rable characteristics into a near death illness. The anorexic may have had more responsibility when they were too young for it, such as taking care of a parent, or essentially being the parent. Taking on the parent role as the support for their family, this develops tragically later in life, usually when they realize they cannot fix the worlds problems, and take it upon themselves to hold the blame. Often not believing they deserve to live, or that they should die because they failed. This is believed to be another of the many possible causes for anorexia. For an the anorexic it is very difficult to explain to others what they are going through, and when they do try to get treatment they are often told lies, hurtful lies. Countless times the doctor finds something to blame, may it be that the child is selfish, eager for attention, or that their parents are to blame in ways of abuse, sexual or otherwise, or bad parenting. But those problems are the minority of causes, yet psychologists still use these theories to understand the anorexic. Anorexia is not something that you can learn about from a book, or from a friend or from stories, to truly understand it, you must live it. The closest thing you can come to it without actually having it, is being compassionate to the victim, at least try to help them. Many doctors are crude, rude, mean and just plain jerks to some people who suffer from anorexia. It is the hurtful and degrading media images flooding our lives that influence some if not much of this. Marianne Apostolides best puts it in the book Inner Hunger. She describes her entire experience of anorexia to bulimia, from the beginnings to the final recovery. It is a horrifying and heartbreaking portrayal of what goes on "behind the scenes," in the life of an anorexic. She explains the day to day struggles, the multiple unsuccessful attempts at recovery because either the treatment was not putting her needs first...
