Ok, I know that TTL is a place where people can talk about there issues with others in similar positions and find hope in the stories of others. But I would honestly like to know who would receive advice off websites that are wanting people to purge and not eat?

A very good friend of mine has been looking at these sites and had been wanting to drastically slim down, to the point where she doesn't eat for days and knows all the inside tricks about how to purge and hide it from the people who are around her. I would just like to point out that I am not using this thread to rant, but I am trying to get a grasp on how she is thinking. I love this friend of mine. She has literally been a plague on my credit rating, but I love her to death - So long as it is very far away.

I'm at a loss of what to say to her. Myself and people in our social see that it is not the best way to healthily loose weight, even my friend does to a certain extent. I guess what I am trying to say is, How do I let her know that It doesn't matter what she looks like, everyone loves her for who she is to us, not how she looks...

Aggh that word is so triggy, thinspiration. It's what some people I know used to call the pictures of models they would look at.

Anyway ... the way I've seen it, there are two types of "starvers/purgers" if you will. Not to be offensive (I myself have starved and do still occasionally do so, so ... how can it be offensive if I am referring to myself). Anyway. There's the ones who want to fit into a size six, do the drill for a few months, fit into size six and then stop. Or who go a few weeks down the path, decide it's too hard and stop.

These people don't have the "switch" for the eating disordered mind set, in my opinion. They see it as a fad diet. Which is sad and kinda screwed up, really.

Then there's people who do this for whatever reason - usually control, but sometimes to lose weight for fitting into a size six - and something in their head twigs. The switch flips. And it becomes a full blown eating disorder which is HELL to go through and the switch never fully unflips.

These people have far deeper reasons for not eating - whether it's a mood disorder or something that went really wrong in their lives.

I don't know how to tell her it doesn't matter what she looks like, other than to tell her how amazing and adorable and what-have-you you all think she is. Show her articles about how badly this can damage her body and this memorial to people lost to eating disorders. Find the horror stories of the girls whose stomachs quite literally exploded while they were purging, to be found in their underwear, bloated, on the bathroom floor, and show them to her.

If she's doing it for a fad or the switch hasn't flipped yet, she'll soon realize it's not worth it.

If the switch has flipped ... you'll need some serious intervention to get her to stop.

*hugs* I wouldn't wish this hell on anyone. I wish people would stop seeing it as a quick fix to get thin, cause that it isn't.