is fat and no matter how many kilos they loose and how skinny they are, they not change the opinion.

Anorexia usually manifests in puberty, during the “identity crisis”. Teenagers are more likely to fall under the influences from outside. They see what’s beautiful on TV and they try to achieve that but somehow in that process they get lost and a normal dieting becomes unhealthy starvation. Complexes and bad self image also play a very important role in all that. Why don’t the parents stop their kids from doing that, you may ask. Well, parents are sometimes so busy working that they don’t notice this until it’s too late. Even if they do notice it before, a person who wants to lose weight will do everything to achieve that, even lie. I ,for example, lied that I ate before they came from work and then I would eat and apple and rush to the gym. Sometimes I would not eat until they come from work and have a few bites just for them to see. I know , it’s wrong for so many reasons and I’m not proud of it, but then my priorities were different.

I got out of it thought, I realized what I was doing to myself on time. The recovery process was not easy but with the help of my family I did it. Some girls never did. So if you think your child has anorexia-react immediately. And if you are one of those who stumbled upon this article looking for weight loss methods, take a good look in the mirror.. The truth is that you ARE beautiful, no matter how much your weight is.