Marya Hornbacher began binging and purging at the early age of 9 and continued for over a decade. Marya sometimes preferred the starvation of anorexia, which she saw as less lowly and more ladylike, to the vomiting of bulimia. She went through several hospitalizations and was 56 pounds at her lowest weight. At 23, she still has to remind herself of a reason to live daily, remember to eat, and she carries many physical reminders of her disease, which include, but are not limited to a heart murmur and a vulnerability to infections, sprains, viruses, etc. Along the way, she also suffered from amenorrhea, often had dangerously low or unstable blood pressure, ketenes in her urine, a low and abnormal heart rate, was prone to bruising, and had garishly pale skin.
There were no severely dysfunctional things about Marya's childhood, and she notes herself that she may have had pre-existing conditions such as "depression and/or anxiety disorder and/or mania." As noted in the 1995 International Journal of Eating Disorders, in a study of [anorectic] patients, most had suffered from childhood anxiety disorders approximately five years prior to onset.
There are, however, notable characteristics of her parents and her childhood that would likely exacerbate any pre-existing propensity Marya had for eating disorders. Marya's father was overprotective, anxious, and full of rage. He was unable to handle Marya's puberty and changes in a healthy way. Her father was not ready for her to grow up and became, "like a jilted lover."
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