How an Eating Disorder Begins :

UK journalist Kate Spicer embarked on a six week journey of extreme dieting. "What does it take for a normal girl to reach size zero?" she asks.

The frightening piece serves as a cautionary tale.

What happens when someone embarks on a starvation diet?

My legs might still look sturdy, but they struggle to climb stairs and my head is light as a feather. At times I woozily weave rather than walk.

After two weeks, the obsession begins to take hold

The next day I get up and run for an hour and feel really fat. The truth is, the more weight I lose, the fatter I feel and the more I want to lose weight. I lie in bed in the mornings feeling my hipbones and wanting to feel them more. I want them to jut out.

By week three Spicer seems to be losing it

I am suckered into the miserably compromised life of the artificially skinny. Yes, it’s a pain in my nonexistent arse not eating much. It requires a lot of concentration and you need to disconnect from certain (?)

Week 5: Madness

Eating normally? Forget it. My mind is not my own any more and what follows is up there with the worst weeks of my life. [...] The story isn’t going well and I’m stressed. Under stress, when I need to write, I often eat. It’s not cool, I don’t like it, but I do. I am terrified and confused. [...]

Please don't go there.

I wish my words could persuade anyone out there to come back from the brink - or to crawl out of the pit - but words are just words.

I have not experienced an eating disorder, but I have looked into the eyes of someone I love and seen the edge of madness. Once the disorder gains a foothold, it wants to take over and move in permanently.

Don't let it, and don't even flirt with the idea.

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