11 REAL CASES OF ANOREXIA - ARTE - 2025

Today we are going to report 11 real cases of anorexia that reflect the consequences that this disease can have. Researchers suggest that approximately 1% of adolescent girls may have anorexia.

It is very difficult to overcome anorexia, because there is no "cure" but you must learn to control yourself. When we read about eating disorders like anorexia, we wonder, "What makes us get into this situation?"

And the fact is that the factors that trigger or facilitate it are very numerous. But as we will see here, we will realize that family or peer pressure to lose weight is very important.

What there is no doubt is that culture and society play a very important role in the development of these types of disorders. Knowing these cases will help us get closer to a realistic and practical vision of anorexia.

List of real cases of anorexia

1- Rebecca Jones

It is about a British woman with anorexia who claims to weigh less than her little daughter, even wearing the same clothes her daughter wears. In fact, you encourage your daughter to enjoy all kinds of sweets and chocolate. While she survives on soup, caffeine and toast.

Rebecca has lived with anorexia since she was 13 years old. Her problem began when, after her parents' divorce when she was 11 years old, she began to eat excessively, weighing 90kg.

This led to her classmates making fun of her for her looks. Unsatisfied with her body, she decided to stop eating. The change in her figure pleased her colleagues, who congratulated her on her weight loss. Like her family, who did not realize the problem that Rebecca hid.

At 15, Rebecca was weak, barely getting out of bed, and even missed her period (amenorrhea). So when she got pregnant with her daughter years later, she didn't expect it. It was a miracle that her pregnancy went smoothly, as she increased her food intake with the help of her partner.

After a few years improving, he separated from his partner and the problem worsened again: he started a diet that made him lose weight again. She expresses that she would like to heal, eat like her daughter and go to restaurants together, but she does not feel capable.

Doctors have warned you that you should start eating, as you could get a heart attack if you don't gain weight. In addition, he has been diagnosed with hypokalemia, which involves extremely low blood potassium levels. The latter manifests itself in muscle weakness, cramps, and fatigue.

2- Valeria Levitina

She is the thinnest woman with anorexia in the world. She was born in Russia, the only child in a family in which she was constantly criticized for her extra pounds. Her family grew her up with the idea that she had to be perfect.

It seems that her mother lived in fear that her daughter would develop obesity like other relatives, so since she was little she controlled her weight and forced her to follow diets.

At 23 she was already very skinny and began working as a model, which caused more obsession and anxiety about her weight. In fact, many told her that she had to keep losing weight to hire her. Thus, at age 24, she weighed only 38 kg. In 1994 she was a finalist in Miss Chicago.

Surprisingly he has been an icon of inspiration for many anorexic teenagers who dream of following his path. However, Valeria is dedicated to informing about the dangers of this disease, stating that it has ruined her life.

He is currently intolerant to carbohydrates and sugar, since because he has restricted them for so long his body does not digest them. Her dream is to overcome anorexia and become a mother.

3- Jeremy Gillitzer

He died at 38 years old weighing 29 kg, and was one of the few known cases of men with anorexia.

Jeremy was overweight as a child, and at school his classmates laughed at him for that reason. Then little by little he stopped eating, eating smaller and smaller portions of food.

At age 12, he began to present eating disorders that were accentuated with the appearance of other problems. He came to weigh 25 kg by restricting his meals trying to feel that he was in control of his life.

One of the reasons was that he did not feel accepted by others regarding his sexual orientation.

His parents immediately went to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with anorexia and entered a special center to receive treatment. They interned him for a month with the aim of gaining weight, and if he did not gain he could not access certain "privileges" such as seeing his family or watching television.

However, once the treatment was completed and after returning home, he suffered the disease again. He was admitted again later, where he had a suicide attempt.

Then came a good stage for Jeremy, he accepted his homosexuality, began to relate and began to go to the gym reaching an enviable body. So at the age of 25 she started working as a professional model.

However, a love breakup caused Jeremy to go into depression and relapse into the disease until his death.

4- Lauren Bailey

This woman is famous online for losing weight to 22 kg walking 12 hours a day, as her fear of gaining weight did not allow her to remain still.

Since she was little, she suffered from depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder that went hand in hand with her anorexia. She didn't even know what it was until one day she read an article on the subject and recognized her illness.

It seems that what contributed to her anorexia was that it developed earlier than usual. At 9 years old she had already reached puberty and felt different from other girls her age. For being different, they made fun of her and even went so far as to tell her why she wasn't dieting.

Then, around the age of 14, he started walking from 6 in the morning until 6 in the afternoon. Even at home, she forced herself to remain on her feet or active. Thus, she lost so much weight that she almost died.

She was admitted to a hospital for 18 months where she temporarily gained weight to be able to leave and then returned to her usual obsessive habits.

But, until she was admitted to the hospital for months, she could not decide to fight the disease. She is currently facing her problem and trying to enjoy her life.

