The development of anorexia in an individual can be put down to peer and societal pressure to look attractive, but it can also be about wanting to take control of one's own life.

In so many ways, our parents, society, the government, etc. control so many aspects of our life, but our heating habits is something we can control, which is very attractive to a person feeling helpless.

The signs of a person developing anorexia include: withdrawal from social situations; refusing to eat in front of others; controlling and watching the amount one eats; excessively exercising; controlling and watching the type of foods one eats; obsessively poring over the ingredients, calories, carbohydrates, etc., in certain foods; continually asking for reassurance from those close to them that eating a certain amount won't gain weight or fat on them; growing amounts of lethargy in a person; a bout of inexplicable fainting or continual headaches; and, continual obsession with looking in the mirror at one's body type and shape.

The development of full-blown anorexia takes a while, a few months, sometimes longer. However, the recovery from it takes much much longer, and a sufferer may never fully recover.

For a dying anorexia sufferer, the only solution is to go into hospital and be force-fed through a nasal gastric tube. As unpleasant as that is, it's the only way to keep a sufferer alive.

Then, when the sufferer is gaining strength and weight, their mental wellbeing needs to be taken care of.

Many sessions with psychologists and psychiatrists needs to ensue, where the sufferer discusses their illness, looking deeply into what brought it about in them in the first instance.

Believe it or not, after spending weeks, sometimes months, being force-fed through a tube, it will almost magically happen one day that a depressed anorexia sufferer will wake up and decide to start eating again by themselves.

Whether it's a regained appreciation for life, a realization that they cannot get the tube out of their nose or leave hospital unless they eat, or simply having gotten over the anorexia obsessions that have consumed the sufferer, this is literally what happens.

Needless to say, people shouldn't expect an anorexia sufferer to go from not eating anything, to eating three large meals a day. The process to eating healthily again will also take time, a few months at the very least.

This can be because the person will still not weigh a great amount, and thus not

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