My friend Joan always one to watched her weight and constantly did aerobics. She was like a hamster, always running on the wheel in its cage. She would eat healthy everyday and was in great physical shape, or so everyone was led to believe. We would hang out all of the time, and I didn't realize it then, but she was suffering from a serious case of bulimia. It wasn't until about six months into our seventh grade year that I started noticing small repeated routines. For example, she would spend hours at a time in the bathroom, and when she would come out, she would look flustered and sickly. She would also be tired or depressed at times too. At first I thought that she was just ill, but then I realized that it was more. Being so young I didn't know what it could possibly be; however, I did know that something was terribly wrong. She would constantly have bad mood swings and she wouldn't listen to anyone, not even her father!
             I was in health class at the time, and this was when we first started talking about eating disorders and other related topics. When bulimia was brought up in class, it just blew right by me due to the fact that I thought this could never happen to me or to anyone I knew. We went through the symptoms and signs to detect bulimia. We also talked about ways to confront a person without being too harsh or upsetting. In class my health teacher told us signs to look out for. Joan would tend to terminate bingeing with sleep or self-induced vomiting, make repeated attempts to lose weight, and be depressed after bingeing or vomiting. After receiving the information in health class and seeing these terrible symptoms in her, I realized my best friend was suffering from this disease. I felt alone and had no idea what to do or who to turn to.
             I was scared to think that my best friend was harming her body in this way. I was also frightened to tell anyone because of the fact that I thou...