I believe the media and hollywood is to blame. To be percieved as a good person and sexy you have to be thin. It shows that in order to find a partner you must look like the men and women in the latest video or movie thats out. Men and women now adays are looking for a trophy by there side so they can feel good about themselves. It doesnt matter now adays if you are a kind hearted and intellegent person. You can be an attractive but if you arent thin they will look the other way.

I'm not surprised. I have been up and down with my weight since I was a child, yet as an adult, every emotional stress and disappointment causes me to deprive myself of food. First it was a bad relationship, now it is a bad job and I watch myself going from a size 8 to a size 4, then a 2. Hollywood doesn't influence me. Stress does.

Hollywood doesn't have anything to do with it. I enjoy the competition and challenge I get from it.
It's my closet friend and always there for me.

Please tell me more about this phisical disease. please e-mail more information to me.

I have had Anorexia since I was 16 and now I am 28. I was never influenced by the media. Stress influences me. I didn't receive the care and attention I deserved as a child, I went through a traumatic event at 16 years of age, and constant bullying throughout my life caused me to deprive myself of food. And honestly, it worked. It got me the attention and love I needed (being a middle child, it's hard). I am 5'4". At my lowest point(two years ago, when I was 26), I was 60 lbs and spent a *year* in a treatment center in Utah. They force-fed me through a tube in my nose, and I have gained weight from it. I am now at a so-called "normal" weight. I am not happy. No one understands me, no one listens, and I am *FAT*. And so the downward spiral begins again into my Anorexia...

Sunshine

I think the media has A LOT to do with it! I have had anorexia off and on my entire life. I am struggling with it now...One reason was because I got to a point on the scale that I have never been before. My husband and I would watch tv and movies and I would feel terrible when I saw the actresses on the screen. I wanted to look like them!! size 2 or 3 with no belly roll! I wanted my husband to lust after me, not be ashamed of me in comparison to these ladies every man seems to be after. It is very true that you are respected more, and paid attention to more, if you are thin and attractive!

i became anorexis at 11, this lasted really until i was 30 and left the uk and went to australia where i was able to "reinvent" myself. nobody knew i'd been a 80lb food obsessive, instead (after a 3 month alcohol fueled stop off in thailand where i hung out with mad people and had the maddest, fun times, but was still the thinnest person there, so it didn't matter) i was a normal, healthy 112lb person with a clean slate and i LOVED it - i even went up to 170lb and didn't give a damn, cos as a horse breaker, trainer and showjumper i was expected to have a bit of muscle behind me. i never weighed myself, i ate to make up for years of starving and found out what life really could be. unfortunately visas run out and i had to return to the uk and everything went, as we say here "tits up"! my heavier status was commented on incessantly - people actually thought i'd be pleased to hear "ooh, haven't you put on some weight" - they actually thought they were praising me and i felt judged. then i met a man who made me feel great to start with but has since taken over so much an now my life with him is total misery (he's either unaware or doesn't care about how unhappy i am cos, as ex army, he thinks i should just 'pull myself together and put a smile on my face'). my self esteem is so low that i put up with him rather than be alone. i'm 35 years old and currently 118lb - at this age it's hard to drop the weight that easily - and after alll that time overseas of feeling so not bothered about food i'm now experiencing all the old feelings of food disgust, i see foods in terms of the amount of fat and carbs they contain and i'm either living in the gym or doing as much heavy work around my horses and spending as much time riding ("real" riding, where you actually work the horse is very demanding) that i find myself passing out and crying alot. i've worked so hard to lose all the anorexic hangups but it seems i'll never be free. can anyone reassure me otherwise?!!!

no, its not hollywood or the media. i am now 34 but have struggled with food issues most of my life. this isnt a new thing with me and i dont think its new with other adults just now being diagnosed. its just NOW coming to light, but i'll bet its been happening all along.

The pressure to be thin these days are incredible. You always see the young, hot, sexy THIN woman, in movies/tv/adverstising. You see the models on the runway who are uber thin, sometimes even emaciated. And these people are looked up to as Gorgeous or Beautiful. They're the image of perfection! But its not real. This isn't how the average person looks. Model come in at, at least, 5 feet 11 inches, and about 115 pounds, maybe even less. But the average woman comes in at 5 feet 4 inches and weighing at 145.
So of course, people will look up to these models, and think, "Everyone seems to be looking that way, maybe I should to!". And thats what may start the dieting, which could develop into a full blown eating disorder.
I see little girls who are, at age 9 or 10, looking at themselves and saying, "Gosh, im so fat, I should go on a diet," when they probably dont even reach the 110 mark.
But
Eating disorders are far more then just losing weight. theres some problem underneath that.
So, I dont think the media is to blame. But it definitely plays a major role in an eating disorder