When times are bad, people feel compelled to overeat.

How silly people were to eat. They thought they needed food for energy, but they didn't. Energy came from will, from self-control.

Eating disorder sufferers cannot be told to 'pull themselves together', to 'stop doing that' or to 'just eat'.

The reasons for Emma's illness and for her decision to allow life in, rather than die, are intertwined and involve the beginnings of her feelings of belonging, of safety and of competence to be in the world.

They would say, 'What are YOU eating?' ... And that's what they wanted. They said, 'We want to eat what you're eating.'

The good news, however, is that, also contrary to popular belief, full and lasting recovery from an eating disorder is possible.