dreadful stories I had read. Instead I thought I still had everything under control and could stop losing weight whenever I wanted to. After nearly two years I realized that I could not.). Another fact was that I met a boy I liked very much and who became my boyfriend. Through knowing that he liked me not only for my appearance but also and especially for my character, I developed more self-confidence.

Even though these people helped me very much my psychologist is still the one who contributed the most to my recovery. For a long time my mother had wanted me to have therapeutic treatment but I had always been against it as I was too scared that I would have to put on weight. Eventually I myself thought it would be best to get professional help and from then on my condition has improved a lot. My therapist helped me realize that perfection in ways of perfect school grades, constant exercising and, most of all, keeping my weight as low as possible was not going to make me into a perfect person. Now I am not so afraid of growing up anymore and have found out that boys do not like girls who are extremely skinny, as I had previously believed. I have to say that the process of gaining weight again was actually very often harder and more painful than the losing of it had been. Still I feel much better now and am incredibly glad that with the help of my psychologist I have managed to recover from this illness. In conclusion it can be said that the best thing to do to help somebody suffering from anorexia is not to try to reason with her in any way but to make her go to a therapist. An anorexic is far beyond just being on a healthy “diet”. She is suffering from a serious illness and therefore needs to go to a therapist. This may not seem very appealing at first since she has believed herself to be self sufficient, perfect in many ways and not in need of assistance. Yet the sooner she receives professional help the greater the chances for recovery are. After a certain time she herself will recognize this. Hopefully she will be able to, like me, escape the golden cage of anorexia.

Sources: >The Enigma of Anorexia Nervosa> by Hilde Bruch