Eating disorders like Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa can affect children as young as seven years old to older men and women. This is no longer a disorder restricted to young women alone.

Anorexia Nervosa is where people restrict their intake of food and bulimia exhibits the behavior of binging and vomiting. Bulimia is two to five times more prevalent than Anorexia. They are psychiatric disorders that can prove to be lethal.

Anorexic at 10!

Daughter of Marg Oaten (who wants to be anonymous) developed Anorexia at the age of ten and is fighting the disorder from past 12 years. She developed the disorder as she developed a fear towards the bodily changes that she would experience during adolescence and because she could not bear the pressures at school.

Mrs. Oaten said, 'I was absolutely distraught, It is the worst thing in the world to know your daughter might die.'

Due to sudden loss of weight, she was hospitalized after which she stabilized a little and then developed Bulimia two years later.

Rebecca, 23 developed Anorexia when she was 15. she says, 'I hated the hunger and the cold and the tiredness, but the feeling of being able to control what I ate was brilliant.'

Reasons for developing Eating Disorders early

Society's perception of thin is glamorous, apart from which peer pressure and depression may also be one of the many factors.

Anorexia among Middle aged

Alison Alden,43 married and settled with three kids wanted to lose weight without much effort when she was running a guest house.

Over the next three years she lost 17 kg, but thought: 'This couldn't be anorexia because I had never been ill in that way and I was too old.'

Later she felt that she needed assistance hence she approached her family and doctor, anti-depressants and effective counseling helped her out.

According to experts, complete recovery might take years for the patient.

Alden said, 'It's all about having a reason to get better and building strategies to cope.' She has also written a book on her struggle called Sleeping Dragons and Poppy seeds.

Conclusion

To live satisfactorily, believe in your self rather than in what people believe in because always thin is not sexy, rather at times being chubby is cute. So eat right and live better!