Almost 30 percent of people today are on a diet, according to Nytimes.com. The obsession to gain and then maintain a slim physique has given rise to a diet empire. Advertisements that claim a product will give customers the results they crave flaunt women in skimpy bikinis.

Unfortunately, the rise in attention to food has encouraged an even more deadly rise in eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is one of the most destructive eating disorders. According to Mirror-mirror.org, an astonishing 20 percent of patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa die from the disease. Only one in 10 victims suffering from anorexia will undergo treatment. Of those, only an estimated 60 percent will recover.

Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. The eating disorder can lead to several life-threatening medical conditions, including heart failure, kidney and liver disease, and chemical imbalances in the blood.

Anorexia “is a disorder where the main characteristics are the restriction of food and the refusal to maintain a minimal normal body weight,” reports Raderprograms.com, an informational website about the facts and treatment of eating disorders.

Anorexics follow an extremely restrictive diet. They not only limit calories, but can also restrict themselves to only a small group of “safe” foods. Any weight gain or perceived weight gain incites an intense fear of becoming fat. Even the act of losing weight seems only to heighten the phobia.

Self-esteem and self-worth directly correlate with the anorexic’s weight. Any weight gain is perceived as failure, while weight loss is celebrated as a triumph. Anorexia is essentially a disease based on control and self-discipline.

Anorexia is not just disease of the body, but also of the mind. Typical treatment for anorexia nervosa is sending the patient to a treatment facility, usually for a couple of months. There, the patient is kept under the scrutinizing eye of doctors, therapists, and nutritionists, who are all working together to aid in recovery.

I was anorexic during my freshman year of high school. During that time I shrunk from a hearty 144 lbs. to a skeletal 109 lbs. I never realized anything was wrong. All I felt was a heady rush of accomplishment as I watched the numbers on the scale slowly become smaller. It felt amazing. I was in control of something for the first time in my life.

By April, I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. My family doctor had me confined to the hospital indefinitely. My liver and kidneys were failing, my blood chemistry was out of whack, and my heart beat a paltry 32 beats per minute (the average person’s heart pulses 60-100). The danger of a heart attack loomed with every step I took.

How could I do that to myself? That’s what everyone wanted to know. What drove me to such extremes? Couldn’t I see how disgusting I looked? The answer was simple: no, I did not.

“The major thing most people cannot grasp about anorexia is that it is a mind disease. You are completely in the throws of your thoughts; it’s almost like wandering in a maze. You are so confused, but you know that, if you restrain from eating at least, that is one good thing in your power to do. It feels so good. It’s almost like a drug,” I wrote in an e-mail to my mother, two years after I was released from the hospital. “It was weird, almost like I had partitioned my mind. Underneath the surface I knew something was wrong. It was almost like a nagging feeling that ‘this isn’t right. I’m missing something. There’s something I’m not seeing,’ but it was such a small part, more like a whisper than anything. This whisper didn’t stand a chance against the roar of my eating disorder.”

While the whisper told me people were treating me strangely and looking at my differently, the roar howled that they were just jealous of my stamina and control and envious of the results I had achieved.

My story had a happy ending. I managed to gain two pounds during my stint in the hospital. It was not near enough to save me, but it was enough to get my vitals on track. I was released after 10 days. I continued seeing both a nutritionist and a therapist. I had no intention of pursuing the prescribed treatment facility, and I told my parents as much.

Anorexia is all about control. I did not want mine taken away. If I was going to get better, then it was because I was willing to make the change, not because someone forced it on me. I am convinced that, if made to enter a treatment facility, I would have starved myself to death. The scary thing is, I would have done it willingly.

Today, I am healthy and happy, thanks to the combined efforts of both my doctors and my parents. It took a long time to reach a healthy weight and even longer to overcome my fear of food. Even now, I struggle with gaining a pound or two. I am just grateful that I was not part of the 20 percent of patients who died.

It is my belief that treatment facilities for anorexics are not only ineffective, but also dangerous for their health. Two to three percent of anorexics undergoing treatment in facilities will die there. Only 60 percent will recover, and, of that number, several will relapse.

The primary reason I believe these facilities fail is because they exclude the parents from the recovery process. Even upon release, parents are instructed not to interfere with their child’s eating behaviors.

“Parents are so helpful in taking care of children in any other sphere of life,” said Daniel Le Grange, director of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the University of Chicago. “Why do we not include them when it comes to the treatment for anorexia?”

A new approach does just that. The Maudsley Approach, named for the London hospital where it was developed in the 1980s, “treats the family as an integral part of the healing process,” writes reporter Carrie Arnold. The Maudsley Approach considers food the medicine and parents as an essential component in treatment. It views the patient as “unable to start eating, rather than choosing not to eat.”

Research studies are proving the Maudsley Approach a positive alternative to expensive treatment facilities. This fact, and the increasing number of Maudsley training programs for therapists, has encouraged its use in the US.

“It [the Maudsley Approach] goes against most everything we teach about ED [eating disorder] treatment, specifically that parents take control of the food,” said Karen Weatherall, a Registered Dietitian who has treated patients suffering from eating disorders. “It [the Maudsley Approach] is set up so the client doesn’t feel punished, but that they will earn the right to have control over the food. For now, the ED has too much control so the parents must take over.”

“I’ve used this approach with several of my clients. It’s a lot of work for the parents,” said Weatherall. “It has to be set up with a lot of control, but it can prevent an expensive hospitalization. It’s worth a try if the parent’s can take time off from work and be with the client 24/7.”

The Maudsley Approach features three phases. Phase I has the family and patient working together to return him or her to a healthy weight. Phase II returns control of food back to the patient. The final phase, Phase III, has a therapist working with the patient on issues that may hinder further recovery.

“Contrary to the general belief that kids with anorexia nervosa have an iron will, it’s the exact opposite. They literally cannot stop [starving themselves],” said Tomas Silber, the head of the Don Delaney Eating Disorders Program. “Parents have to learn to step up to protect the child.”

Of course, the Maudsley Approach may not work for everyone. Differences in ages among patients as well as family situations influence the effects the Maudsley Approach will have on a patient. No treatment is a cure-all, and some may have to try several different methods before finding a treatment that helps the patient overcome their eating disorder.

“I do not blame my mother at all for how she treated my eating disorder. She didn’t know any better-none of us did,” said Amber Parcell, a freshman at the University of Tennessee and a recovered patient. “Still, if I had had her from the beginning saying ‘You need to eat this. You are not leaving the table until you eat this,’ then I think we could have skipped out on a lot of what transgressed.”

Presently, the National Institutes of Health is “funding research on the Maudsley Approach at five universities across the country, and parent advocates have stepped forward to demand further research,” writes Arnold.

From my experience with anorexia nervosa and the positive results I got from my own outpatient treatment, I highly encourage anyone who is struggling with or knows someone who is battling an eating disorder to consider giving the Maudsley Approach a try.

Having both family and friends there for support is crucial, in my opinion, for recovery. Anorexia is about insecurity with one’s body. Most anorexics, including myself, feel we cannot be loved or appreciated if we are not skinny. With the encouragement and the acceptance of family and friends, I think it will help patients realize that people are appreciated for who they are, not for what they look like.

People with eating disorders need to be reminded that there is something other than food to live for, and that they have family who will fight to keep them alive. It’s a good feeling, knowing you don’t have to fight the battle alone.