Hi I am a recovered anorexic. It's been 9 years since I went through the worst of the disease, and yes I have gained weight. Not a lot, but in order to recover you NEED to gain weight, and be ok with it. I try to stay positive and healthy (key word) by doing a bit of moderate exercising every day. This keeps you feeling good about yourself, it releases endorphines, and keeps you, again, healthy. Don't restrict calories, just add some mild exercise to your daily life. But the key is no restricting, otherwise you end up on the anorexic track again. I hope this helps.

Was never, not once, bulimic but severely anorexic for roughly six years - developed twenty-two years ago. Was hospitalized after two years of starvation, met and observed daily several bulimics at the facility and feel I understand it as well as anyone could without having it.

Once you re-establish your relationship with food, consider it nourishment and a necessity - not something to fear or, conversely, some guilty pleasure - your body will find its most comfortable and desirable mass index.

You will want to eat only when you are hungry, become able to distinguish between the body's cravings and recognize how to satisfy them.

But none of the above can occur without the complete commitment to replacing this interest, this obsession and ritual with others more proactive, genuinely healthy, and self-less.

The most critical message I would like to share with anyone suffering an eating disorder involves the guaranteed and extremely serious reality that this action against the body over enough time can and will permanently alter homeostasis, hormonal balance, body ecology to the extent that is potentially beyond repair or recovery. Worse - organ, tissue, cell, DNA damage I fear possibly permanent.

Give It up before It becomes You.

Only stepping outside oneself can facilitate that ability to release.