Generally I try to stay out of the Asylum, but I have a problem, and there have to be some people here who are at least experienced with this disease.
The basic story, I'm 18. My friend's neighbor is divorced and moved here from Canada. A few times a year his 16 year old daughter comes down to visit him. We ended up hooking up the night before she left (right after watching American History X, romantic right?) Anyway, she had never mentioned being uncomfortable wth her weight before, so it came to me as a shock that she said she was going on a "diet" one day while I was talking to her on MSN messenger after she had returned to Canada.
Now before you get the wrong impression, this girl is about 5'7" and weighs no more than 135 pounds. She tells me that she has given up eating meals and now only will drink water and eat pickles and watermelon (which are comprised mostly of... water). The first time she mentioned it to me she was on her 4th day of not eating. Now obviously I freaked out... alot. She is one of the most attractive females I have ever seen, and she was going on about how she was so fat, and i didn't see anything to provoke it.
She says that she is going to continue this "diet" until she weighs 100 pounds, that is her goal. She showed me pictures of what she wished she looked like, all of them ridiculously skinny, able to count all the ribs, disgustingly skinny girls who all obviously have eating disorders.
I have no idea how to go about dealing with this. I have tried begging and pleading, reasoning, bargaining, anything I thought could potentially help. She says I'm taking it too seriously, but every time I point out the health risks she says something to the effect of "It's okay, I know what I'm doing."
If that wasn't bad enough, my almost constant rquests that she stop her "diet" have basically caused her to totally ignore me now. I'm so upset because there's nothing I can do to help, living so far away, and even worse than that, she doesn't think she even needs help.
All of her friends have taken drastic responses to her behavior. A few are going on a hunger strike until she starts eating normally again and another is going on a cocaine bimge until she starts eating. I've tried looking online but it doesn't really say how to deal with an anorexic so much as how to spot one.
Basically as I see it my only options are to do nothing or to see if I can get in contact with her parents some how and see to it that they take care of her, because I can't. She has already told me that if I were to tell her parents about it she would never talk to me again. When it all comes down to it though, if sacrificing out friendship would save her from serious physical illness then I would do it in a heartbeat, I care for her much more than I care for myself.
Can anyone just please try to give me an idea on what to do, because I am so distraught right now i can't even think straight. Thanks, and sorry this is so long.