A family friend (she and I grew up quite close) has been fighting anorexia for more than 13 years now. She developed anorexia at age 13 and is now 26. She is dying, she had heart failure last week and has had her organs fail on her. The number of times she's been in and out of treatment

and it hasn't helped. She has given up all hope of living. She calls this disease her friend Ana. She cannot relinquish the control she attains. It's all about control.
She has literally waisted away, last I heard she was weighing in at 28kgs. The disease has taken its toll on her and her family. It's a selfish disease. I can't spend a lot of time with her. This is purely a selfish reason: she drains me of energy and when I do spend time with her I adopt her habits. It's scary. Earlier last year, she moved in with us as her parents and my parents thought she would do better with a change of environment that wasn't an institution. My parents had to ask her parents to take her back because every time I would eat, I started feeling repulsed with my self and adopted anorexic tendencies.
Here are some horrible statistics: 1% of adolescent girls develop anorexia. Out of those 1%, 10% of them die from the disease
This is not a lifestyle choice. Its a copout. They have the choice to LIVE or to DIE. That's the saddest thing - its the control and satisfaction they get from that control that they can't relinquish