5- Kate Puncher

Former model Kate's boyfriend gave her a nice wedding dress about 3 sizes bigger than hers. He told her: "When the dress fits you, we will get married." If she didn't gain weight, the wedding was called off.

This is how Kate decided to cope with her illness. In fact, they are now married and have started a family; despite the fact that the doctors came to announce that she could be infertile.

It all started when she was 18 years old, at that time she had a boyfriend who forced her to lose weight. I told her that if she gained weight she would cut with it. Then Kate began to lose weight by resorting to food restriction and purging (vomiting, laxatives and weight loss pills). She also continuously took strong peppermint candies. She stayed that way for 10 years until she met her current husband.

Now Kate feels that she has fulfilled her dreams and is healthy and happy with herself.

6- Isabelle Caro

She was a famous actress and model who died at the age of 28 from a respiratory disease. She is famous for having participated in an advertising campaign against anorexia, offering the naked image of her skinny and sickly body.

Isabelle stated that she suffered from a troubled and unhappy childhood, which she believes caused her illness. She began to show symptoms of anorexia nervosa when she was only 13 years old. At her worst, she weighed 25 kg and was 1.65 meters tall. It was during this period that she fell into a coma and was hospitalized, where everyone thought she was going to die.

For her beauty and perfection was extreme thinness accompanied by the restriction of pleasures and desires. It was supported by diet sodas and teas, and occasionally chocolate chips or cupcakes.

Isabelle was highly critical of hospitals, blaming them for treating all cases of anorexia equally and in isolation from society. And as she indicated, every day she fought against the disease and was gradually overcoming it. But her state of weakness reached the point of making her sick to death.

A year after Isabelle's death, her mother committed suicide because she could not bear the feeling of guilt.

7- Hayley Wilde

It is another case of anorexia that has managed to see the light after the tunnel and recover from the disease, becoming a mother. Her problem started at age 11 when she thought that if she restricted her meals and used secret strategies to eat less, she would be more popular in school.

Her worst moment was when she was 16 years old, when she had to be admitted due to her low weight and the doctors gave her days to live. She was four years without menstruation, her hair began to fall out and she was always cold. His mother did her best to give him the proper treatments that made him recover little by little.

Hayley's main motivation for recovery was her pregnancy, which went smoothly and is currently living a satisfying life with no problems with eating.

8- The sisters Eliana Ramos and Leticia Ramos

These Uruguayan sisters died due to their feeding problems. They were both models.

Leticia died of cardiac arrest while walking a fashion runway when she was only 22 years old. The story becomes even more tragic if we learn that Leticia was fulfilling her dream of marching alongside her sister.

It did not reach a year after Leticia's death when Eliana died at the age of 18 for no known reason. Professionals say that it is about sudden death, and it may be related to lack of nutrition.

However, they declared that they had no feeding problems. They told everyone that they even ate more than necessary and, sometimes, very caloric foods. But her father announced the truth: before the catwalk, his daughter only ate lettuce and diet soda. Her anorexic problems were an open secret that they tried to hide.

9- Chloe Lafon

She is the famous protagonist of the documentary "Diary of an anorexic", where she appears with great detail and showing her illness with disturbing pride.

This French woman studied law and spoke with total coldness of her fasting, her obsession with preparing recipes and doing the shopping. Thus, she compulsively accumulates caloric foods for her binges, which she later "fixes" with self-induced vomiting.

Not much else is known about her, but it seems that she is currently recovered and has managed to start a beautiful family.

10- Sisters Maria and Katy Campbell

These English sisters are doctors and have suffered from anorexia for more than 20 years. They have even been competing with each other to see who could lose the most weight.

They state that their illness began when they were 11 years old, more specifically when they heard their father tell their mother that the girls were turning into women: “their hips are getting wider”.

The girls were so affected by the comment that they decided to stop eating, as if they wanted to “punish” their parents. Before they knew it, this game became a very severe disease that prevented them from developing their normal life.

They spent their days obsessing over calories and the grams they had lost or gained. They performed all kinds of tricks, supporting each other to achieve their goals.

But it seems that there were other reasons why their problem developed: they felt insecure at school, seeing that other girls weighed less than they. Also, her mother was very thin and they had her as a role model.

The sisters have spent half their lives in and out of various centers with the goal of fighting the disease. They never got their period and may have trouble having children.

They are currently exhausted from following that life and, for the first time, they are aware of fighting against the disease.

11- Maggie Baumann

This woman is one of the most famous cases of pregorexia or fear of gaining weight during pregnancy. In the last months of pregnancy, Maggie began to do strict diets and excessive physical exercise; since her only objective was to lose weight.

In the first pregnancy she was lucky, since her daughter was born without serious problems. However, it was in her second pregnancy that the problem increased. She lost so much weight during the next pregnancy that her daughter was born underweight and developed attention deficit disorder and seizures.

After giving birth, her obsessions continued for a few years, until she was about to suffer a heart attack due to her extreme thinness. She then entered a facility that helped her recover from her eating disorder.

Maggie has now become a therapist and helps many people to rehab from these types of problems in a recovery center in California.